Lords of Olympus Q&A Pt. VIII
This is the eighth installment of the amazing series of questions you've all been asking me about the upcoming Lords of Olympus game; along with my answers to the same. If YOU have any questions about the game, please post them on this thread in theRPGsite, and you'll get your answer every Friday!
Ok, here we go again:
Q: If a PC and a NPC are both skilled in Diplomacy (or whatever equivalent skill in LoO), how is the conflict solved in game? What mechanically do the players do in this situation since there are no dice to roll?
A: Again, Lords of Olympus has NO social mechanics. One big part of the game is social play and machiavellian (or should that be julio-claudian?)-style scheming, while having to follow the complicated rules of respect that the Olympian society is based on.
Does it seem weird that something this important isn't resolved by rolling a die or looking at a number? I don't see why it should be. The way this situation would be resolved is by the PC and NPC each making their respective arguments, the other players deciding who they want to believe/listen to/follow, and the GM making the same decision for the NPCs. Of course, a player character could cheat. He could use Enchantment to have affected the mind of one or more of the listeners. He could have used other powers to affect the preferences of the crowd of mortals he's orating to. He could have kidnapped the NPC's daughter, and slipped that NPC a note about it a minute before the big debate began.
There are all kinds of things that the PC can do to give himself an edge in a diplomatic situation; having a fiddly number to give him a mechanical bonus is not one of them. In Lords of Olympus, you actually have to ROLE-PLAY.
Q: If a player bluffs the other players, and one of the other players is playing a god who has an ability to see through lies, how would that operate in game?
A: Where would this guy have gotten that power? What kind of GM would give it to him? I would assume that if he really has the power to "see through lies" (no such power exists in the game, per se), then the guy trying to bluff would be screwed, wouldn't he? Of course, if what you're talking about is a mental link or the likes, then I guess that it would depend on the comparison of the character's Ego Class; not to see if the one guy is a better liar (again THAT DEPENDS ENTIRELY ON YOUR ABILITY TO ROLE-PLAY THE LIE CONVINCINGLY) but to see if the other guy is mentally powerful enough to read the other's thoughts and know he's lying that way.
Q: How is Initiative determined? Obviously Hermes goes first, but who goes next?
A: Hermes doesn't necessarily "go first", first of all. Hermes might be taken by surprise. But anyways, the precise way you handle each "round" of combat is by having every one declare their intended action first, and then the GM adjudicates how it all resolves itself, simultaneously. So there isn't any initiative exactly; instead the GM would determine that if two characters are attempting tasks that are incompatible, one of the two would succeed. For example, if two different characters are trying to reach for and grab the Orb of Fate, then the GM would have to determine who gets to it first. Are either of them supernaturally fast? Are either of them closer to it to begin with? Does one of them have the ability to fly and the other has to jump through a crowd? If not, if they both start off somewhere exactly equally distant from the orb and have exactly the same environmental qualities affecting them, then the one with higher Prowess would manage to grab the Orb first, leaving the other guy next to the Orb's pedestal but empty handed.
Q: If the Ability Classes are equal, what is the determining factor in deciding the victor?
A: If the ability classes are equal, then the combatants should end up nullifying each other's attacks; they keep blocking each other's hits, they are gripped together wrestling, they are both mentally concentrating all of their Ego in a gridlock against the other, etc. That would be the moment for one of the two players to attempt to switch the battle to some other ability; though this usually involves a risk (if you're locked in the heat of battle with the other guy, you'd better hope that "dropping your guard to try something" ends up being successful). Another alternative is if one of the characters tries to get the other to make a mistake by using some element of the terrain or surroundings to his advantage, or the other guy's disadvantage. That turns a tie in the attribute to a near lead for the guy with the advantage. If neither character wants to try anything else, and they just keep at it, then the next factor would be Fortitude; if one of the two characters has a lower fortitude, they will begin to tire faster than the other, and their ability to keep up their defense will start to fail, effectively making the other guy superior. The guy you're arm-wrestling against starts to waver under the strain, the guy you're sword-fighting with starts to get winded and can't get his blows up as fast, etc. If by some crazy chance Fortitude is also tied, then Luck would be the next factor to consider. In such a scenario, after monumental efforts, one of the two characters would just have an unlucky break; slipping a little, sweat in his eyes, his sword gets caught for a second on the edge of the other guy's shield, etc.
If they're tied on all three factors, and both refuse to change their mode of attack or use anything at all in their environment, then both characters would just keep going, ineffectively attacking each other until they both collapse, exhausted, at exactly the same time. Its a pretty unlikely scenario; not only does it require exact ties on all three abilities, and a total unwillingness to do anything about it on the part of both characters, but really, why doesn't the GM do something at that point? I'd probably have have Momus come along and laugh at them both, if nothing else.
Q: How does David fight Goliath? AKA, if the PC is outclassed by a far greater foe, how is trickery + luck + whatever measured by the LoO system so the lesser opponents have a chance of victory? And what if there are multiple David-wannabes in the battle?
A: I don't think David was outclassed. Sure Goliath had more Might than David, but David clearly had better Prowess, and he probably had a better Ego Class, or at least he'd gained the incredible power of "A man after God's own heart". He also probably had a pretty high luck score.
But in any case, as to your question, luck has a built-in measurement, the Luck ability. There are guidelines in the game as to how much weight to put on Luck (which advises moderation, ie. luck should matter enough that people care what their Luck score is, without feeling that Luck is MORE important than the four principle Abilities).
As for trickery, that depends on the player's cleverness, and the GM's judgment, with quite a few guidelines for how to adjudicate situations presented in the Lords of Olympus book. I mean, there are plenty of instances in Greek mythology of MORTALS getting the drop on the Gods, so really that shouldn't be that much of a problem for young gods to do. But it does depend on being clever, and not just saying "I use my four-dot "Trickery" social skill! Look at me, I'm roleplaying!!"
Q: How will Lords of Olympus handle prophecy?
A: Prophecy plays a huge role in the Olympian mythos. In the game, Prophecy appears in a number of different contexts. For starters, there's the power of Scrying, which is kind of your run-of-the-mill prophecy, more fortune-telling than prophetic vision, but that can be equally powerful or truthful in the hands of a skilled practitioner. This kind of "prophecy" or augury is not actually a measure of fate, but an extrapolation of a probable future based on a keen awareness of present events (thus dependent on the Ego Class of the user), but they are still only visions of possible futures.
The next step beyond that is the prophecy of pilgrimage sites and prophetic oracles, where people can receive much more definite oracles. The Oracle of Dephi, for example, is NEVER wrong; it is sometimes misunderstood, but whatever answer someone receives from the oracle WILL come to pass. Players beware! Of course, the GM is given some basic guidelines like "don't make a really specific prophecy you don't later want coming true, blockhead!"
The Primordials are also capable of prophecy, though this is more like an extension of the Olympian Magic power of Blessings and Curses; wherein the Primordials by declaring their prophecy are in a way creating the future event they wish; like when Uranus, defeated and about to be castrated, made the "Prophecy" that Cronus would one day also be overthrown by his son. Player Characters can create these kinds of prophetic curses and blessings, but usually on a less significant scale.
Q: Could Primordials work as PCs for an extremely high powered game?
A: I wouldn't really think so. They are pretty much off the scale of the power levels of the Lords of Olympus game. You could do a game where player characters are lower-generation Primordials; guys like Morpheus who are at a more manageable power level and have a personality which effectively simulates human consciousness and emotion. But the big guys like Phanes, Nyx, Tartarus, or Khaos? I'm not even giving them ability Classes.
An Extremely-high powered game in Lords of Olympus would be more like playing the elder Olympians or Titans.
Q: Who would win in a race between Iris and Hermes?
A: In a short-distance race, it would be very close, but Hermes would probably win by a nose. In a long-distance marathon, Hermes would definitely win.
Q: Do any means of travel between worlds exist other than World Walking and Promethean World Walking?
A: Yes; the other main one would be through the use of a Scrying Gate, which requires Advanced Scrying. It allows you to create a magical portal between dimensions. Aside from that, many of the Primordials seem to have means to travel between the worlds without any necessity of the divine roads, many of them can often bi-locate as well. There is also the Dream Realms of Hypnos and Morpheus, which can kind of count as a sort of travel as well, though its more of an astral travel.
Q: How do Ineffable Names compare to Power Words?
A: Ineffable names are basically power-words, yes. There's even the equivalent of "Power Word:Stun" and "Power Word:Kill" there.
Q: I'd like to second the query as to divine powers that involve seeing through lies, or magic like Aphrodite's that makes people fall in love. E.g. how would Aphrodite's powers affect a PC that's trying to keep information from her? Would you just automatically say "don't bother trying, Aphrodite is better than you"? Or would that require roleplay? In that case, Aphrodite doesn't really have any magic that the GM's ability to convince a (potentially belligerent) payer to open up and let information slip.
A: Aphrodite's Girdle allows her to enter a mind link with any male in her line of sight at will. Her Ego class is effectively increased by the artefact, for the purposes of Enchantment, which Aphrodite almost exclusively uses to make men fall in love with her. Someone who is affected by Enchantment is not merely mind-controlled in the way that can be done with regular Ego conflict; they are changed in terms of their personality, to believe what their assailant wants them to believe. So in game terms, Aphrodite would make you fall in love with her, and your character would WANT to tell her everything. Of course, for her to do this, her girldle-enhanced Ego would still need to be higher than yours, so characters with ridiculously high Ego could just rebuff her.
What I would "say" in this case is not "don't bother", I would explain to the player that his character is enchanted, and would hope that he'd have the maturity to roleplay it correctly.
Of course, if people are hiding something from Aphrodite, and they know she knows it, they might want to take some further precautions to avoid her being able to affect them. Her girdle's powers only work on men; they could use Metamorphosis to take female forms. Or they could take the form of an animal and see if that works. They could make a point of avoiding any encounter with Aphrodite that isn't in a very public place. They could have people in a mind-link with them already, set to interfere if Aphrodite tried something, etc.
Q: Can you provide a play-by-play of character creation?
A: copypasted right from the book:
Character Creation: Summary
1. The Bidding War: players bid on the four basic abilities: Ego, Might, Fortitude and Prowess.
2. Classes are established in the four abilities, players have the option of buying down abilities at Olympian Class to Mortal or Heroic Class; or buying up to empty or Tied-Class Numbered abilities.
3. Players can purchase Patrons or Enemies, and negotiate player “additions” for bonus points.
4. Players use remaining points to purchase Powers, Daemons, or Realms.
5. Any remaining points, or negative point-deficits are designated as the player character’s “Luck” score.
6. The GM assigns player character’s divine parentage. The GM will either inform players of their divine parent’s identity, or inform the player that their character does not know the identity of his divine parent.
7. Players establish their character’s background, age, and appearance, and optionally their divine thematic aspect. Players also collaborate with the GM to establish the character’s basic history up to the starting point of the campaign, making note of activities which would indicate significant skills or knowledge the player character holds.
8. Players conduct the Character Questionnaire, as a group, or individually with the GM.
Q: Can you provide a more concrete blow-by-blow of the following combat situation: A God and a Hero are walking into a building loaded down with guns. They have to get through their enemies Matrix-style (why yes, this IS the lobby scene), which consists of a Mortal security force of about two-dozen that has a Kyklops and a cthonic beast that resembles a low-rent Kerberos as backup.
A: I'm not too sure what you want from me here; what would happen there would depend a great deal on what the characters chose to do to handle the situation. Not to mention the abilities of the opponents they're facing. Twelve mortal cops (all with Mortal Class Prowess) would, collectively, be the equivalent of a single opponent of the lowest numbered prowess class in the campaign. So if the character's prowess is slightly higher than that, he should probably do o.k. in the battle, particularly being helped by someone with Heroic Class Prowess.
Of course, the Cyclops (I assume you are referring to a regular, monstrous Cyclops and not one of the three Cyclopes of Olympus), and the cheap Cerberus-knockoff could complicate things further. Individually, either of them would probably be inferior to a combat-oriented Olympian. But collectively with the mortal guards and each other, it'd be tough. Having thought ahead and prepared some powers could be really practical. Does the character have enough skill in Advanced Olympian Magic that he could craft a spell to make it so that the Cyclops and hellhound can't actually exist in this universe? That would definitely easy things up. But if not, he might be able to use regular Olympian Magic to make the video cameras malfunction to buy them time before the heavy reinforcements arrive. And of course, if you have Ineffable Names then the Name of Death would be pretty useful, since it would let him kill any of the mortal cops even without having a really clear shot.
Assuming the player character wasn't going to use any powers, didn't have anything prepared, etc and was just going to fight it out; the best strategy would be not to ever get himself in a position where all of his potential opponents could collectively fight him at once. 12 cops together, or 3 or 4 of them plus a Cyclops, can be a significant danger. But if the player character maneuvers through the room, using the desk, the columns, etc. as cover to avoid all of them being able to attack him, he is vastly superior (assuming he has some kind of Numbered Class Prowess) if he's handling up to 4 of them at a time. His Heroic Prowess companion had better either stick very close to him and give him some backup, or had better go off and hide somewhere and then try to peg off/face only one or two of the guys at a time. It would not necessarily be an easy battle, but it could be winnable if they use good strategy and keep their opponents divided.
Q: After seeing the title and premise, I was just curious to know if this game was related to the mid 80's game "Heroes of Olympus"?
A: No. In fact, I'd never even heard of that game until you brought it up. It has nothing to do with Lords of Olympus, and seems to be a game about playing greek mortal heroes in a purely classical setting. I don't really see how you could think there's any connection, aside from the "greek" thing.
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