Living Nemesis
Story Guides may create units of any kind. We are currently working on setting up generic unit actions which you may add or remove from units you create from scratch. We are also working to make our own nemesis system where we have premade units with all kinds of thematic actions mixed in for you to play as for full combat engagements.
In Development
Combat Engagements
The whole world may be peacefully navigated in theory. Morally grey campaigns make for interesting fun, but they do often detract from sitting around and enjoying the game. From the outset of the table we should cover the difficulty level and consequences. Is mortality possible? Is it hinted at, will there be failure? Will there be a specific session among the numbered gatherings the campaign converts from easygoing to deadly?
As a story guide, I prefer leaning on the possibility of fatalities among the characters and supporting characters. Nemesis should be the measure of the level of play. Be fair, but be true to the expectations you set for your players at the outset of the campaign.
High Stakes makes combat intense. Nearly every fight is a fight to the death, a fight to stay alive. There is also the other side of the coin. The power game fantasy where the enemies go down easy because the character is just that guy. Making their way through the villains compound one quick fight after another.
Running Units: Tactical Action Pattern (tap)
Our Nemesis Units follow an Tactical Action Pattern (tap) if they have multiple actions to choose from. As a Story Guide you’re not required to follow these suggested patterns, but should at least use them as a guideline. Tactical Action Patterns tend to have conditions stated as well.
Running Units: Thematic Actions
Unit Panels include Thematic Actions, these are a collection of suggested scripts to bring the flavor of the moment alive at the table, and we encourage you to take all the liberty in editing, adjusting, or writing your own to make these actions hold more weight than the base numerical mechanical weight.
The Story Guide’s Full Round
Our Units follow the Active Phase Cycle the same as our table’s characters but the majority of their actions will be reactive responses. Making combat as dynamic as possible can lay a significant amount of weight to tracking. We suggest using a token counter of some kind, or a open document to track remaining action slots, as soon as their done with their action, just fill up the slots as they enter dormancy.
As you watch the round progress, you want to burn as much of your action before your units take their active phase. Each direct engagement between the characters and units should feel intense, and have the heat of the moment. Blocking, dodging, counter attacks, and other tools each round make every action slot feel as valuable as the last.
A character overwhelming someone blocking so the next character in line can go in with some heavy attacks to hit the units when they’re down should feel more natural than some super mechanical overrides which suggest the flavor. They’ve spent their whole round before it ever made it to their active phase, and you can keep skipping right through.
Nemesis Level & Difficulty Ratings
Difficulty is simple. It is a total level. For instance, your group of five are all level two, the group’s difficulty is ten. Your party has three level fives, their difficulty rating is fifteen. Just add up all the levels of the characters on each side. If difficulty is close to even, it’s a relatively fair match. Their are outliers to this rule, but we work with this formula in development to create an easy slider during prep.
As for notes, difficulty ratings can also be misleading when combined with complex environments. Home turf advantages can exponentially complicate an otherwise easy match up for the party.
When it comes to determining experience, an easy fight should be worth an experience point, or if it is too easy, maybe nothing. An evenly matched difficulty rating to party level should boast three or four experience points. Any match up with a difficulty twice higher than the party should wipe the floor with them whatever outcome you choose. I would give them the full 10 experience for their level. The conditions of victory in those cases may be complex or nearly impossible. I wish your table the best of luck!
Our main measure of difficulty comes from total vitality and per full round damage potential. The characters at the table are generally better equipped and have a stronger set of synergies at an even stack.
