Questions after my first LM session

[kdresser]

Hey just ran my first adventure with my siblings last night and am running my second tonight. One of my players (who is a little delayed developmentally) decided to pick a fight with town guards. Im going to make sure he gets arrested when the others catch up to him after a round or two of combat that he sort of started. How would I do combat with a non monster NPC? The Laketown supplement has a town watch with an attribute rating. Would that be used as a parry rating? What about endurance? There's a silvan sentinel with endurance but no parry I could use also. Thanks!

[Otaku-sempai]

Well, unless the PC forces the issue, I would have any guards engaging him fight to subdue and capture him and not to kill him (they will only impart loss of Endurance to him). It sounds like this 'Hero' has a chip on his shoulder, or at least sees himself as a natural trouble-maker.

I think you are correct about the NPC parry, but I'm not sure.

[Indur Dawndeath]

Attribute represent the NPC's Body, Heart and Wits, so I think you are right to add it to Parry in addition to a shield. And you should add it to the basic endurance of the culture of an NPC, as written in the Core Book.

I would definitly hand out Shadow for an attack on City Guards.
If they kill one, I'd hand out Shadow at the level of Murder. No roll to avoid... Have his kids come running screaming "You killed father..." His pregnant wife... and so on.

[Stormcrow]

The Endurance rating of a Loremaster character is really needed only when an encounter degenerates into an armed confrontation. Loremaster characters involved in combat are treated as adversaries, and are knocked out at the end of a round if they are reduced to zero Endurance, or are killed outright when wounded once. The usual rules for Encumbrance do not apply to Loremaster characters, and they are equipped as the Loremaster sees fit considering their occupation and the circumstances of the encounter.

The Endurance rating of a Loremaster character is found using the table below. Characters that can be described as being fighters by trade (soldiers, warriors, guards, etc.) add their Attribute level to the scores indicated by the table.

(I have not reproduced the table. It lacks later cultures. I've worked out that Riders of Rohan have a score of 14; I haven't figured out the others.)

[Majestic]

One quick and easy way to get "ordinary men" for town guards and the like is to take the Mercenary Outlaws or the Brigands from Tales from Wilderland (if you have that book).

[kdresser]

Thanks guys! We ended up having the guards knock him unconscious and agree to release him to his companions if they left town immediately, to move the story along. All in all, Marsh Bell was a success.

Thank you for the advice on NPC stats. I'll keep that in mind in the future and have stats for all my major NPC's just in case I suppose.

I had another question. How do you use the maps provided of areas, such as the Marsh Bell's lair and the many maps I see provided in Tales from the Wilderland in a narrative based adventure. Do you give them a printout or display of the map? I ended up doing that for Laketown and they could each tell me which numbered area they were heading to? If you don't let them see it, how do you describe it narratively?

[Otaku-sempai]

If you want to, you can just lay out such a map on the table for everyone to see, unless you think that it reveals too much. Otherwise, use a modified map as needed or just describe the environment.

[Majestic]

Yeah, sometimes I do just that (lay a map out on the table). That's the kind of thing I would do with Lake-town, for instance.

Other times, I might just describe things to them, or sketch out a rough idea (based on what they can perceive, at the time) on paper at the table (that's how I handled the underground section in The Marsh Bell).

[Falenthal]

As Majestic, I usually use the map for myself, to know what the characters can and cannot see from a certain position: if everything is in plain view (like the ringfort in Of Stewed Hobbit), I lay a copy of the map in front of them to write on, mark their positions, etc.

If most of the place is hidden (like the cellar in Marsh Bell), then I only draw the parts they discover on a white paper as they move deeper in the dungeon.