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Glorelendil wrote:For the record (as the channeler of the slippery minded Dunlending in question) the purpose wasn't to commit the Goblins to a binding game of riddles, but to stall for time while the spider engaged their friends.

So, the treacherous little fella was the dunleding all along, not the forest-goblins!
Prejudices...

Rich H wrote:Ignoring the riddle game, for a moment, I quite like the idea of a well placed riddle bemusing a couple of goblins. It feels more in keeping with something from The Hobbit; having a sort of faerie tale quality to it.

I really like this a lot too! Feels very Tolkienesque

farinal wrote:

Rich H wrote:Ignoring the riddle game, for a moment, I quite like the idea of a well placed riddle bemusing a couple of goblins. It feels more in keeping with something from The Hobbit; having a sort of faerie tale quality to it.

I really like this a lot too! Feels very Tolkienesque

I completely agree with you two (thumbs up).

Rich H wrote:Ignoring the riddle game, for a moment, I quite like the idea of a well placed riddle bemusing a couple of goblins. It feels more in keeping with something from The Hobbit; having a sort of faerie tale quality to it.

That's I think also: because it is fun and Tolkienish.

I agree with the others (so a fourth, or fifth?)

The tactics of invoking a riddle as a stall tactic sounds brilliant. You'll have to let us know what happened!

Majestic wrote:I agree with the others (so a fourth, or fifth?)

The tactics of invoking a riddle as a stall tactic sounds brilliant. You'll have to let us know what happened!

Yeah, so the riddle befuddled the goblins, causing the entire situation to become uncertain and thus initiative was down to Battle tests. That particular group of goblins had a harder test to make, whereas the goblins who hadn't heard the riddle had an easier one. Also, the rest of the company joined the Dunlending and the Woodwoman and were also very confused. Long story short, the company as a whole has the upper hand initiative-wise and we'll see in a couple of days if they manage to completely turn the tables on the goblins.

But, yes, at this point it is open combat. The surprise riddle round just turned the circumstances into something that ended up favorable for them.

Majestic wrote:The tactics of invoking a riddle as a stall tactic sounds brilliant.

MUST CREDIT BILBO!

zedturtle wrote:

Majestic wrote:I agree with the others (so a fourth, or fifth?)

The tactics of invoking a riddle as a stall tactic sounds brilliant. You'll have to let us know what happened!

Yeah, so the riddle befuddled the goblins, causing the entire situation to become uncertain and thus initiative was down to Battle tests. That particular group of goblins had a harder test to make, whereas the goblins who hadn't heard the riddle had an easier one. Also, the rest of the company joined the Dunlending and the Woodwoman and were also very confused. Long story short, the company as a whole has the upper hand initiative-wise and we'll see in a couple of days if they manage to completely turn the tables on the goblins.

But, yes, at this point it is open combat. The surprise riddle round just turned the circumstances into something that ended up favorable for them.

I think that's a pretty neat resolution. Well LM'd! How did you resolve the two groups of goblins part tho? Did you weight the rolls or anything like that? Restricting the effects to initiative is great--nicking that, if it ever comes up!

Yeah, so in my striving for simplicity, I've probably made things hard to follow.

Here's the situation, in brief but as whole as I can make it:

The heroes are aware of Forest Goblins being up to bad stuff nearby {they saved a shepherd boy that was nearly killed by the goblins} and send their two stealthiest folks up ahead. The two scouts see the Forest Goblins celebrating their slaughter, but then the goblins that they can see climb up trees.

The other heroes (in a different vantage point) see a Great Spider approaching. They begin to rush towards the scouts' position...

The scouts realize that they're hiding next to a tree that has some Forest Goblins (others who were not playing with the sheep guts) in it. As the spider approaches, the goblins begin to climb down, in order to fight the spider. The local goblin group realizes that the scouts are there and then the Surprise Riddle attack happens. The other heroes rush into the clearing soon afterwards.

So at this point, I divided the goblins up into three groups of six each (assigning each goblin a name based on the old-style Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet, so the leaders of the three groups are Able, George and Mike). Then I rolled Battle for each one:

The scouts got TN 14, since they had caused the situation.
The remainder of the company got TN 18, because they charged into the situation without knowing what was going on.
The nearby group of goblins got TN 18, because they just got Surprise Riddle attacked and are very confused.
The other groups of goblins and the spider all made tests at TN 14, because they're more invested in killing each other at the moment than worrying about the heroes.

It ended up that all the heroes did well, and all the goblins and the spider (her JANP designation is Sugar) did poorly. I was prepared to do a broken initiative thing, but alas it was not to be. Soon enough, we'll learn if the heroes can manage their opponents successfully enough in order to not get overwhelmed. I also have a plan for figuring out the damage that the goblins and spider do to each other, without rolling it all out {I did that once, for the battle at the Old Ford in Tales, I learned a lot about the system that day, but I also learned that I didn't want to do that again).

Aaah--ok. Makes sense. And yes, the broken initiative would have been cool. Oh well--another time!

My only quibble with your Lming--surely those designations ought to be Azog, Grishnákh and Mauhúr?