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Novus 2e / Impressions of first time playing Novus
« on: July 16, 2022, 07:02:58 PM »
First time trying out Novus. Thought I'd share my experiences with it, but it's not all sunshine and rainbows. So this are some first impressions and feedback I got from GM'ing and from my players. The focus was on the combat rules, of course.
I imposed upon myself the impossible task to show Novus to my gaming group while being the only one in possession of the Rule Book.
Let's say it was rough and a bit frustrating.
I provided the rules primer and some of the Novus starting characters for my players and gave a broad overview of the system. I dropped all the complex stuff like combat styles, adv. combat moves, Init-bonus of weapons, some casting options and such.
We played a simple straight forward adventure in a medieval setting about dark witches terrorizing the land. In the introduction scene there was a combat against a hag in a burning house. The platform was Roll20.
I already expected some problems because I knew it was much to swallow for my players who didn't know the rules.
But it took us 2.5 hours to kill that single foe with 5 players in 3 combat rounds, in fact with a single blow (type VI critical hit). Everything before that was administrating initiative and how and how not a player has to declare actions, how to abort and how to resolve them. Some characters had to traverse 100 yards to the combat scene (of COURSE they split up!), so all they did in that 2.5 hours was trying to reach the action.
Somehow some players couldn't understand how to declare an action without knowing if that action could actually be resolved (for example, "How do I know what to do in the future when Bob is blocking the entrance NOW?"). So the lack of a "waiting action" was a big hurdle for my players - an option they are used to from basically every other RPG.
Some of the criticism I couldn't understand as I think the system is neither too complex nor too slow. And I GM'ed Mythras with total newbies in the past!
I don't see a problem in declaring actions.. at all! When you're blocked, you simply do nothing or abort your action. I also don't think there are "too many actions to choose from" as 80% of them are just repeated with different costs; and the Fate list you also can get used to. Also they are not that much possible combinations of movement and attack that you can do, anyway.
But I do think the lack of a waiting action could be a problem. Tthere are indeed situations possible where you can do nothing at all.. yet.. and then lose your turn.
What I can say as a GM there are a few things that I think are problematic, though
- I don't think it's possible to have a smooth start with only one rule book at hand as it's too much to teach all that in a single adventure. If your players are already sceptical, you can't make a good first impression.
- handling a single initiative list is ok, but handling an additional dynamic initiative list where combatants switch places with every attack they do is just too much. So I ignored this instantly (because I knew this would brake my short-term memory).
- remembering all the actions of all combatants before they're resolved is much to ask. It's possible but exhausting on a permanent basis. At least the players should be able to remember their OWN actions.
- thers is no way to make NPCs quick&dirty. I think one get used to it with more experience in the system (so just guessing character values), but it would be nice to have a quick system to make NPCs with just the most necessary values and still know their XP Value.
- without a digital character sheet Roll 20 (or any VTT) is a huge detriment to the system. There are around 10 dynamic numbers that can change in an instant (Init, 3 stuns, 3 wounds, hits, bleeding, penalty, fate...). With pen&paper this is doable (hail to the combat tracking sheet) but on PC, it's dizzying. I think Novus works best at the table (that's how I like it).
The question is: What's the necessity to have three different kinds of wounds and stuns? What does it bring to the table that 1 Wound and 1 Stun level (like Savage Worlds for exmaple) doesn`t?
- the movement distances can be VERY long (3x Base Run). So when declaring actions everyone is counting hexes or measuring distances on a basis where everyone COULD BE to decide what to do for a few minutes or so. This felt a bit like a tedious TableTop game.
- my players were showered in Fate Points (every roll has the potential to generate one), so TN 15 usually was too easy to achieve, as they simply bought bonuses. I know that awarding Fate Points "is an art of itself" but as a GM you don't have much influence on the outcome of rolls.
- with Full Parry you're set to pull of a fumble as you only get +0 AB (~50%+ chance to fumble!). The solution my players used to get to this problem was just "not attacking at all" and I don't think that's the intention of the combat move Full Parry.
As a side note:
What bugs me, just in this single combat scene several new questions came up that I couldn't answer with the book or primer.
- can a move action be splitted? (move->attack->move)
- how exact has an action declaration to be?
- can I get past allies in combat ("walking through them")?
- when buying actions with Fate points, when do you have to pay the cost (when declaring, when acting? can I buy an action ahead and then just drop it for no cost?
- Is there a limit of 10 Fate points when accumulating Fate points by rolls?
- when using stealth against several guards, do you roll against all guards seperately (making the stealth action almost impossible to acomplish?) or does the whole group make a related skill bonus for perception?
- the combat move block lets you add Reflex (two primary stats) + AB (skill rank + primary stat) to the roll. So the block adds three primary stats to the role. This is a huge bonus which the opponent doesn't have, make it almost certain for a good fighter to block everything.
- does the blocked foe still gets his attack when blocked? A player can earn FATE points, for an NPCs its obsolete, imho.
- damage and wounds, the rulebook says "round down" when counting hits for wound. So when I get hit with 4 damage with 0 hits and 0 minor wounds, I get no major wound at all?
There are still 2 to 3 sessions to come but I feel I'm already loosing my players interest. The next combat has to rock!
I imposed upon myself the impossible task to show Novus to my gaming group while being the only one in possession of the Rule Book.
Let's say it was rough and a bit frustrating.
I provided the rules primer and some of the Novus starting characters for my players and gave a broad overview of the system. I dropped all the complex stuff like combat styles, adv. combat moves, Init-bonus of weapons, some casting options and such.
We played a simple straight forward adventure in a medieval setting about dark witches terrorizing the land. In the introduction scene there was a combat against a hag in a burning house. The platform was Roll20.
I already expected some problems because I knew it was much to swallow for my players who didn't know the rules.
But it took us 2.5 hours to kill that single foe with 5 players in 3 combat rounds, in fact with a single blow (type VI critical hit). Everything before that was administrating initiative and how and how not a player has to declare actions, how to abort and how to resolve them. Some characters had to traverse 100 yards to the combat scene (of COURSE they split up!), so all they did in that 2.5 hours was trying to reach the action.
Somehow some players couldn't understand how to declare an action without knowing if that action could actually be resolved (for example, "How do I know what to do in the future when Bob is blocking the entrance NOW?"). So the lack of a "waiting action" was a big hurdle for my players - an option they are used to from basically every other RPG.
Some of the criticism I couldn't understand as I think the system is neither too complex nor too slow. And I GM'ed Mythras with total newbies in the past!
I don't see a problem in declaring actions.. at all! When you're blocked, you simply do nothing or abort your action. I also don't think there are "too many actions to choose from" as 80% of them are just repeated with different costs; and the Fate list you also can get used to. Also they are not that much possible combinations of movement and attack that you can do, anyway.
But I do think the lack of a waiting action could be a problem. Tthere are indeed situations possible where you can do nothing at all.. yet.. and then lose your turn.
What I can say as a GM there are a few things that I think are problematic, though
- I don't think it's possible to have a smooth start with only one rule book at hand as it's too much to teach all that in a single adventure. If your players are already sceptical, you can't make a good first impression.
- handling a single initiative list is ok, but handling an additional dynamic initiative list where combatants switch places with every attack they do is just too much. So I ignored this instantly (because I knew this would brake my short-term memory).
- remembering all the actions of all combatants before they're resolved is much to ask. It's possible but exhausting on a permanent basis. At least the players should be able to remember their OWN actions.
- thers is no way to make NPCs quick&dirty. I think one get used to it with more experience in the system (so just guessing character values), but it would be nice to have a quick system to make NPCs with just the most necessary values and still know their XP Value.
- without a digital character sheet Roll 20 (or any VTT) is a huge detriment to the system. There are around 10 dynamic numbers that can change in an instant (Init, 3 stuns, 3 wounds, hits, bleeding, penalty, fate...). With pen&paper this is doable (hail to the combat tracking sheet) but on PC, it's dizzying. I think Novus works best at the table (that's how I like it).
The question is: What's the necessity to have three different kinds of wounds and stuns? What does it bring to the table that 1 Wound and 1 Stun level (like Savage Worlds for exmaple) doesn`t?
- the movement distances can be VERY long (3x Base Run). So when declaring actions everyone is counting hexes or measuring distances on a basis where everyone COULD BE to decide what to do for a few minutes or so. This felt a bit like a tedious TableTop game.
- my players were showered in Fate Points (every roll has the potential to generate one), so TN 15 usually was too easy to achieve, as they simply bought bonuses. I know that awarding Fate Points "is an art of itself" but as a GM you don't have much influence on the outcome of rolls.
- with Full Parry you're set to pull of a fumble as you only get +0 AB (~50%+ chance to fumble!). The solution my players used to get to this problem was just "not attacking at all" and I don't think that's the intention of the combat move Full Parry.
As a side note:
What bugs me, just in this single combat scene several new questions came up that I couldn't answer with the book or primer.
- can a move action be splitted? (move->attack->move)
- how exact has an action declaration to be?
- can I get past allies in combat ("walking through them")?
- when buying actions with Fate points, when do you have to pay the cost (when declaring, when acting? can I buy an action ahead and then just drop it for no cost?
- Is there a limit of 10 Fate points when accumulating Fate points by rolls?
- when using stealth against several guards, do you roll against all guards seperately (making the stealth action almost impossible to acomplish?) or does the whole group make a related skill bonus for perception?
- the combat move block lets you add Reflex (two primary stats) + AB (skill rank + primary stat) to the roll. So the block adds three primary stats to the role. This is a huge bonus which the opponent doesn't have, make it almost certain for a good fighter to block everything.
- does the blocked foe still gets his attack when blocked? A player can earn FATE points, for an NPCs its obsolete, imho.
- damage and wounds, the rulebook says "round down" when counting hits for wound. So when I get hit with 4 damage with 0 hits and 0 minor wounds, I get no major wound at all?
There are still 2 to 3 sessions to come but I feel I'm already loosing my players interest. The next combat has to rock!