Symbaroum Thread: Kickstart Redux Edition

Just double the damage in that case.
Also I get the feeling that a lot of the threat is coming from the ruins and what is contained. Enemy swords are just the prequel.
Also Remember that you never go up in hit points.

>"you're all just gritty adventurers, there are no heroes"

I don't get that vibe from it. There's clearly heroes in this setting and it's more existential than gritty grit-grittiness for grit's sake. Most of the time, you pay for power with corruption and it can be said that a whole lot of ruins start giving permanent corruption points the longer you stay, plus temporary corruption doesn't go away in tainted places.

Otherwise it seems somewhat like Dungeon World when it comes to armor and damage values. I agree that if you're trying to make it a little harsher combat-wise, it's a fine idea to up the damage values or introduce armor penetration, though I'm not going to argue that it's not a problem since it can be homebrewed away, as that's not an argument.

Also . A guy with a sword usually isn't the biggest threat out there, and even if he is there's bound to be more than one of them. You start getting into abominations that can spit acid and bleed acid onto melee attackers which destroys armor and deals temporary corruption, and things start going downhill for the players.

While in general I agree that house ruling is not an answer to a criticism of the game, if your only complaint with the game is fixed by saying enemy swords are as effective as PC swords, I feel like it is simple enough to apply

Simple enough to give enemies PC-like stats, armor, and damage and have them come at the PCs.

I suppose the danger comes from enemy consistency where the PCs need to rely on rolls. If a given PC has maybe 11 starting toughness, and a guy comes at them with a 4 damage sword, they stand a chance on a bad roll of losing a quarter of their toughness in a single hit.

In a sense, while NPCs and enemies might not be dishing out the damage, the PCs seem pretty squishy themselves. At least at lower levels, where a group of thugs with swords and clubs might present some actual danger. Even spellcasting and rituals can take you into Permanent Corruption in two or three unlucky corruption rolls.

Thats my point exactly, it makes the game more lethal and puts the PCs on equal footing. Also, PCs dont gain hit points, a thug hitting a 50 XP char is pretty much the same as if he hits that char 50 XP later. All the pcs gain are better ways of killing, better healing, and better control spells to prevent from getting hit. A super powerful wizard can get 1 shotted by a starting level berserker that rolls lucky

Alright, I guess I'll have to play it and see for myself.

I just got sold on this idea of a low fantasy gritty adventure game, and then when I read the rules it came out as very superheroic.

Reading and playing can be much different things. It's certainly a good starting point for a low/lower-magic fantasy game. No doubt the supplements will introduce new stuff, including new enemies which might be much more threatening.

And if all else fails, go the "Death by a Thousand Cuts" route on your players. A damage that ignores armor here, a small chance of damage there... Just small enough that players don't feel particularly punished about exploring, trying new things, and taking risks, but let them add up enough to keep them on edge.

Don't forget acid, which eats into armor, and poison, which just needs a scratch to get through and deal a few more damage over turns. Also ethereal enemies like ghosts, those take half damage from mundane weapons. I think Undead also have a "Chilling Touch" effect that deals corruption on melee contact against a Resolute test or something, and possibly damage as well, I need to re-read it...

Anyway, point is the PCs are pretty fragile themselves and there's a lot of ways to fuck with them, deplete their healing stocks, and force them into some hard choices for a more serious and gritty kind of game. As a GM, you've got a lot more in your toolkit than your basic guy with a sword. A jerk with a poisoned dagger or a temperamental ghost can be just as threatening as a trio of thugs with billy clubs.

Why no link to the old thread?

You should also look into the perfect hits and fumbled defense rules. That stuff can make even the lowliest bandit an unexpectedly deadly encounter on a bad day.

Alright, I'll try to get my group to play a one-shot.

Is the tutorial adventure in the book any good?

Anyone have that intelligence report from a previous thread? The one that talks about how fucked up the rest of the world is?

Seems like the world did have a few "high magic" events in previous wars and history, but these resulted in horrible catastrophes for the lands involved, being overtaken by massive corruption. It almost reads like something out of The Night Lands, though just a little less bleak, since I think one or two reports actually give good news about retreating corruption.

i.4cdn.org/tg/1466465657364.pdf

So we've had a lot of talk about mystics, but what's everybody's favored type of warrior? I really love the flavor of the duelist.

I fucking love archers. An Adept Marksman can control the field of combat easily, and a master can rip his enemies to shreds, since he ignores armor. Additionally, the Backstab ability isn't limited to Melee weapons. An Adept Marksman/Adept Backstab can pin down enemies, who bleed out unless someone patches up their wounds. That assumes, of course, that the Archer has an advantage, but that isn't too hard to set up.

Bring a wizard with adept-tier levitate with you and you have advantage forever.

Fuck yes.

Does anybody without a group want to share their character ideas?

I want to play an Ambrian who came up through the Titans, who was a soldier that never actually saw battle. He has fallen in love with the daughter of a minor noble, and he wants to become an Adventurer, become famous and rich, so he can be worthy enough to marry her. Over time, he would be crushed by the harsh reality of the world.

>I want to play an Ambrian who came up through the Titans, who was a soldier that never actually saw battle.

If he's been south of the Titans he's probably seen battle. The old country is fucked the hell up with roaming abominations and militant cults.

I'd say that's up to how you interpret things, which is a big thing they keep stressing in the book. Also, it's not too far-fetched to imagine such a character as a bodyguard for a Count who stayed behind in some secluded castle, eventually ending up in a refugee camp to head over the Titans once the crops started to fail.

I GM, but if i could play i would make a character with Steel Throw on the Adept level, and run around throwing everything at everyone. Prolly take Quick Draw and Shield Fighter as well.

A young Ambrian fencing instructor. He made the mistake of marring pretty-boy noble's face during sparring, and pretty-boy's mother had him blackballed. Now he's in Thistle Hold waffling about whether he wants to instruct adventurer's in how to fight, or just head to Deep Davokar himself.

Has anyone else backed the Kickstarter? I'm glad they changed the PHB from a Stretch Goal to an Add-on, but now I have to throw even more money at this game.

I backed for all three, I am pretty stoked at the material...but less thrilled for the hit to my wallet. I've been running a few games so far. Enjoy it.

I backed the french crowdfunding effort by Black Books editions. It raised 122,148€.

black-book-editions.fr/crowdfunding-35.html

Lucky bastard.

I wish I knew French :(

One of my player is playing paladin-ish character. Retired knight of the dying sun who lost an eye while trying to rescue the Queen. Old, bitter, but always looking out for his niece (another player) and her colleagues.He took Bodyguard, Shield Fighter, Theurgy, Blessed Shield & Lay on Hands. I think he's quite characterful and solid.

That sounds great. I imagine him looking like the Man-at-Arms character in Darkest Dungeon.

I really like this, I'm trying to make a backup char and may do something similar

I'm in for about 400kr. Grabbing digital versions of WotW, the PHB and the art book.

Is Ironhand redundant with Two Handed Force reroll?

Why would it be?

She was raised as an Ambrian noble, but when she started to change into a changeling her family chose to send her away to an academy south of the Titans designed to turn such children into warriors. She fled during an elf attack and is returning home to regain her honor and find answers about exactly what happened the night of the attack.

Loved this game

I've heard that Symbaroum combat is pretty gritty and can be unforgiving. Just how deadly is the combat and how long does your typical character survive?

No idea at most, but it looks like you don't get much starting Toughness and it doesn't or rarely goes up. Seems like there's a good chance of negating a lot of damage on a hit, but there's also a good chance of that armor not helping much and eating into your Toughness by a huge degree. Also corruption can get to you if you're not careful, as some enemies deal it alongside damage or PCs can gain it through environmental effect, plus the corruption gained through routine spellcasting.

As pointed out before, enemies strike at a fixed number, so a guy with a sword strikes for 4 damage. Basic armor is rolled against these hits, at 1d4, with heavier armor being 1d6 and 1d8. Given the average PC might have 11-12 Toughness, you run the risk of losing a quarter of your HP on a single hit from a basic sword thrust. Combat can be fairly easy, but if you aren't careful then bad rolls can screw you at low level. Higher level characters can mitigate these threats to a degree, but combat should be avoided more often than rushed into, even then only engage in combat if there's no other choice or you have the advantage.

The grittiness comes from uncertainty when it comes to combat, but managed well against a fair encounter a party shouldn't face an insurmountable obstacle. With great luck and good equipment, a character could go 10 rounds without a scratch against a basic enemy, or go down in three with poor rolls. Somewhere in between the extremes I expect you'll find the balance.

This is actually a very apt way of putting it. Running the introduction I found pretty much every encounter an extreme or bordering dangerously close.

Why does the french deal seem so much better? Modiphius not as good at making books?

I've found that encounters can flip from feeling safe to feeling like a disaster, and vice versa.

First real encounter my players were in, against Mal-Rogan in the Promised Land, one of the PCs was reduced to a single hitpoint, another PC was frozen in place by a curse, and the third PC was a ranger desperately trying to get out of melee to reload her crossbow.

They were very close to being defeated when our wizard destroyed the sunstone and released a furious fire elemental which immediately immolated the opposition.

One bad turn, with one character getting ganged up on by several opponents, can easily mean death. But the player characters can also swing fights dramatically once they get a solid hit in.

Krautfunding is live too, now.
prometheuscrowdfunding.de/projects/symbaroum-das-neue-fantasy-rollenspiel-aus-schweden/
But sadly it has no PHB. But overall the prices are much better than the kickstarter ones.
Even though I usually prefer having RPG books in english, I might get this one in german just because it is so much easier on my wallet.

>But the player characters can also swing fights dramatically once they get a solid hit in.
Good way of putting it.

Does anybody have a pdf of the PHB in Swedish? At the very least, can someone post a rough translation of the Heirloom Ability?

I recommend theironpact.com/heirlooms-and-legacies/

Just make sure your clear it with the dm.

How the shit did this blow up so much among french rpgers?

I don't know that myself, all i know is that Black Books has been doing alot of crowdfunding on their platform, among them the translation of D&D 5e SRD and The Dark Eye, and even then Symbaroum scored quite high compared to the others. The Dark Eye crowdfunding was also running at the same time as Symbaroum and Symbaroum still beat it.

I would presume that Black Books has managed to draw alot of people on their website interested in their next crowdfunding efforts (such as myself) and that Symbaroum really interested french players by its own merits. I'm also guessing that their track record is quite good for players to stick with them although i had always thought they were quite slow in releasing new books (but that was before they started their crowdfunding).

Personally i was notified by email iirc, then i browsed my (illegal) copy of Symbaroum in english and decided to pledge to get the books and eventually run it.

Is it wrong that, out of all the stuff we're getting from this kickstarter, the art book has me the most excited?

I'd say no, after all i'm sure most people were first seduced by the game through its glorious art