Steely Glances

[nebulousmenace]

How is Steel raised?

As far as I can figure out, every "standard" Steel test is against the same difficulty, based on your Will. However, how much you fail it by _does_ matter.

Did I just miss something there?

[luke]

Steel advancement is kind of glitchy. You can take Steel tests at 10 minus Will. You can take Steel tests at an obstacle higher than that (with penalties; as in the spell The Horror). But you can't get lower than that.

What that means is it is very hard to get Routine tests for Steel going by the basic rules in the Wheel.

There are two methods to work around this: Make Steel like a stat and disregard the Routine requirements.

Or set up a more detailed Steel Test list that has +/- obstacles from base hesitation.

I am in favor of the latter choice. How about you?

-abzu

[phredd]

I'm in favor of something. If Esbern and Oren get out of their current
jam, they ought to get a little more steel to them! :o

[luke]

I figure the best way to do this is to mimic what was done for Grief for Elves and Spirit Taint for Great Wolves.

These should be used for advancement purposes only. Though some of these tests might carry a hesitation penalty and some reduce hesitation. As always, that is the GM's call, though.

Obstacle 1 Steel Tests
Getting a good scare. An ugly bug landing in your lap (or soup). News of a relative dying.

Obstacle 2 Steel Tests
Witnessing violence (A fight, a beating, a stabbing, a hit and run accident.) Being in the presence of a character with the Dreaded trait. Heated sports competition. Witnessing childbirth.

Obstacle 3 Steel Tests
Witnessing real bloodshed and gore (a murder, a blood accident). Being beaten up. Being in a brawl or fistfight or riot. Bearing a child.

Obstacle 4 Steel Tests
Fighting a duel (to the death). Participating in a knightly tourney. Being stabbed. Shooting another character with a bow, crossbow or gun. Witnessing a friend or relative killed. Surviving a natural disaster. Encountering humanoid type monsters (orcs, gnolls, ogres and trolls).

Obstacle 5 Steel Tests
Participating in a mass battle. Being shot with a bow, crossbow or gun. Stabbing someone to death. Murder in cold blood. Witnessing or being a party to spirit activity. Encountering an Imp or Querub.

Obstacle 6 Steel Tests
Being Mortally Wounded (and surviving). Living under starvation conditions. Encountering the living dead.

Obstacle 7 Steel Tests
Encountering intelligent/sentient, non-humanoid monstrous creatures. (Being outwitted and hunted by a Great Spider.)

Obstacle 8 Steel Tests
Sustained artillery barrages.

Obstacle 9 Steel Tests
The presence of seraphin and daemonim. Witnessing or suffering under sorcerous, cataclysmic destruction (Seeing a whole city devoured by Rain of Fire.)

Obstacle 10 Steel Tests
Being in the presence of the divine.

That's all I can think of right now. Anyone else have any suggestions?

[eruditus]

yeah, I would offer players Steel test in this regard after an adventure to recognize all the things they encountered that I didn't bother have them make Steel tests for. Obviously if the adventure was about downtime practicing and crafting items and such then the tests would either be routine or there would be none - however, bad news (as abzu details above), failure, or terrible events would at least afford the characters tests at the end of the day if I did not have them make tests right then and there. This is especially true if they roleplayed the problems well :wink:

[Drozdal]

I figure the best way to do this is to mimic what was done for Grief for Elves and Spirit Taint for Great Wolves.

Wchich reminds me little about Unknown Armies and their tests for personality :0. And this way worked great in UA, so i'm pleased with way you proposed here Abzu ;].

Drozdal