We did! Thanks for pointing out this source of friction.
I’ve re-written the Contests section as well as changing how NPCs stats work a little. I hope to have a new PDF ready for backers soon.
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Juanma, your question about how the threat phase works if the threats are in different domains got us thinking about our islands and how they should be presented. Our end determination was a big change i’m very happy about (using epithets instead of domains for island characters). Thanks for asking about this!
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I love the change, it’s easier and more intuitive.
A follow-up question, though, when an island character rolls several epithets.
For example the Golden Boar has Rampaging (d10 Perilous), Great Tusked (d8 Epic), Masked (d8 Sacred). If the Strife player adds the Rampaging and Great Tusked epithets to the target difficulty dice roll (which makes sense), is the contest both Perilous and Epic? (I think so.)
Yep, you got it.
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I love the change to how characters work! It feels much more intuitive to me now, and I guess this might make opponents slightly mose challenging, since hitting their weaknesses now requires more than just choosing their lowest Domain! I’ll have to keep in mind to notify the Hero Players where specific dice come from, so that they can plan for the future, i.e. the Harpies are “Razor-Clawed” so if you want to avoid that d8 you better think how to avoid that! Very cool! Adds another layer of player choice and opportunity for fictional positioning to make more difference.
There’s just one minor thing I’ve noticed, which might be a bit more clear; in this version of the rules there are more instances of multiple dice being added as a result of both the Hero advancement changes and how Character Names are set. There are also two instances, where the Strife Player rolls 2d6 specifically, but does not add Strife (Leadership and Sacrifice).
My gut tells me, that in the two latter rolls the dice results are added, unlike in Trials, where the highest is chosen, but this seems not to be directly stated anywhere. And I see arguments for the opposite to my guess in both cases (i.e. Sacrifice and Leadership might be designed to be low-difficulty rolls, or maybe fighting 4d12 Olympians should be almost certainly doomed to fail) so maybe a sentence of clarification in the appropriate section could be useful.
Other than that, can’t wait for my players to get back to Agon! Our crew’s main mission and campaign arc they’ve set is to find the missing king Odysseus, so after each final Battle they’re getting “clues” leading to the next island.
Thanks for the feedback!
The Strife Player always keeps their single highest die. We never say that the Strife Player adds dice together… but I can see how gamer habits might kick in there. I’ll see if there’s a place in the text to dissuade that.
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We never say that the Strife Player adds dice together…
For the Sacrifice and Leadership contests the manual (pg. 43) says: “The Strife Player rolls 2d6 (there is no Strife)”.
So, what do you mean? That, in these cases, the Strife Player rolls 2d6 but only takes the greatest value (so, from 1 to 6)? If so, that’s definitely not clear in the rules as written. Also, it would be a bit of a surprise for the heroes to gain more glory in a sacrifice or leadership test than in an island conflict against an enemy, IMHO.
Yep, you only take the greatest value, so 1 to 6.
The rules for Strife Player rolls (page 27) tell you to keep the single highest die. That’s always what you do. I’ll add a line to indicate that.
I’m changing page 43 to read:
“The Strife Player rolls 2d6 and keeps the highest die (there is no Strife Level)”
(for Sacrifice and Leadership)
And adding a line to the 5th paragraph on page 27:
“If there are multiple opponents, roll all of their dice together, keep the single highest, and add the Strife Level. The Strife Player never counts more than one die on a roll.”
Ok, I see.
Please ignore my comment about amount of Glory. That was a brain fart. Obviously, with only 1d6 counting towards the target, heroes earn less Glory in Leadership and Sacrifice contests, which makes sense.
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It’s the lack of Strife in those two rolls that made me wonder, because that’s an exception to the general Strife layer rolls already, and the math on a standard 2d6 and 1d6+5 gives kinda comparable results. But two previews back I had no such doubts, funny enough.
By the way, would it be in spirit of the game to include Wrath in the Sacrifice roll (when narratively appropriate, for example the Sacrifice leader wants to appease a god already angered)? Otherwise the chances of Sacrifice ever failing is fairly low.
Yep, the Strife Player can include Wrath in any roll where it’s appropriate.
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I’m reading through Enu, and I have a doubt.
Perbanter has two sets of stats, as “the Waking” and “the Dreamer”. But the way I read the island, Perbanter is already dreaming when the heroes arrive to Enu, only to be awaken, with a bit of luck, in the final battle. So I’m not sure how and when are his Waking stats supposed to be used. I mean, of course I can go off rails and use Perbanter quite differently of how’s written, but still it’s weird.
I’d assume it’s for a situation where your Hero Players get the situation “off rails” and due to their action and choices you’d need Perbanter’s waking stats. Perhaps they’ll select a totally different battle to be their final one, maybe they’ll convince Perbanter to wake in a way that doesn’t break the spell, maybe they’ll create an artificial duplicate of the guy or maybe a flashback crosses path with him? Who knows? Personally, I love it when players surprise me and do something of their own to any scenario I run. It’s satisfying, for me, not to know where they’ll go and how they’ll get there.
Also, it’s kinda neat to see that his vanity and self-image are amplified by the sleeping state, but his restlessness stays the same. That might give provocative hints towards the first Mystery question.
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Picked up the PDF of this yesterday and I’ve been reading through it. What an awesome game! I’ve got a couple questions though, and while this isn’t technically KS Preview Feedback, this seems to be an unofficial “Agon questions” thread, so I thought I’d post them here.
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The amount of Glory it takes to advance your name die seems ambiguouse. The rules say “When you hit a marker, you advance your Name die to the indicated level (d8, d10, d12), then reset your glory back to zero.” This seems to imply to me that when I reach 80 Glory, I advance my name die to d8, then I’m back at 0 Glory, meaning that it would take me an additional 120 Glory to get to d10. Is this correct? Or would it only take me another 40 Glory (going from 80 to 120). The fact that there are two sets of ticket boxes to record glory makes it a bit unclear.
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Are the steps of the Voyage meant to be taken in a specific order, as in it always goes Fellowship -> Sacrifice -> Leadership -> Vault of Heaven? Or is the order meant to be flexible? It just seems a bit of to have Sacrifice and Leadership (which are forward looking) come before the Vault of Heaven (which is backward looking). Or are the events of those tests meant to factor into the discussion in the Vault - like maybe if you pleased Hera during the leadership contest you would mark one of her stars?
- Yep, your first interpretation is correct.
- The order isn’t important.
Thanks John!
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I’ve got another question: When recording Virtues, does the Strife Player participate? That is, if there are 3 Hero Players and 1 Strife player, does each Hero record 3 Virtues (one fom each other Hero and one from the Strife player) or just 2?
The Strife Player is a player, so yes, they’re included.
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We played Tymisos. It didn’t go exactly as I expected. One player took the Bull as a trophy. He’ll provide quite an advantage die!
One question: the Siren’s bonds. My players intend to rid themselves of the bonds over the two not-on-an-island-yet tests that are already very low strife, at the start of next session. Should I let them get away with this?