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Author Topic: Lords of Olympus: What can Luck Do?  (Read 491 times)

RPGPundit

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Lords of Olympus: What can Luck Do?
« on: February 08, 2013, 03:20:10 PM »
Today, I talk about the Luck ability in LoO.  It is considerably more detailed about just what and how you can specifically apply it.  Paraphrasing from the LoO rulebook, luck allows you to:

1. Break Ties. IF all other conditions are equal, then luck can be a deciding factor in conflict resolution.

2. Augment abilities in certain circumstances:  When luck plays a part in determining how a situation, usually a reaction, ends up going, it can influence the resolution of that situation in addition to the main ability score that would govern it.  To give an example directly from the book:
"if an explosive projects shrapnel in all directions and none of the characters had sufficient Prowess to react in time, those with good luck might only take a few pieces of shrapnel to non-vital areas, whereas characters with neutral luck would be moderately injured, and the unlucky ones might be covered in shrapnel. Of course, resistance to these injuries is governed by Fortitude, so a higher Class in that ability would fare better."
So again, a bomb goes off; and Prowess comes first: anyone with good enough prowess might be able to react in time.  But after that, its a question of Luck how badly things go for those who did not have the Prowess to completely avoid damage.

3. Unforeseen developments: If you have good luck, you might be able to avoid a "random encounter" by sheer chance, or run into someone that will be helpful.  If you have bad luck, on the other hand, you will be more likely to "randomly" encounter a dozen bandits.  If you have good luck, random events tend to skew in your favor, with bad luck, against.

4. Personal Reactions: Luck is not a social skill. However, it can affect the general vibe you give off to other people.  Have you ever met someone who wasn't unattractive, seemed intelligent, didn't have a hygiene problem or anything of the sort, and yet something intangible just didn't make this person sit right with you? In LoO, this would be bad luck.
In other words, Luck influences first impressions.  This doesn't  really affect how you might subsequently improve or ruin those first impressions by your behaviour, but as we know, first impressions are important.

In closing, I'll again quote directly from the LoO book:

"Luck should be important in the various ways described above, but it should never be called into play to overturn an ability or clever actions. The character’s own abilities and wit should be ultimately more important than Luck. When determining how to resolve any given conflict, the list of priorities should generally
be as follows, except when a character has truly extreme ranges of good or bad luck:
1.   Relevant Ability Class
2.   Character actions or environmental elements that affect the characters’ effectiveness in the use of
their abilities
3.   Fortitude, if the conflict lasts long enough for exertion to be a factor
4.   Luck
"

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