Called Shots

[Falenthal]

This has an unfortunate side-effect; the Enchanted Quality Runes of Victory causes an Eye as well as a Gandalf to score an automatic hit. But that would mean that you could never trigger a Called Shot when using a weapon with that quality!

I remember this had been discussed and I even think Francesco or Andrew popped in to say that this was intentional (I might remember this wrong, however).
On the other hand, it is the LM who constructs the items he's going to give the players, so if you (or your LM) doesn't feel confortable with this Enchanted Quality, you can always ignore it.

I think a decent House Rule might be:
1) An Eye triggers a Called Shot from the attacked enemy.
2) A failure AND an Eye triggers a Called Shot from the attacked enemy WITH a bonus success die.

This way you don't have to change the way Called Shots hit/miss for adversaries. But there're lots of options there, so just choose whatever you feel more intuitive, easy to remember, like more, etc.

[Earendil]

This has an unfortunate side-effect; the Enchanted Quality Runes of Victory causes an Eye as well as a Gandalf to score an automatic hit. But that would mean that you could never trigger a Called Shot when using a weapon with that quality!

I remember this had been discussed and I even think Francesco or Andrew popped in to say that this was intentional (I might remember this wrong, however).

Really? Well, I have to say I don't like that at all. It seems to me that Runes of Victory is one of the more powerful Enchanted Qualities (making an Eye, which would quite likely be a miss, an auto-hit), and this makes it too powerful in my opinion (although maybe I shouldn't comment without actually seeing how it works in play ).

Rune-Scored Armour works the same way for Protection tests (making an Eye an automatic success) but an Eye on a protection test has no equivalent effect to a Called Shot. So this gives Runes of Victory an extra bonus compared to Rune-Scored Armour, which is otherwise "parallel" to it.

On the other hand, it is the LM who constructs the items he's going to give the players, so if you (or your LM) doesn't feel confortable with this Enchanted Quality, you can always ignore it.

I think a decent House Rule might be:
1) An Eye triggers a Called Shot from the attacked enemy.
2) A failure AND an Eye triggers a Called Shot from the attacked enemy WITH a bonus success die.

This way you don't have to change the way Called Shots hit/miss for adversaries. But there're lots of options there, so just choose whatever you feel more intuitive, easy to remember, like more, etc.

I am the LM in this case, but I like the idea of these two Enchanted Qualities and was going to give an item with one to one player, and an item with the other to another player. As I said, I liked that "parallel" feel.

Maybe I'll do it the way you suggest; I need to think about it. Or maybe I'll just stick to the way I've unwittingly been doing it -- that an Eye triggers a Called Shot whether you hit or not.

Anyway, thanks Falenthal! As you say, lots of options...

[Angelalex242]

Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander.

What about called shotting enemies that roll a Gandalf Rune?

[Falenthal]

Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander.

What about called shotting enemies that roll a Gandalf Rune?

I think I'll stick with the fact that the heroes already have bonus dice from the Preliminary rolls that they can use whenever they want.

[Angelalex242]

Those bonus success die are player activated. They represent the character reading a situation exceptionally well.

Called shots when the enemy rolls a gandalf rune are exactly the same as a player rolling an eye...taking advantage of the enemy's weakness when they drop their guard. Dropping one's guard is not exclusive to heroes.

[Glorelendil]

I'm with angelalex. Preliminary dice are totally different.

I love the idea of giving mooks a bonus die to make their called shots scarier, but it's such a big boost that I would make it reciprocal. But with one change: players only get the bonus on their next attack IF they make a called shot. That might get people actually using called shots with swords and axes.

And I would change the trigger from RAW: on a miss with a Sauron only. Otherwise highly skilled heroes fumble exactly as often as novices.

[Angelalex242]

Of course, then you've gotta ask yourself...what happens when the guy with an Axe has to make a called shot against a spider? It doesn't have a shield.

Maybe you break a spider's leg and reduce its parry by 3, as if you'd broken a shield?

[Glorelendil]

Of course, then you've gotta ask yourself...what happens when the guy with an Axe has to make a called shot against a spider? It doesn't have a shield.

Maybe you break a spider's leg and reduce its parry by 3, as if you'd broken a shield?

No difference. You either make a normal roll, or a called shot (that wouldn't have any effect) with an extra die. Your choice. Such a house rule doesn't have to always provide a benefit.

[Angelalex242]

...It kinda needs to always provide a benefit, or axes and swords end up being flat out inferior to spears and bows.

[Glorelendil]

...It kinda needs to always provide a benefit, or axes and swords end up being flat out inferior to spears and bows.

Hmm. I think what you're saying is that since bows and spears have much better called shots than axes and swords, the benefit is a higher relative increase for bows and spears. So assuming they started off as balanced, this would unbalance in favor of those weapons.

That's a fair point, although I do wonder if it's enough of a difference to actually change behavior.

By the way, one way of mitigating the benefit of this proposed houserule is to say that only the enemy one is attacking when the Sauron/Gandalf is rolled gets the benefit. So if three orcs are attacking you, and you roll a Sauron on your attack, only the on you were trying to hit gets the empowered called shot.