Great/Extraordinary Success while Traveling

[Glorelendil]

Does anybody house rule any use for extra successes on Fatigue tests? I've seen them work sort of like Preliminary rolls: they become dice you can give to your companions to help them with their fatigue tests, even retroactively. But that's not RAW.

Two other variants might be:
- You can use your extra successes as bonus dice on the next test
- Your next test on this leg is reduced by one level for each extra success

In both of those cases extra successes on the last test would be wasted.

I'm not sure I like any of those solutions, but I also like those tasty Tengwars being useful for something...

[Indur Dawndeath]

Hi Elf,
I used to grant auto success to companions. One per extra success, just like on stealth tests while ambushing.
But after having read Rivendell and the Ranger culture I need to change that.
It'll be tough for the players.
Our explanation for it was valid enough, that a character who was doing very good, could help his companions. Take some of their load, carry the Hobbit through the snow and so on...
But the Rangers Virtues are worthless if we don't change that rule...

Cheers

[Majestic]

Yeah, I haven't done anything specific in this regard yet, but I do like to reward those extra tengwars, too.

[HotSnow50]

Not sure I understand what the topic is here. Don't preliminary rolls (Battle, Travel, etc.) ALWAYS grant extra success dice? I just sort of assumed that this would carry over to prolonged journeys with multiple Fatigue/Corruption tests... Wrong?

I have my local boookstore (Endgame, in Oakland CA) on the lookout for whenever Rivendell ships to us over here and so I FULLY intend to buy it as opposed to the PDF, but, in the meantime, what are these ranger rules that you guys are talking about?

[Majestic]

I haven't seen Rivendell yet, so I didn't know that about the Rangers.

But as regards your question, HotSnow, the Preliminary Rolls for journeys are different than Fatigue tests.

So for example, in my game last weekend, when the PCs prepared to go home, they crapped out their Preliminary Travel rolls. IIRC, the grand total (from five PCs) was one extra die (to be used or shared later).

But then let's say somebody got an extraordinary success on their Fatigue test. It just seems a waste to tell them "You plowed through that leg of the journey excellently!", but giving them no other (game mechanic) reward otherwise.

[Glorelendil]

Not sure I understand what the topic is here. Don't preliminary rolls (Battle, Travel, etc.) ALWAYS grant extra success dice? I just sort of assumed that this would carry over to prolonged journeys with multiple Fatigue/Corruption tests... Wrong?

I have my local boookstore (Endgame, in Oakland CA) on the lookout for whenever Rivendell ships to us over here and so I FULLY intend to buy it as opposed to the PDF, but, in the meantime, what are these ranger rules that you guys are talking about?

Yes, Preliminary rolls do, but I was talking about Fatigue checks.

Let's say you roll a Great Success on a Battle roll. That gives you two dice to spend during combat. And during the combat if you roll a Great Success the extra success becomes extra damage on a hit.

If you roll a Great Success on a Lore roll (for a Journey) that gives you extra dice to spend on Fatigue checks. But if you get a Great Success on a Fatigue check during the Journey that extra success doesn't mean anything.

Which reminds me, going back to the combat example: Tengwars on Protection tests don't do anything either. At one point I thought that they should reduce the damage from the attack, but that would lead to a bizarre situation where getting a Pierce could be less effective than getting a non-pierce. (However, I did think that such an effect might make a great enchanted quality...)

EDIT: Majestic beat me to it.

[Rich H]

Does anybody house rule any use for extra successes on Fatigue tests? I've seen them work sort of like Preliminary rolls: they become dice you can give to your companions to help them with their fatigue tests, even retroactively. But that's not RAW.

I wouldn't advise it either as that's what preliminary rolls are far...

Two other variants might be:
- You can use your extra successes as bonus dice on the next test
- Your next test on this leg is reduced by one level for each extra success

I think both of those would be okay.

In both of those cases extra successes on the last test would be wasted.

True.

To approach the discussion in another way; what do you do with 'extra successes' on other rolls in your game?

We have them giving the following in the RAW:

1) Extra damage in Combat
2) Extra successes in Encounters

... What else do we have?

[Glorelendil]

I guess the answer is: they always have the potential of granting AP. And maybe that should be enough.

Although...do extra success count toward the total number of successes in Encounters? E.g., if I get an Extraordinary Success on my Riddle, is that one success or three successes toward the final tally?

Found it in the Encounter rules:

Every successful roll counts for one, while a great success equates to two successful rolls and an extraordinary result to three successful rolls. Then compare the number of successful rolls the company on the following table...

This is also how I designed my Delving rules.

[Rich H]

I guess the answer is: they always have the potential of granting AP. And maybe that should be enough.

That's what I was (too subtly) suggesting.

Although...do extra success count toward the total number of successes in Encounters? E.g., if I get an Extraordinary Success on my Riddle, is that one success or three successes toward the final tally?

Yes, they do, which means that there are specific elements of the rules where great or extraordinary successes count towards a greater total (Encounter successes) or mechanically provide a greater bonus (extra damage). Perhaps there should be something similar for Journeys as well and I think it'd be nice to match it up with your Delving rules.

[Falenthal]

The only problem I see is that, whatever the rule, it is another way to make Travels easier for players.

I think it was Hermes or Stormcrow who said that, due to the new Preliminary Roll rules, Travels become a little easier and, therefore, the Fatigue gained has been raised. I don't know if this has been said by the developers, but I find it a quite correct hypothesis.

If you add new rules to easy the difficulty of travels, but don't compensate otherwise, there's the danger of making this part of the game too easy.