Mail Call Question Part 1
Questions about Neoclassical Geek Revival received by mail and forwarded to me:
Can you add multiple Skills to a Check if they’re relevant to an action?
Yes, that is part of the fun. Players sitting around justifying how training in some horse shit skill is relevant to the current situation. The bonuses (bonii?) for multiple skills should not over lap for the same reason. A player saying being a miner should give their character a bonus for working in low light conditions is fine, if they are also a night watchmen they couldn't gain an additional +2 for being skilled in working in low light.
Is the morale check an Appeal, an Attribute Check, or is the d6 Fear assigned directly?
A repeating d6 straight up as of v2 of NGR. Earlier versions had it be an appeal, but it slowed things down too much in a big fight against a large mob.
How many Dots would a person without equipment be equivalent to? I’d probably set it at 10.
10 is a good number, but I generally go by their strength score. It makes it harder to haul an unconcious big dude around.
How does the Size of pack animals interact with the weight of objects and riders? I would assume that the Dots are divided by the Size.
Size explicitly modifies dot size. A giant's (size 8 we'll say) dagger is twice the size of a human's (size 1) greatsword.
If someone spends Luck on behalf of someone else, is this always a 1 for 1 ratio, or can a subordinate with the appropriate power spend the received Luck points at a 2 for 1 ratio (the reverse is prohibited by the rules)?
Very explicitly you use the ratios of the person the luck is being spent on. If a bard with a henchman with the Exorcist power is spending luck to keep the henchman from being possessed its a 2:1 rate. If the bard had the exorcist power but the henchman did not, it would be at a 1:1 rate.
Also regarding Luck: in a play example, Luck is spent on Suspicion that would affect the entire group during a dungeon crawl. I can’t find anywhere in the rulebook where this is explained or when it’s actually possible for someone to spend Luck on behalf of the entire group. For example, Detection always applies to an area, whereas Evasion attempts are determined individually. Is suspicion then also handled individually, or can it be handled as a group? Are there any other situations where Luck can be spent on the entire group?
Page 65 is going to be the note of the special case of using suspicion to track random encounters, that when one is triggered everyone loses suspicion equal to the amount of the person who triggered the encounter. It coincides with the specific wording of luck points being spent (and also flagged another versioning typo that slipped through). While no other conditions are specified, using a similar mechanic with "risk" would also work easily.
Regarding hiding: The rules state that an additional action is required to hide—in addition to which other action? Or does it mean that hiding requires two actions?
The additional action is in regards to staying hidden (defending yourself), so while it technically only takes one action it can be hard to pull that off if someone is keeping watch.
How long do light sources typically last, or is this not tracked in NGR? Is the Chance of Extinguishing used instead—and if so, at what interval?
NGR does use the dungeon turn and instead assumes less of a dungeon exploration and more of a dungeon heist. Functionally the light sources are likely to last the entire delve. More light does equal more random encounters though. Extinquish is used to check if the light goes out when something happens, like a torch is knocked out of someone's hand to the ground.
Finally, I'm wondering what the best way is to prepare a campaign. For example, how are levels distributed demographically? What are the highest stats that NPCs in the game can or should have? How, for example, would a god be represented in terms of stats (I'd like it to be possible to come into direct conflict with them)? To put it a little more clearly, maybe. I still can't quite picture how to put all the building blocks together to create a game. I think it would be very helpful to see how to prepare for an NGR campaign—what's possible, what to keep in mind, and so on.
So you are right just at the last moments with this one as my old Patreon is queued for deletion but it had a good 60 odd zines that might help with a lot of this so I'll go into some basics.
1.) Levels kind of go along with milestones, page 145 in the green book covers that.
2.) Gods depend on what you mean by God. A big G god isn't really something you interact with. A Pulp era "god" though is well within though, just make it a monster and use some totemic spells. I might repost the old 'zine that dealt with that as articles in the future.
3.) Easiest way to prepare an NGR campaign is the same as most classic RPGs, it is to start small and build outwards (and the blue book is great for filling in details you don't care about). If you want something real easy then use a copy of havenvale and randomly generate a hexmap and plut it into a mountain hex somewhere (be sure to add a river leaving it). Slap a few more classic NGR adventures as starters nearby and you are good to go. The blue book is full of premade stuff specifically to make this easier to set up and run with.
4.) As for what is possible , that is a different question. I've done a lot of dumb stuff using NGR and I am always trying new things in my quest to build a better mousetrap. Bronze age nation building, blue collar science fiction (before it was cool), gonzo science fantasy, victorian explorers (twice), chivalric knights, ancient greeks, and umpteen versions of grimy, amoral, medieval opportunists. Write more mail with more specific info and maybe I can help out with that.