Trollbabe: Question and Comment
Gregor Hutton:
Thanks, Ron. Yes, that makes perfect sense and I like the choice the rules offer. If Retta fails that relationship re-roll then she either has Ingarde die (ouch!) or takes a further re-roll that leads to either success (and an uninjured Ingarde saving the day for the injured Retta) or failure with Retta now Incapacitated but Ingarde alive (a price worth paying, and why you take the re-roll, right?).
Ron Edwards:
That's right, although in addition, the framework is flexible enough to allow for a lot of nuances, depending on the details of what's going on.
Best, Ron
Gregor Hutton:
Yes, and I like that injured Trollbabes, by starting a new conflict series already Inconvenienced, have a more interesting, um, relationship to Relationship NPCs than earlier Trollbabe rules. Now, in those circumstances it's a question of whether your Relationship NPC will be fine and save the day or be Injured or Killed in failing to help you. I'm excited by those dynamics.
Oh, the only other diagram confusion/error that caught my eye on the plane home is on p.41. The top two examples with boxes are repeated, but it's obvious from the crystal clear text that one of them should have the final box say "Third Fails".
Per has a Sorcerer game planned for 3 of us soon, and I'm sure Trollbabe will be on the plate after that.
John S:
I'm also very happy with the "Cost to Relationship NPCs" section. The new rules about the presence, play, and narration of consequences for relationship characters are very helpful; using the 2002 rules, I thought that any relationship would always be available for an appropriate re-roll, without establishing them as previously available, and explaining the character's presence would be up the the GM.
Now I'm curious about the status of this rule from the 2002 edition (p31):
Quote
A relationship may be used as a first action, in the sense that the player has announced the person to be "going in front" or taking the lead in the conflict ahead of the trollbabe herself. The advantage to this is that, if the roll fails, the trollbabe is not deemed to have lost the conflict in any way and may begin the series with the next roll.
I always took this to mean that relationship characters could be "at large" in the world, giving players multiple views of the setting, and allowing them to have their own scenes without being chaperoned around by their attending trollbabes.
The new rules on "presence" make it clear that relationship characters must be announced to arrive in the setting with the trollbabe (or discontinued), which negates both the possibility of the NPCs having their own quests in different parts of the world, and the prospect of relationship characters "staying at home" and called as a re-roll by way of flashback: "Reroll: I remember my arcane training with Troll Shaman McGee, in which she specifically warned me about this kind of thing." Is that right?
So, can a trollbabe player's announced actions for a relationship character bring a conflict into being in which the trollbabe is not involved, as in the "going in front" example above? If so, would the trollbabe character risk injury and incapacitation according to the normal rules? Since injury and death of the relationship character is contingent on the trollbabe's status, how would you determine the impact of a conflict on an NPC who has "gone ahead" into a new scene without the trollbabe?
Ron Edwards:
Hi John,
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The new rules on "presence" make it clear that relationship characters must be announced to arrive in the setting with the trollbabe (or discontinued), which negates both the possibility of the NPCs having their own quests in different parts of the world, and the prospect of relationship characters "staying at home" and called as a re-roll by way of flashback: "Reroll: I remember my arcane training with Troll Shaman McGee, in which she specifically warned me about this kind of thing." Is that right?
That's right. I decided both of those applications were too squishy, causing more problems than they solved, as well as muting the focus on the trollbabe herself. The "go in front" idea isn't a bad one, but it is definitely an add-on-top kind of rule, and furthermore, it reduces too much risk. One of my concerns in the rewrite was to make sure risk to the trollbabe was never entirely absent.
Quote
So, can a trollbabe player's announced actions for a relationship character bring a conflict into being in which the trollbabe is not involved, as in the "going in front" example above? If so, would the trollbabe character risk injury and incapacitation according to the normal rules? Since injury and death of the relationship character is contingent on the trollbabe's status, how would you determine the impact of a conflict on an NPC who has "gone ahead" into a new scene without the trollbabe?
To answer the questions in order:
1. No, the trollbabe must be involved. The relationship character may be stated as "going in front" as part of the Free-and-clear, as Color with minor narrational consequences, but such a description in no way provides insulation for the trollbabe.
2. The trollbabe risks injury, et cetera, normally.
3. Since "going ahead" in a scene without the trollbabe is not possible, there isn't any need for rules regarding the system's impact on them.
Best, Ron
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