How to Play Crown & Skull - Player Guide: Combat!

[@Runehammer1]

love it, Barlow!

[@BarlowKeep]

Do mine eyes play tricks upon me or the word of my verbiage traversed the vast expanse to the North? To the hallowed halls of Runehammeria itself?! I stand humbled in the glow of such honor. My deepest gratitude, Hankerin.

[@samchafin4623]

Really quite tickled with, "If you can imagine dragons, you can think of one more circle here." 😆

[@JD77ATH]

Love your videos. Really deserve to grow this channel. Brilliant use of props for explanations and your use of humour seems so natural and not forced which sometimes seems the case with channels. I've already bought these rules on pdf on the basis of watching these vids.

[@BarlowKeep]

Hey thanks for the comment! I still feel like i have no idea what I am doing with this youtube thing and a comment like this really means quite a lot, as feedback and as motivation. Glad to hear you are getting into C&S, it takes a bit getting used to...but it is a banger!

[@JD77ATH]

@@BarlowKeep No problem. Well I think you're a natural and I'm looking forward to seeing your channel grow as you have the talent and personality to do it.

[@Smittumi]

Great vid. Would love to hear an After Action report or Actual Play.

[@BarlowKeep]

Thanks! I am doing the Gm guide and the report vids next :)

[@monkeymule1286]

It's interesting, on the forum I've seen folks run death at total inventory, which means flesh attrition (for example) erodes skills FIRST and then equipment. This mechanic is implied but never stated, so there are also groups that run equipment and skills as two separate health "bars", the exhaustion of either being fatal. And then a THIRD camp that, looking at the Damage notes from the Needler and Demon, as well as the p.284 note that a character must be healed a SKILL slot or die, allow flesh to take surplus equipment attrition but not vice versa.

[@BarlowKeep]

Interesting, thanks for the comment! I Interpret this as follows: Total Inventory is defined as [p.12]: "All characters are allowed 10 skills and 10 items in their inventory maximum. All small items are counted as a single ‘pouch’ item." So the "Inventory" consists of both skills and equipment Death is defined as [p.12]: "Death: If a hit can’t be absorbed by inventory, you take a ‘hit to the heart’ and will die at the end of the next phase 5 unless healed."

[@ruolbu]

"But the game actually states that you need to lose ALL skills and ALL equipment" I don't think it does. It says if the hit can't be absorbed by inventory. That could easily mean, you have 0 skills and 5 items, get flesh attrition and your inventory can not absorb any more flesh attrition so it's lethal. Same in reverse, with 5 skills and 0 items a hit for equipment attrition can not be absorbed making it lethal. I don't think it's ever stated that you have to be at 0 and 0 to be killed, nor does it say that you can switch attrition type when that type is at 0. this is genuinely unclear to me, but at the same time a lever for difficulty.

[@ruolbu]

The fact that separate rule exceptions were written for two specific enemies imply to me that switching attrition type is not a core rule you would use generally.

[@BarlowKeep]

@ruolbu I mean that makes sense to me as well. I'll try that tomorrow and see how it rubs the players

[@monkeymule1286]

@@ruolbu I would be inclined to rule the same way but they contradict each other if taken as creature specific. I'll try to layout the issue as my table found it. So the needler says "destroy attrition, unless no equipment, then flesh attrition". If that's a general rule then attrition type can cascade, at least from equipment>flesh. If it's a creature specific rule, then attrition type generally does not cross and we have two separate health bars. The Demon says "If crossing off ones final skill inventory due to this attack a hit to the heart is instantly inflicted" Here, reading that as a general rule, flesh attrition would not cascade, if its creature specific then the implication is that generally it would and we have a single health track of total inventory. I hope that made sense. We settled on trying Equipment attrition can cascade to Skills but not vice versa. For a core mechanic it's unfortunately not clear at all.

[@ravenshadowz2343]

I have a question about defense rolls, I shall give an example for you to see if I understand correctly. Let's say the monster has an attack of 4, and my PC has a total defense of 12, so I subtract 4 from my defense, now for my defense roll I need to roll an 8 or less to avoid damage through attrition, is this correct?

[@BarlowKeep]

Hi, thanks for the comment! Yes that is correct. The book puts it like this: ATK: Enemies do not roll their attacks. Rather, players defend with their own rolls. The ATK stat is a penalty to a player Defense roll. So for the ATK to be a penalty to a Defense roll you either first subtract it from your Defense and then roll under that value or add the monsters ATK value to your roll and check if the result is under your original Defense...but i think the first approach (that you mentioned) is more intuitive :)