Nekromanti Various newbie questions

[runequester]

W hope you will forgive me for writing in English.

I am Danish by birth, though I've lived half my life in the US.

I recently picked up the PDF version of Eon 4 and fell in love immediately.
I love games with a bit of crunch to them, and I double-love games that combine that with a strong story and character oriented system.

I went through the character creation process with a few of my American friends and they adored the detailed characters you end up with.

I do have some questions though, that I was hoping my Scandinavian brothers could help with:

A:
I see that there's essentially three approaches to dice rolls:

*Make a single, quick roll of skill vs difficulty.
*"Utmandinger" which is an extended test of 3 rolls.
*"Konflikter" which is an extended challenge between two characters.

When reading through the game example in the opening of the game, it seems they just roll once for things like you would in any other RPG.
When do you make a skill test an "Utmanding" ? Is it meant to be the same as "extended rolls" in some other games? Scene-long actions? Something else I am missing out on?

B:
Do you know if there's any intention to publish the Damarien module in PDF?
EDIT: I got the answer to this, so don't worry about this one.

C:
I see a lot of region-modules for the 3rd edition rules, covering all manner of places in the world.
Is there an intention to publish these for 4th edition over time?

I see some of them I'd like to eventually buy, but due to shipping costs to the US I am hesitant to buy a bunch of stuff, if there's going to be newer versions soon.

D:
On that topic, any recommended shops that tend to stock 3rd edition Eon stuff and ship international?

 

[Staffan]

I see that there's essentially three approaches to dice rolls:

*Make a single, quick roll of skill vs difficulty.
*"Utmandinger" which is an extended test of 3 rolls.
*"Konflikter" which is an extended challenge between two characters.

There's also a fourth, which is an simple opposed roll of skill vs skill. It comes up a lot in combat, for example.

When reading through the game example in the opening of the game, it seems they just roll once for things like you would in any other RPG.
When do you make a skill test an "Utmanding" ? Is it meant to be the same as "extended rolls" in some other games? Scene-long actions? Something else I am missing out on?

It's basically a matter of the narrative weight of the task, though there is some element of a task consisting of numerous sub-tasks or being done over some length of time. Other factors to consider is whether the situation is one where multiple different skills could/should come into play, and whether you're going to have different degrees of success and/or failure.

C:
I see a lot of region-modules for the 3rd edition rules, covering all manner of places in the world.
Is there an intention to publish these for 4th edition over time?

I see some of them I'd like to eventually buy, but due to shipping costs to the US I am hesitant to buy a bunch of stuff, if there's going to be newer versions soon.

AFAIK, Helmgast would rather focus on new areas than the ones already covered in 1st through 3rd edition (the differences between the first three were minor - the biggest one was, I think, the simplified damage table in 3rd). The regional sourcebooks consisted mostly of non-rules material, so they should convert over fairly easily to 4th.

Also, Helmgast (as I understand it) mostly makes things on a freelance basis - I don't know if any of them work on RPG writing full-time, but I don't think they do. And many of them are currently busy working on the new version of Neotech that was just crowd-funded, so I would be very surprised if they released any new regional sourcebooks in this or next year. It took about three years for them to release the first regional sourcebook (Damarien), and I guess the magic rules and advanced combat rules are next in the pipeline. So I guess it would depend on your definition of "soon" - personally, I'd be surprised to see a new regional book before 2020.

 

[avatarex]

If you haven't checked it out yet I would recommend you to visit Eon's character generator:
https://helmgast.se/eongen/beta/'

In the Swedish table top gaming magazine Fenix #3 2018 we will have six pages from our upcoming sourcebook Kamor.

Regards / Anton (Helmgast)

 

[runequester]

Thank you so much.

A few rules questions:

A:
My character is hit in combat, takes 6 "Utmattning" and is now bleeding.
At the end of the round, I take 1 more "Utmattning".

Should I test for "Chock" twice this round ? (once when hit and once at the end of the round).
Once at the end? Or does bleeding not force a Chock test?

B:
If I use a shield and am parrying a missile attack, can I both add the shield bonus to my parry AND add the "Skydd" value to the difficulty of the shot?

 

[Swedish Chef]

A:Bleeding forces Chock test. But you only make one per round

B: Skydd value is only for passive protection. You either role Sköld (included with parry bonus) or you add the Skydd Value to range modifier.

 

[farwyl]

Hej!

Sorry for hijacking the thread, but I'd also like to ask a question about the game in English if possible.

I'm in the same boat as Runequester, I have also bought the pdf of the rulebook, and I really like what I've read so far. (The only Nordic language I speak is Norwegian, so it's very helpful for me to have the pdf, as I can easily google the parts that I don't understand)

I'd like to know if Damarien (and possibly the other modules) will be released as a pdf on the webshop (or as an add-on in an upcoming Kickstarter)?
(I see that this question has been asked somewhere else, but I can't really find the answer)

Tack för svaret,
farwyl

Ps.: If anyone from Helmgast sees this, the English speaking RPG community is really missing a game like Eon!

 

[runequester]

I had emailed Helmgast about Damarien in PDF and the guy who responded said they were considering it, depending on how core book PDF sales goes.

 

[avatarex]

Ps.: If anyone from Helmgast sees this, the English speaking RPG community is really missing a game like Eon!

We always read the posts at rollspel.nu and we agree that it would be very good with Eon in English. At the moment we have no specific plans for it but of course it's tempting to distribute worldwide!

If I use a shield and am parrying a missile attack, can I both add the shield bonus to my parry AND add the "Skydd" value to the difficulty of the shot?

In missile attacks, the attacker rolls vs the distance difficulty (6-10-14-18 for short/intermediate/long/extra long distance). If the defender has a shield the "Skydd" bonus adds to the difficulty regardless if the defender is aware of the attack or not. If the attack roll fails, the defender will not need to roll for Shield. If it succeeds, the defender can roll for Shield and in this roll the Shield's bonus against missile attacks ("Avstånd") is added to the defender's Shield roll.

Shortly:

• If the defender is not aware of the attack, only the passive bonus ("Skydd") is added to the difficulty.
• If the defender is aware of the attack, the passive bonus ("Skydd") is added to the difficulty and the active bonus ("Avstånd") is added to the defense roll (Shield).

 

[farwyl]

I had emailed Helmgast about Damarien in PDF and the guy who responded said they were considering it, depending on how core book PDF sales goes.

Thanks a lot! Then I'll wait patiently and hope for it to be released one day.

 

[farwyl]

We always read the posts at rollspel.nu and we agree that it would be very good with Eon in English. At the moment we have no specific plans for it but of course it's tempting to distribute worldwide!

Maybe I'll learn some Swedish as well after all. If the team decides to do the English translation one day though, I'd be happy to support a Kickstarter.

 

[runequester]

Appreciate the thorough answer!

 

[runequester]

Another question:

I see that there's several "geography" books for Mundana that were released.
Which is the best or most expansive to get?

 

[Swedish Chef]

I think the big Mundana Box is ok, the best book is Thalamur though.

 

[Khan]

I personally love Consaber for Eon 3, but Damarien for Eon 4 is also amazing.

 

[Staffan]

I would say it depends on what you're interested in playing.

Asharien & Soldarn - Soldarn is fairly close to a regular medieval feudal country, on the verge of civil war (or it might have broken out already, I can't quite recall). Asharien is more of a fantasy version of the wild west (prairies, provinces only loosely united, lots of personal freedom to either win big or perish trying).
Cirefalier - describes the Cirefalan people (intellectual, trade-minded, worship their own god and won't share him) and the countries that make up the Cirefalan Commonwealth. The Cirefalan nations probably work best for various city-/family-based intrigues.
Consaber - Strongly inspired by England, including having a bunch of semi-Scots up north. Strongly opposed to Thalamur, who both consider themselves to be the proper heirs of the Colonan Empire.
Thalamur - an atheistic magocracy dominated by a number of noble families. Two provinces recently broke loose, aided by Consaber.

Asharien & Soldarn are probably the ones that are closest to a traditional fantasy experience, and many of the setting's elements can be found there or nearby (the elven Sunari Forest, plenty of dwarven strongholds, the Crag Mountains where the Ahnulds live). I guess it does suffer a bit from being one of the first books written for the game though. Consaber is also fairly "vanilla", though you'd have to go through hoops to get half the elf types in there.

 

[runequester]

Thanks gang. Consaber sounds like a good place to start with for a fairly traditional fantasy group then.

 

[dancodan]

I would recommend grabbing the Mundana-box.
Also, if you want to have Consaber your should consider grabbing Thalamur while you're at it. They are bitter enemies with each other and constantly at war.
Can't have one without the other =)

 

[LordTengel]

I would recommend grabbing the Mundana-box.
Also, if you want to have Consaber your should consider grabbing Thalamur while you're at it. They are bitter enemies with each other and constantly at war.
Can't have one without the other =)

This, though it must be admitted that Thalamur has been changed a bit (parts of the geography) for Eon IV. Still an awesome book! Also, the updated map can be found here.

 

[runequester]

Much appreciated guys.

I couldn't find a shop online that seemed to have the box set and did international shipping, but I have the Geografica Mundana book on its way across the Atlantic ocean shortly


A few more random questions:

1:
For Asharien, the Eon 3 Spelledarens Guide says that the dominant population is Asharier.
But neither Eon 3 or 4 has them listed when discussing attributes for playable characters (Unless I missed it).

How do you handle them or are they covered in another book somewhere?

2:
Eon 3 has a pretty big list of specific herbs and what climates they grow in, while 4 seems to take a more open-ended approach.
Is there a list out there with more specific suggestions on which herbs grow in what country, or do you just sort of make it up ?

3:
Is there a canonical herb or drug that prevents pregnancy in the setting?

4:
Is the Religion book any good? I've seen mixed reviews online. I know this is rather subjective so I hope you'll forgive me.

5:
An Eon 3 rules question if you don't mind:
How are attacker and defender actions timed? Let's say the defender is prone and wants to stand up as one of their actions.
How do you figure out if they do so before the attack or after it?

I might just be missing it due to language issues, but I couldn't find anything that seemed to clearly explain it.

6:
In published adventures etc. how big a part do "monsters" play? (giant spiders, trolls, dragons etc.)
I realize this can differ based on the campaign, but I am curious if it's intended to be that the countryside is full of monsters or whether seeing a troll or a skeleton is supposed to be a big deal.

7:
Ditto how common is magic and magic use "officially" ? I noticed that in the Jargiska empire, its basically banned but what's the norm elsewhere?

If a magic user casts a spell in a small village, would the villagers freak out? Find it neat? Shrug and go on with their day ?

8:
On that topic, I noticed that Eon 3 has a spell for raising the dead.
Is this intended to be somewhat readily available or would it be a difficult and rare thing?

My feeling reading the books is that the setting is intended to be fairly dangerous place and availability of "raise dead" tends to seriously affect the feeling.


Cheers and thank you in advance for your time gang!

 

[Staffan]

I'll answer what I can and I guess others can chime in with the rest as well.

1:
For Asharien, the Eon 3 Spelledarens Guide says that the dominant population is Asharier.
But neither Eon 3 or 4 has them listed when discussing attributes for playable characters (Unless I missed it).

How do you handle them or are they covered in another book somewhere?

Mechanically, Asharians (and any other human ethnicity that doesn't have stats specified) are considered a sub-group of Vanarians (Vanarer).

3:
Is there a canonical herb or drug that prevents pregnancy in the setting?

They aren't a sure thing, but Grå tveblading (Grey twoleafer) and Tandbär (Toothberry) both make it two levels harder to get pregnant for Ob1T6 hours. I don't think there are any rules on getting pregnant, but two levels harder means a significantly lower chance/risk.

4:
Is the Religion book any good? I've seen mixed reviews online. I know this is rather subjective so I hope you'll forgive me.

I recall it as being fairly good, though you usually get a decent look at the dominant local religion in any regional sourcebook as well.

5:
An Eon 3 rules question if you don't mind:
How are attacker and defender actions timed? Let's say the defender is prone and wants to stand up as one of their actions.
How do you figure out if they do so before the attack or after it?

I might just be missing it due to language issues, but I couldn't find anything that seemed to clearly explain it.

Normally, the attacker and defender alternate actions, with the attacker going first - though the first few actions made by the defender will likely be defense rolls. "Stand up" is a special action for defenders - it's called "Resa sig upp" on page 36 of the GM's book. Basically, you make a difficulty Ob0T6 roll against Rörlighet (so unless you're combining it with other actions, or have difficulty increases from exhaustion or pain, you automatically succeed) at the very start of the melee phase of the round.

7:
Ditto how common is magic and magic use "officially" ? I noticed that in the Jargiska empire, its basically banned but what's the norm elsewhere?

If a magic user casts a spell in a small village, would the villagers freak out? Find it neat? Shrug and go on with their day ?

It depends on the region. In general, magic in Eon is treated as an advanced craft or a science. It can be powerful and thus mages are usually treated with respect, but it is a matter of respect for the power they wield, not fear of the unnatural things they do.

8:
On that topic, I noticed that Eon 3 has a spell for raising the dead.
Is this intended to be somewhat readily available or would it be a difficult and rare thing?

It would be a fairly difficult thing. Casting the ritual involves four successful skill rolls - even if you're good, you have a fairly good chance of failing at least one of them. It is also difficult, but not impossible, to learn as a ritual of the 10th magnitude. However, the big limit is that the ritual does not actually heal the corpse - the corpse will still be as wounded as it was at the time of death, which means there's a big chance you'll bring it back to life only to watch it die again.