Some Samples of Play

Dec 5, 2015 8:57 pm
Here I am going to try and illustrate the mechanics that make Numenera unique. Feel free to ask questions. For these examples I will use Thune, an Inquisitive Glaive who Sees Beyond. I'll run him through some encounters, unrelated to our story, that I hope illustrate how the system is used. I'll spell out all the steps.
Dec 5, 2015 9:37 pm
Thune finds himself looking up at a beautiful young woman, a nano he'd guess. She smirks at him, and sits down across the table.

"I hear you are good at finding things. I'm on the trail of some ancient secrets, and I want to higher you to help."
Dec 5, 2015 9:48 pm
Taken aback by how forward the woman is, Thune scowls at her, but the offer of work isn't wholly undesirable. It also happens to be the kind of work he prefers.

"Alright, how much you paying? My time ain't free" Thune opens up negotiations aggressively, hoping his reputation has bought him some clout.

:::Thune has no particular leverage here. He also has no skills related to intimidating or negotiating. This type of action falls into the Intellect category. He could apply effort by spending three points from his pool, but he doesn't feel that is needed right now. This particular Nano is a level 3, so he needs to get a result of 9 or higher to succeed at putting her off her proverbial guard in this case.:::

Rolls

Intimidation attempt - (1d20)

(18) = 18

Dec 5, 2015 10:03 pm
Now its the nano's turn to be taken aback. She sits up right and her eyes bulge. She's a little sorry she started out being so forward. Reaching into her pack she retrieves a book and some sheets of paper.

"I can pay you 7 shins. I'll give you 3 now, the rest when we get back to town. I'll throw in a 10% cut of anything we can bring back and sell, besides the device I am looking for."

:::Thune rolled great and that 18 means he gets a bonus of some kind. In this case it comes in an increased cut of the haul. She wasn't going to offer a cut, but his intimidation attempt makes her think she should sweeten the pot.:::
Dec 6, 2015 12:20 am
Thune opens the book and glances at the drawing and notes. The book makes no sense to him, its coded most likely, but the sketch of the machine seem interesting. It seems to be a remote viewing device of some kind.

Next he looks at a map drawn on one of the loose pieces of paper. It almost looks like the area they are in, but its wrong. Several landmarks are in the wrong places. This is where he shines. He knows the geography in this area like the back of his hand...well, pretty good anyway. Thune decides to prove his usefulness to the girl and show he is worth the investment.

:::Correcting a map is not an easy task. As the Narrator I would set this as a level 4 challenge, meaning Thune needs a 12 to succeed. Thune however is trained in Geography and History lowering the difficulty by one level to a 3. He also wants to show off his knowledge so he decides to put Effort into his work of correcting the map. He spends 3 points out of his Intellect pool taking it from 11 to 8, but also reducing the difficulty from 3 to 2. He's out of further options to reduce the difficulty, so he makes his roll hoping to get a 6 or better.

Rolls

Geography Roll - (1d20)

(14) = 14

Dec 6, 2015 12:27 am
:::With his result, Thune succeeds in correcting the mistakes the other mapmaker made and draws everything in the right place. Rando Nano is impressed, if his changes are correct and the two set our out on their adventure. We will jump ahead a bit now.:::
Dec 6, 2015 12:52 am
Thune and Rando Nano have been trekking through the woods for a half a day, and they have finally reached their destination. Things have been pretty uneventful, so that's nice. The ancient vault they want to pilfer is about 50 feet up a cliff face it seems. They decide to take a lunch break before starting the climb. While they eat Thune takes it easy and decides to use his first Recovery Roll.

:::This is simply taking an action. He rolls 1d6 plus his Tier of 1. Unfortunately, he rolls low and only gets 2 points to spend. The good news is that he only is down 3 points in Intellect. Thune just wants to be as ready as he can be, that is why took a recovery action. So now his Intellect pool is back to 10.:::

Rolls

Recovery Roll - (1d6+1)

(1) + 1 = 2

Dec 6, 2015 1:33 am
:::Now for the climbing. It is a moderately difficult task because the cliff is pretty sheer. I'd say a level 4 Difficulty, requiring a 12 on a roll. Additionally the Nano is kind of Clumsy and has an inability in tasks involving coordination, so the difficulty is increased by one to a 5. On top of all that I say this task has an Initial Cost 3 Might just to make the attempt.:::

Thune however is skilled at climbing. In addition he has climbing gear. This reduces the Difficulty by 2 down to 3. As a glaive, Thune has one Might Edge. He can use it to reduce the might cost of an action by 1 point once per round. He also has 1 Effort, which costs 3 points to use. He wants to succeed so he decides to apply the Effort and reduce the Difficulty to 2. Becasue of the Initial Cost and his Effort Thune loses 5 Might points, 3 for the Initial Cost and 3 points for the Effort minus 1 for his Might Edge.
So now that the Difficulty is only 2, 6 is the target number...much better than the 15 is started at.

Rolls

Climb check - (1d20)

(13) = 13

Dec 6, 2015 2:02 am
Successfully at the vault door, Thune and the Nano are now faced with getting in to find the valuable numenera. Looking at the lock on the door the Nano groans in frustration. The lock is hidden by a dimensional matrix that wasn't in her notes. Thune has the gift See the Unseen, making the lock easily visible to him. The Difficulty is 3. Thune has a Skill in Learning New Things, the Nano has her book, so Thune can use that as an Asset to reduce the difficulty again. Finally he puts Effort into the task by spending 3 Intellect points. This reduces the Difficulty to 0! Thune doesn't even need to roll. He could choose to roll, and hope for a bonus of some kind, but if he gets a 1 he could fail. Not wanting to risk it Thune chooses not to roll and just take the auto success.
Dec 6, 2015 2:26 am
A blast of steam rushes from the vault as the door slides open. A large synth and metal fist bursts forth and tries to land a punch on Thune. He needs to make a defense roll. The difficulty is 3. Normally for this Battle bot it would only be a 2, but the steam makes this a surprise attack.
Dec 6, 2015 2:35 am
:::Thune attempts to dodge the attack. He isn't skilled in Speed Defense so and has no other assets that apply (like a shield for example), so its just a straight roll. He's hoping for a 9:::

Thune sees the dark shape emerging from the steam just a moment before it connects. The formidable battle bot emerges from the steam for just a moment, the cold expressionless steel face locking on to Thune before disappearing back into the steam cloud.

:::in this case I had to roll before I could write the description. Because the Narrator never rolls dice we don't know if the PC is hit until the defense roll is made. In this case, Thune would have taken 4 damage from the attack because the robot is so strong. It would have been reduced 2 because of his medium armor. The damage would have come from his Might Pool. If that had been at 0 it would have come from his speed pool.

Rolls

Speed defense roll - (1d20)

(16) = 16

Dec 6, 2015 6:44 am
Thune rolls back to put space between himself and the robot. He readies his bow. He takes a breath for focus and fires

:::This is a speed test. The Difficulty is 3 just like the defense roll, the monster is only level 2, but the steam cloud is providing an additional level of difficulty. Of course he wants this fight to end quickly so he uses his fighting move Pierce and is applying Effort. As a glaive he has a Speed Edge of one meaning that he can use that instead of spending a Speed Point on Pierce. He spends 3 points on Effort because Edge can only be used once per round. With the Difficulty reduced to 2, and a target number of 6 Thune rolls:::

Rolls

Bow Speed Attack w/ Pierce - (1d20, 1d4+4)

1d20 : (14) = 14

1d4+4 : (4) + 4 = 8

Dec 6, 2015 7:15 am
With that shot Thune takes out the Battle Bot in one hit. Since it was a lv 2 creature it only had 6 health. I think this shows pretty much everything. Thune never took a hit but as I said in that post, he would have taken 2 damage (reduced by his armor value of 2) because the bot was strong. It would have come from his Might Pool.

The other thing that didn't come up was a GM Intrusion. On a natural 1 as the GM I get to make things worse for the player. I can also use a GM Intrusion whenever I want in the name of story but then I have to pay the player it affects 1xp, and then that player picks another player to get an XP also. But we should have plenty of exposure to that during play.

The last thing I didn't really illustrate is giving XP during play for discoveries. In this scenario I would have given XP to Thune for finding the vault, and for learning the method to unlock it. Likely there would be another XP or two inside the vault, depending on what he found. All in a ll a pretty good haul of XP and shins for our buddy Thune.

So, any questions?
Dec 6, 2015 9:40 am
Did you want to go over initiative, how multiple efforts on an action cost plus how many assets can be used on a task, and what Xp can be used for during game time?
Dec 6, 2015 3:16 pm
No questions.
Dec 6, 2015 3:17 pm
All good information to have and things I could have included above, but didn't think of, good catch Remnant. I can't get it all in one post do to time constraints, but yes I'll put that info here.

Initiative - In Numenera, initiative is pretty simple. It is a Speed Test, with a difficulty equal to the monsters level. Effectively just a d20 roll where you need to get a number equal or higher than 3x the creatures level. So a level 2 monster you need a 6 to beat it and act before it. You are allowed to use Effort and Edge to make this task easier if you want, just like with other tests.

Do to the slightly sporadic nature of Play-By-Post, I have come to appreciate the use of 'Faster Initiative", wherein characters from one side act, then all the others get to act. This text is on pg 90 of the core book, but I will post here for easy access.

To make an encounter move faster, if at least one character rolls high enough to beat the target number of the NPC(s), all the characters act before the NPC(s). If nobody rolls high enough to beat the target number of the NPCs, all the characters act after the NPC(s). On the characters’ turn, go clockwise around the table.

So when it is time to roll initiative, I will give you the highest level or target number to beat, though you may not know which enemy that is at the time. As long as one of you beats it, the players can act first. You won't need to wait for me to establish an order. You won't even have to wait for every player to post really. If you see that one of you beats the target number, then just post your action. I imagine this we will basically be posting reactions and actions all at once. But we will see how it plays out.
Dec 6, 2015 6:15 pm
I've dealt with initiative differently in my games. At start of combat players rolling initiative, and ones who success start before npcs, and then normal circulation of npc-players start. If party is initiator then ones who roll high initiative get extra non-attack action (as buff/ cast spells)

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