Tips for a game starting soon?

[Hermes Serpent]

In early games, while players are getting used to the system, getting AP's tend to be slower. When they have a good handle on gaining AP's then numbers will go up. The difficulty is avoiding players 'fishing' for AP's at every possible turn but the three per line thing stops too much of that until they want to stop for a Fellowship Phase too frequently.

[delazar]

I'll try it out for a few more sessionsto get a better feeling of this.

But I'm already considering giving a flat amount of APs per session, just like XPs.

[ThrorII]

My group had to scrap the game after 5 sessions. There were too many things that needed to be fixed. Now, I have two players who want to try again, and two who don't want to touch it with the proverbial 10-foot pole.

Our thoughts:
As others said, the game can break down to be too 'mechanical' very easily. Don't try to run the game 'as written', run it like any other rpg, using the rules as guides.

for example:
Journey's: if rolling every 4-6 days hinders play, then roll once per travel zone (Northern Dalelands, Woodland Realm, etc) but award extra Fatigue points;

APs and XPs: many here (including my group) ended up 'chasing the APs' to maximize their gains. If I can run the game again, I'm going with a flat 10 APs per adventure and 5 XPs per adventure.

Armor Encumbrance: very early on, we realized that heavy armor was not worth the cost in encumbrance. We ended up halving the encumbrance values on all armor and helms (but not carried items like shields and weapons). It still limited how much you wanted to wear, but it made it more tolerable to us.

TN's: most characters start with less than 3 die in almost every skill. They will fail TN14 tests about 60% of the time with only 2 success die. The result is a "good" skill rating only succeeds 40% of the time on a "moderate" test. This jumps to a 75% success rate with 3 dice, and about 97% on 4 dice. (numbers based on an on-line die roller, hand counting G-runes, with 40 rolls). Characters go from incompetent to fail proof very fast.

[farinal]

3 XP for session? How did they managed to gain that much XP?

[Random221B]

TN's: most characters start with less than 3 die in almost every skill. They will fail TN14 tests about 60% of the time with only 2 success die. The result is a "good" skill rating only succeeds 40% of the time on a "moderate" test. This jumps to a 75% success rate with 3 dice, and about 97% on 4 dice. (numbers based on an on-line die roller, hand counting G-runes, with 40 rolls). Characters go from incompetent to fail proof very fast.

My understanding is that this is intentional, and works hand-in-hand with the Hope mechanics. At starting levels, when characters have the most Hope, they need to use it much more often. As they gain skill levels, the difficult-to-replenish Hope pool gradually dwindles, so that when they have fewer Hope points to spend, they also don't need to spend them nearly as often.

[Woodclaw]

TN's: most characters start with less than 3 die in almost every skill. They will fail TN14 tests about 60% of the time with only 2 success die. The result is a "good" skill rating only succeeds 40% of the time on a "moderate" test. This jumps to a 75% success rate with 3 dice, and about 97% on 4 dice. (numbers based on an on-line die roller, hand counting G-runes, with 40 rolls). Characters go from incompetent to fail proof very fast.

My understanding is that this is intentional, and works hand-in-hand with the Hope mechanics. At starting levels, when characters have the most Hope, they need to use it much more often. As they gain skill levels, the difficult-to-replenish Hope pool gradually dwindles, so that when they have fewer Hope points to spend, they also don't need to spend them nearly as often.

That or you should pool your resources in fewer skills and have your fellow players cover for your lackings, which is very much in the spirti of the game I think.

[delazar]

3 XP for session? How did they managed to gain that much XP?

I'm giving 2 XP per session (one for coming to play, one for advancing the story) and a bonus of 1 XP for every two sessions played at the end of the adventure. I think this is by the book?

[delazar]

APs and XPs: many here (including my group) ended up 'chasing the APs' to maximize their gains. If I can run the game again, I'm going with a flat 10 APs per adventure and 5 XPs per adventure.

I'm thinking to go with 2 XPs and 4 APs per session.

[farinal]

3 XP for session? How did they managed to gain that much XP?

I'm giving 2 XP per session (one for coming to play, one for advancing the story) and a bonus of 1 XP for every two sessions played at the end of the adventure. I think this is by the book?

I only give one xp for sessions. Maybe more if the adventure demands it or they have really done something extraordinary. I might be harsh though since we are at the end of the TfW and none of my players have more than 3 valour or wisdom.

[fbnaulin]

My players are obtaining 3-4 APs per session (3 hours of play). I'm afraid of being too liberal and I want to be more orthodox with those LM Book recomendations to assing APs, that way push it down to 2-3 APs per session.

But, wich is your average per session and overall experiencie advancing common skills?