A Problem of Scale

A new problem appeared during playtesting. During mid-tier play (4th-6th level in this system), player feedback was that adversaries they thought should have felt harder to fight were too easy, and I agreed.

To address this, I returned to the perennial principles the game is based on, in this particular case, scale.

The perennial idea transmitted by G.I. Gurdjieff is that we live in a universe of scale.

“…the lines of development of vibrations are divided into periods corresponding to the doubling or the halving of the number of vibrations in a given space of time.”

– In Search of the Miraculous

The example given in this passage relates to music, that each scale up or down is a doubling or halving of the vibration. The whole universe can be regarded this way, starting with the universe as a whole, down to the scale of galaxies, to the scale of solar systems, to the scale of planets, to the scale of our planet, to the scale of humans, to the scale of micro-organism, on and on, each a world unto itself on its own scale.

For this game, in the case of adversaries, taking man as the base, a giant in terms of size would scale against a man 2:1 (a doubling). Greater adversaries like legendary monsters or dragons might be 3:1 or 4:1 when compared to a man, making each scale above man increasingly formidable. Besides scale by size, one could also take scale by hierarchy of being, in terms of divinities such as angels and archangels.

Building or converting monsters in the usual way that I was doing for B2 Keep on the Borderlands, I had originally come up with the following stat block for a giant.

Giant, Level 5 (brawler), S7, HP 57, PD 15, smash +12, thrown +12

When I tested this giant in mid-tier, four level 4 PCs were able to defeat this giant in 2-3 rounds with little damage to themselves.

With the idea of scale, as you go up the scale, in the case of adversaries, hit point totals are doubled, the passive defense cap is removed, and the adversary can either make two attacks or one attack with double damage. There are other effects that scale has, but they were not tested this time.

Giant, Scale 2:1 (size), Level 5 (brawler), S7, HP 114, PD 20, smash +12 (two attacks or double damage), thrown +12 (double damage)

Against this giant, the fight lasted 7 rounds against three level 8 characters (a seer, holy protector, and a hunter), with two characters taking significant (>50%) damage. 

All of the players agreed that this felt much more reasonable, even for PCs that were double the level of the previous test, and that the level 4 PCs would have been absolutely crushed in this fight, as they should be.

So in preparation for running higher level play (in the case of this system, levels 8-10), I’ve converted the adversaries in G1-G3 Against the Giants using this new factor of scale.

Seers and Spirits

In addition to testing scale, one of the players finally tried a class that could work spiritism wonders—the seer.

So far, the class tested well. As a “summoner” type class, the checks and balances built into how spiritism works kept the often complained action economy reasonable.

The seer started with an earth spirit companion. When needed, he could manifest this spirit and have him fight adversaries or perform other tasks like opening heavy doors or lifting heavy objects or breaking things. When no longer needed, he could dismiss the spirit and it would de-manifest.

To bring other spirits into play, the seer would need to chance upon them in whatever location the party was, or call them (requiring an ability roll), then compel them to obey (another ability roll), and finally to manifest them in order to interact with the physical world (a third ability roll), costing the seer one of his very low hit points. Failure at any step meant that calling or compelling or manifesting could not be used for one minute.

During the test, the seer PC manifested his earth spirit to fight against a giant along with the rest of the party.

The seer looked around for other spirits—there were only some minor nature spirits nearby, so he compelled them to harry the giant.

The seer then tried to call additional spirits during combat, but failed his ability roll, so he could not call any more spirits.

The Playtest

The PCs were scouting a forested region when they came upon a huge clearing with the Steading of the Giant Chief in the center. A giant was patrolling the clearing. He spotted one of the PCs in the woods and went searching for them. The hunter hid. The seer called upon the nature spirits to conceal himself and the holy protector. The giant searched but did not find the PCs, so he resumed patrolling.

The PCs went to the front door of the Steading and crept inside to see two sleeping drunk giants in the cloak room. The party could hear many more giants in the adjoining room. They quietly crept back out of the front door and decided to make their way back to the woods. “We’ve never fought giants before,” they said, “we don’t know what we’re going up against. Best to lure the single patrolling giant into the woods to try our hand at confronting one before we confront many giants.”

So they fell back to the woods and drew the patrolling giant into the woods. The fight lasted 7 rounds, with a dramatic critical failure on the part of the hunter, who was firing arrows from a perch in the tree. The giant had reached up to grab the hunter, and the hunter instinctively tried to dodge his grasp, only to fall from the perch to the ground. The holy protector and the earth spirit of the seer kept the giant occupied for most of the fight, while the hunter peppered the giant with arrows, and the seer, failing his call spirits roll, could only hide and compel nearby nature spirits to harry the giant. Otherwise, one good hit from the giant would have killed the seer. The holy protector, heavily armored, made a number of good blocks with his shield and kept up with consistent albeit low damage strikes against the giant.

When the giant finally fell, the hunter was less that 50% hit points, the earth spirit was less than 50% hit points, and the holy protector had lost a little more than 10% hit points.

Next session will add a fourth level 8 PC to the party, so we’ll see how they far against more than one giant.