TryhardLM
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Getting the Most from Councils without House Rules

Tue 19 Oct 2021, 02:07

I just wanted to list some tips and reminders to help other gaming tables get the most out of Councils without adding house rules.

I'll start by listing the simplest ones and then work my way into the ones that need more detail.

1. Distinctive Features and Useful Items
Remind players that they can invoke Distinctive Features and take advantage of Useful Items during Councils.

2. Support
Remind players that they can use Support during Councils.
Remind them about the Fellowship Focus rules.

3. The Audience's Attitude
The book says that Open is the default attitude, but carefully consider if your Company's audience is actually Reluctant: "The encountered group has reasons to be unwilling to help the Company, possibly due to a level of prejudice or other source of concern."
It's worth thinking about if your Company should actually have (-1d) to all Interaction rolls. I wouldn't recommend creating these situations a lot, though. Penalties aren't usually fun.

4. Setting the Council's Resistance
Loremasters might be well advised to try creating Councils where the Company will need to make a Bold or Outrageous request instead of merely a Reasonable one.
It raises the stakes nicely and gives the Council time to "breathe." We care more about the meeting if the Company is the underdog.
Look to Tolkien's fiction for plenty of examples where the Company needs something that would benefit themselves more than it would their audience.

5. Shadow
Loremasters can find ways that the Player-heroes might gain Shadow during the Council.
Be on the lookout for Player-heroes committing Misdeeds like cowardice, treachery, etc.
To give a chance for Dread to add Shadow, maybe have a Council take place while a menacing army of goblins gather outside the walls of a fortress.
I'm sure there are ways to give players a chance to gain Shadow from Sorcery and Greed during a Council too.

6. End of the Council
Remember that if a Company fails the Council, they can, with the Loremaster's approval, choose a Success with Woe as long as they scored a single success AND didn't botch the Introduction. "They can opt to achieve their stated goal, but at a price" like gaining an enemy from the audience or getting much less than they wanted. "The price doesn’t need to be immediately apparent."

7. The Special Success Table
The book says that each Success icon during the Interaction counts as another success in the running total, but that rule also references page 18, which lists other ways to spend Success icons. It's possible that by rules-as-intended that players can use their Success icons to "Gain Insight" or "Widen Influence" instead of just counting their icons toward the Council's total success. Consider giving players reasons to use Success icons in these ways.
  • Maybe a suspicious man is watching the Council, so the players might choose to Gain Insight on his motives.
  • Maybe the Company might choose to Widen Influence so that they can sway a whole crowd, not just the crowd's spokesperson.

8. The Consequences of Failure Section (pp. 130-131)
I can't recommend using this enough. Assign each Skill roll a Risk level. Tell the player the Risk.
There's awesome guidance on these two pages about how to make sure the situation changes meaningfully after each Skill roll.
If you know the PbtA system for TTRPGs, you might be able to think about some of the consequences here in this way:
  • Success with Woe means you succeed BUT the Loremaster makes a "soft move," adding some new concern or reduction of the overall result.
  • Failure with Woe means you failed AND the Loremaster makes a "soft move."
  • Disaster means you succeed AND the Loremaster makes a "hard move," adding some "grievous negative event" that can't be prevented.

9. Bonus Dice and Penalty Dice
The "Awarding Effective Roleplaying" section on p. 107 states, "If the delivered speech touches topics that are relevant to the Company’s goal and that are deemed important by their audience, then the Loremaster can allow the Player-heroes to gain (1d) or even (2d) on their Skill roll."

I would assume that penalty dice could be applied to rolls as well when the audience doesn't like a particular topic or goal that the Company brings up, but I'm not sure here.

Either way, I'd recommend preparing a short list of details the Company's audience enjoys or detests.
Maybe include certain Skills, Individuals, Cultures, Callings, Distinctive Features, and perspectives (e.g. Bard's perspective might be that Smaug should not be disturbed.)
Example List of Details:
The Elvenking enjoys Courtesy, Song, wine, silver and white gems, feasts
The Elvenking detests the spiders of Mirkwood, goblins, the stubbornness of dwarves, trespassers in his lands


Tip: Keep It Secret
You don't HAVE to tell players why they received a bonus or penalty die.
In fact, maybe you SHOULDN'T tell them unless they earn that knowledge with an Insight roll.
Rationale: Leaving players wondering why they received a bonus or penalty gives them an interesting choice between pressing on without that knowledge or spending time and perhaps another roll to find out a detail that could really aid them.

10. Other Skills for the Introduction and Interaction
You don't have to limit yourself to the Skills that are listed in those sections. The Loremaster Screen itself says they are just examples. If you use a different Skill, I'd recommend having the table talk about the advantage and disadvantage of that Skill, just as AWE, RIDDLE, and COURTESY have upsides and downsides.

The Core Rules give examples of five Skills that are useful in the Interaction: Enhearten, Insight, Persuade, Riddle, and Song (p. 107).
Below is a summary of how I imagine that five more Skills might come into play.

AWE: Intimidate or impress the audience to advance your agenda.
"Strider seemed to be held in awe by most of the Bree-landers, and those that he stared at shut their mouths and drew away."

BATTLE: If the Council takes place just before or during a battle, you might use this Skill to raise the morale of a leader and their soldiers, or you might guide the leader on tactics and strategy. Alternatively, you might tell a story that relates a social situation with a tale of battle, or you might show an enemy audience that you have outmaneuvered them.
"But the Elvenking said: 'Long will I tarry, ere I begin this war for gold. The dwarves cannot press us, unless we will, or do anything that we cannot mark. Let us hope still for something that will bring reconciliation. Our advantage in numbers will be enough, if in the end it must come to unhappy blows.'"

COURTESY: A respectful orator can express their wishes while still minding their manners. Player-heroes might also use this Skill to flatter the audience.
"'Who are you that sit in the plain as foes before defended walls?' This, of course, in the polite and rather old­-fashioned language of such occasions, meant simply: 'You have no business here. We are going on, so make way or we shall fight you!'"

HEALING: If a member of the Company's audience has a wound or illness to be treated, then this Skill can help a Player-hero to diagnose and aid the audience member.
"The wizard and the eagle-­lord appeared to know one another slightly, and even to be on friendly terms. As a matter of fact Gandalf, who had often been in the mountains, had once rendered a service to the eagles and healed their lord from an arrow­-wound."

LORE: Educated minds can recall prophecy or historical events that would shed better light on their goals or help them to recall important facts about the audience.
"Bilbo was not quite so unlearned in dragon-­lore as all that, and if Smaug hoped to get him to come nearer so easily he was disappointed."

A Note on Repeating Skill Rolls:
I can't actually tell if you can use the same Skill repeatedly in a Council. Can players just repeatedly use Persuade? Here's what I've found:
  • On page 17, the rules state that you can't use the same Skill multiple times for the same action. (See "Repeating a Roll" on p. 17.) Does this count as the same action though?
  • On page 132, the rules for Skill Endeavors, which are a lot like Councils, state that you can use the same Skill multiple times if it makes sense. (See the "Execution" paragraph on p. 132.)
These rules considered, I believe players could just repeatedly use Persuade if they could roleplay it reasonably so that it makes sense.

~

Please feel free to mention anything I forgot!

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