Try to survive the Winter: A planquest in Fantasy Colonial America
- Thread starter OldShadow
- Start date
- Fantasy Alt. History
- Location
- France
The Challenge imply being guests.
Not tools, and not preys.
Chimeraguard
We do deserve to exist.
I'd prefer we don't take it. But we may not have a choice, because the description text for the Witch's Visit implies that if we keep not taking it, sooner or later she'll take it on her own.
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- Location
- Spain
I am not so sure about this one, since it seems like a duel of confronted dice and that can go south very easily... I would rather pick the Hujnter option here...
We can also not apply this dice and let Winter do its thing... Tanking 4/5 of the Harshness dice is already pretty massive...
Fortunately, as proven last Winter, placing a Harshness die doesn't mean that the ally is too distracted to offer assistance, so long as Winter loses the roll. Given their present advantageous position, I think they can tank a single Harshness die.
As for the options you suggested, I'm most in favor of 1) and 3). I want to keep the Tribute Takers stuff to a minimum given how much we have tied up handling the incorporeal stuff and smallpox. I'm not willing to gamble on 4), so that leaves 1) and 3).
Edit: Of course, if you want I suppose I could spend an OOC question on that as well, but I'm pretty hesitant to double up on temptations like that.
If ever there was a Winter to do this, it's now, when our ability to add additional Knowledge tests is near nonexistent.
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Chimeraguard
We do deserve to exist.
I mean, we have a Hero (Andreyas) who is literally built for that on multiple angles (specializes in fighting others who fight like humans, Blood of Solomon I hypothesize triggers for acts that are "kingly", and there's little more kingly than fighting a duel to protect your people. I mean, the David in David and Goliath is Solomon's father.) Not to mention we might be able to tip the scale on both ends by Omake boosting Andreyas and inhibiting the Duelist.
And if all else fails, Counters can stack, so I'm more than fine turning a 1v1 into a 2v1, since I imagine Malcolm can also pitch in, if at reduced effectiveness.
Hmm. One thing that's a shame though is that there doesn't seem to be an enemy for the Silent Blades to be effectively used against. They auto-negate dice (provided they low roll enough), so if that was an option we could just plop the die there and have them go to work.
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- Location
- Spain
Yeah, it is a shame that we don´t have any sort of big monster or undead horde coming this Year...
Malcolm and the Blades would destroy them...
- Location
- Australia
- Pronouns
- He/They
[x] Plan: Gee Whatever
-[x] The Hunger
--[x] Revolt of the Primal Flesh : 1 Hunger Die.
-[x] The Cold
--[x] Extinguish Hope : 1 Cold Die.
-[x] Sunless Days
--[x] A gift from the Old World : Automatic.
-[x] Promises and half-truths.
--[x] Failure : 1 Harshness Die.
--[x] The Leeper : 1 Harshness Die.
--[x] A Hunter : 2 Hunger Die.
--[x] The Newcomers : 1 Harshness Die, 1 Cold Die.
-[x] Servants
--[x] Of Cold and Shadows : 1 Cold Die.
--[x] The Falses : 2 Harshness Dice.
--[x] The Drinkers : 1 Hunger Die.
-[x] The Tribute Takers
--[x] Omens and preparation : 1 Taker Die.
--[x] Remnant of Kinship : 1 Taker Die.
-[x] The Hunger
--[x] Revolt of the Primal Flesh : 1 Hunger Die.
-[x] The Cold
--[x] Extinguish Hope : 1 Cold Die.
-[x] Sunless Days
--[x] A gift from the Old World : Automatic.
-[x] Promises and half-truths.
--[x] Failure : 1 Harshness Die.
--[x] The Leeper : 1 Harshness Die.
--[x] A Hunter : 2 Hunger Die.
--[x] The Newcomers : 1 Harshness Die, 1 Cold Die.
-[x] Servants
--[x] Of Cold and Shadows : 1 Cold Die.
--[x] The Falses : 2 Harshness Dice.
--[x] The Drinkers : 1 Hunger Die.
-[x] The Tribute Takers
--[x] Omens and preparation : 1 Taker Die.
--[x] Remnant of Kinship : 1 Taker Die.
Chimeraguard
We do deserve to exist.
Okay so, here's the Defense level. Thinking on what will stop being relevant:
-Stockades and Ditch I'm all but certain won't help against a bunch of incorporeal spirits.
-Steel Weapons and overall Steel and Gunpowder I also think won't help, and neither will the cannons. Yes, we have Ash Coating so they can harm spirits, but the makeup of the weapons themselves I don't think matters as much. I think a bone spear coated in ash will be basically just as effective at harming a spirit as a steel spear coated in ash.
-Steel-Armed Skirmishers also might be less than helpful, but I think there's a different angle where it will help. If the Warrior's Son is responding to Spoilers and Takers, then the Skirmishers might accompany him, boosting his counter.
In terms of benefits, better training will help them not freak out against spirits, the First Hedge will help because Razorweed thorns cut the spirit as well as the body. Ashes Coating and Paint obviously helps a lot. And Silver Razorweed I expect to be quite effective so long as there's Cold Dice involved (which there are.)
So that could put base defenses down to around 150+, once you factor in the parts that are unlikely to be of much help. We've got enough defenses that do matter that we'll probably go back up to like 200+ at minimum, but still worth keeping in mind.
As it stands, the Plan has 3 dice on Servant attacks, assuming that neither A Duel nor To Spoil and Take will contribute to the generally offense (well, I could see To Spoil and Take being interfered with by the Hedge. But that would just raise things to 4 dice and increase the amount of factors that actually get to contribute to the Defense.)
Either way, the amount of Dice we have on the Test of Defense at the moment I think is safe even in the more pessimistic scenarios.
A 4th die introduces a degree of risk, but I think probably a manageable one. So I suppose it's a question of if we want to put the last die on Servants (and if so, what kind of Servant), or on Hunger, or if we think we're okay leaving a Harshness die idle (personally I'd rather not, since I'm pretty sure Union can handle it.)
Note that for Servants, we currently have 1 die on Darkest Mists, 1 die on Fleshless, Remorseless, and 1 die on The Falses, with the last two being Hunger dice that can be replaced with the Harshness die to put the Hunger die on one of the Hunger-only projects. I think we can handle another die somewhere here, because aside from the Defense level, we also have multiple Counters that should trigger.
Er, this seems like a pretty poor plan. Our Food and Warmth are such that we should be able to handle 2 dice on those tests, and A Gift from the Old World requires a die. Just going for the automatic test doesn't trigger any of the sub-actions.
Plus, that's a huge amount of dice on Promises and half-truths when we have no idea of the mechanics for that. This seriously risks us losing a whole clump of heroes. Plus, we know that with a value of 100 from last turn, Deadtown can handle a single Harshness die without any real trouble, so there doesn't seem to be any reason not to put one on there.
EDIT:
[ ] Plan Chimeraguard
-[ ] The Endless Pit, 2 Hunger dice
-[ ] Boundless Generosity, 2 Cold dice
-[ ] A gift from the Old World, 1 Harshness die
-[ ] Promises and Half-Truths
--[ ] The Newcomers, 1 Harshness die
-[ ] Darkest Mists, 1 Cold die
-[ ] Fleshless, Remorseless, 1 Harshness die
-[ ] The Falses, 1 Hunger die
-[ ] Changing Flesh, 1 Hunger die
-[ ] To spoil and take, 1 Tribute-Takers die
-[ ] A Duel, 1 Tribute-Takers die
-[ ] Siege Deadtown, 1 Harshness die
-[ ] Assault the Green, 1 Harshness die
Okay, here's my current plan draft.
I decided to swap the Harshness die into Fleshless, Remorseless and take away the Hunger die (because the nature of that attack feels like it synergizes with what Hunger wants.) I instead put the die onto Changing Flesh. This is because a part of me feels that it's a field where Alexandre might be able to help, since one of his main Things is being able to sense Occult shenanigans. Still, I'm unsure.
@Hunter531 If you want to spend another omake on a Question, one that might work is asking whether or not the Drinkers will synergize with Smallpox in any way. If it doesn't, then that would be an easy pick because the Roteater Worms we have should act as a direct counter to it.
If it doesn't, then going onto Changing Flesh seems best. That or a 3rd die on the regular Hunger Test (though which one? More Endless Pit? I feel like there's an additional cumulative effect from putting more and more dice on one action, so I'd rather not.)
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Hunger kinda synergizes with Fleshless, but I figure that the familiarity counteracts that since we took it that way last Winter.
I don't need a question to say that the answer is almost certainly yes. The Drinkers can likely sneak into the Hospital without anyone noticing. There they can sneak into the bodies of the smallpox patients and breed within. Then we will have Drinkers that also spread smallpox.
I don't think we need to worry too much about cumulative effects in this specific scenario. Those cumulative effects we get from high rolls tend not to be direct consequences of failure. The Newly Dead demoralizing the Escapees, the Fleshless taking over the Silent Blades, that sort of thing. This is just additional hunger. Hard to get some sort of high roll special sauce out of that. Plus, from a more Doylist perspective, it's not like we have any other options to increase our Hunger Test, so discouraging us from adding dice there would be weird in terms of game design.
Anyways, I think the risks of negative outcomes are lower with this than with Changing Flesh taking advantage of our current division, but you do you. The only way to know for sure is to roll the dice.
- Location
- Indonesia
Won't Changing Flesh do the whole kill-and-replace thing though? Is there any way we can defend the Union from that?
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Guess Winter saw that possibility coming.
- Location
- Spain
Our dogs can smell supernatural stuff, so we have a pretty great counter against them...
Chimeraguard
We do deserve to exist.
Well, they're not tamed yet.
Hmm, actually, a good use for that Question Hunter gave me might be asking what happens when we put multiple different sub-actions on the Tests of Hunger/Cold/Knowledge, and what are the pros and cons of doing so vs putting that same amount of dice onto a single sub-action.
Since I am now leaning on 3 Hunger dice on the Test of Food vs Hunger.
Hmm, actually, a good use for that Question Hunter gave me might be asking what happens when we put multiple different sub-actions on the Tests of Hunger/Cold/Knowledge, and what are the pros and cons of doing so vs putting that same amount of dice onto a single sub-action.
Since I am now leaning on 3 Hunger dice on the Test of Food vs Hunger.
Lurking_Badger
Cheese Enjoyer
- Location
- Wisconsin
With the Freed literally watching our people's every move, everyday, giving constant advice? I don't see it lasting too long.
- Location
- Spain
Well, I think that the main advantage of distributing the Dice is that, if we do it that way we are much less likely to reach some high DC that triggers some of the nastiest stuff that we get form +80 onwards...
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Do we though? There's enough supernatural nonsense about that false positives are a virtual certainty. Any true positives will likely be lost in the noise.
The Freed could serve as a counter, yes. However we aren't exactly short on actions where the Freed counter could come in clutch, and they can only be used that way once per Winter. Plus, the odds of the newcomers listening to the Freed aren't exactly great.
This, pretty much. Given that we rolled a nat 100 on Endless Pit last Winter without any (additional) issues, I don't think we need to worry too much about this specific action.
Chimeraguard
We do deserve to exist.
Eh, I feel there's probably something accompanying it. It wouldn't make sense for there to be one option that was just better than the others.
I feel like Endless Pit's deal is something like say, greater drain on our Food stockpiles or something? Not quite sure how to phrase it, but that sounds right for its effects.
Well, either way, I suppose neither of the other two options for Hunger checks really appeal on the same turn where we have a bunch of other hits on the mind that we'll be busy with, so it might be the best.
Chimeraguard
We do deserve to exist.
[X] Plan Chimeraguard
-[X] The Endless Pit, 3 Hunger dice
-[X] Boundless Generosity, 2 Cold dice
-[X] A gift from the Old World, 1 Harshness die
-[X] Promises and Half-Truths
--[X] The Newcomers, 1 Harshness die
-[X] Darkest Mists, 1 Cold die
-[X] Fleshless, Remorseless, 1 Harshness die
-[X] The Falses, 1 Hunger die
-[X] To spoil and take, 1 Tribute-Takers die
-[X] A Duel, 1 Tribute-Takers die
-[X] Siege Deadtown, 1 Harshness die
-[X] Assault the Green, 1 Harshness die
Okay, I have officially been Convinced that we have enough Food to manage 3 dice.
While we no longer have the Lord's Meat, we have a much greater Harvest (8 +'s vs prior harvests' 6). While I believe the +s in this Quest are additive rather than multiplicative, that's still something like 40 Food value from the better harvest alone (once both Full harvest + Four Sisters is all factored in for a base of 125.) Then you add in Hunting, which partially makes up for the lack of Lords' Meat, and a very good Gathering result, and better food preservation and having a much larger stockpile before the Harvest.
So yeah, 3 Hunger dice on The Endless Pit, 2 Cold Dice on Boundless Generosity, and the Smallpox for pre-emptive landmine detonation. Newcomers get Promises and Half-Truths because it's mandatory.
3 dice on our Defenses: Darkest Mists (should be inhibited by the strengthened fire and Silver Razorweed), Fleshless, Remorseless (we've dealt with it before, and it should be inhibited by things like the Flesh Traps and our various Counters), and The Falses (Murderer's Roots, the Mourners, and our generally high Morale.)
To Spoil and Take should be countered by the Hedges and hopefully Sun-Loving Woods harassment wearing them down, which might let the Warrior's Son + his Skirmishers gank him. Andreyas should be able to manage a Duel, and I'm hoping Malcolm can provide backup if needed.
And a Harshness die on Deadtown because we know they can handle it, and another on The Green because they're surging strongly ahead in the Siege (up to 7/10 last we checked, and the two turns after that the Blood-Loving were rolling at a die behind the Sun-Loving.) So even if they take damage, they shouldn't be driven back too far.
And that uses up all the dice.
-[X] The Endless Pit, 3 Hunger dice
-[X] Boundless Generosity, 2 Cold dice
-[X] A gift from the Old World, 1 Harshness die
-[X] Promises and Half-Truths
--[X] The Newcomers, 1 Harshness die
-[X] Darkest Mists, 1 Cold die
-[X] Fleshless, Remorseless, 1 Harshness die
-[X] The Falses, 1 Hunger die
-[X] To spoil and take, 1 Tribute-Takers die
-[X] A Duel, 1 Tribute-Takers die
-[X] Siege Deadtown, 1 Harshness die
-[X] Assault the Green, 1 Harshness die
Okay, I have officially been Convinced that we have enough Food to manage 3 dice.
While we no longer have the Lord's Meat, we have a much greater Harvest (8 +'s vs prior harvests' 6). While I believe the +s in this Quest are additive rather than multiplicative, that's still something like 40 Food value from the better harvest alone (once both Full harvest + Four Sisters is all factored in for a base of 125.) Then you add in Hunting, which partially makes up for the lack of Lords' Meat, and a very good Gathering result, and better food preservation and having a much larger stockpile before the Harvest.
So yeah, 3 Hunger dice on The Endless Pit, 2 Cold Dice on Boundless Generosity, and the Smallpox for pre-emptive landmine detonation. Newcomers get Promises and Half-Truths because it's mandatory.
3 dice on our Defenses: Darkest Mists (should be inhibited by the strengthened fire and Silver Razorweed), Fleshless, Remorseless (we've dealt with it before, and it should be inhibited by things like the Flesh Traps and our various Counters), and The Falses (Murderer's Roots, the Mourners, and our generally high Morale.)
To Spoil and Take should be countered by the Hedges and hopefully Sun-Loving Woods harassment wearing them down, which might let the Warrior's Son + his Skirmishers gank him. Andreyas should be able to manage a Duel, and I'm hoping Malcolm can provide backup if needed.
And a Harshness die on Deadtown because we know they can handle it, and another on The Green because they're surging strongly ahead in the Siege (up to 7/10 last we checked, and the two turns after that the Blood-Loving were rolling at a die behind the Sun-Loving.) So even if they take damage, they shouldn't be driven back too far.
And that uses up all the dice.
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[X] Plan Chimeraguard
- Pronouns
- He
[X] Plan Chimeraguard
[X] Plan Chimeraguard