Re: Herding Sheep

From: Tim Ellis <tim_at_...>
Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2000 12:55:28 -0000

That was my thinking behind the minor defeat - You don't get all the sheep home tonight, but with luck/skill/a new adventure you might still be able to rescue them

> Hey, if its good enough for Moses, its good enough for Gunnar
> Heortlander.
>
> > (I'd distinguish between Complete and Major results by the time or
> > number of sheep lost)
>
> I can think of more imaginitive and amusing things to go wrong than
> just 'oops, a sheep falls off a cliff' but that's me.
>

Oh, me too in an actual situation. I was just trying to set out the sort of consequences of each of the levels of success/failure. It was trying to distinguish between complete and major success that proved the problem, and having not really distinguished there, I didn't split the bottom end out either.

For a real challenge, what does "Both get a complete Failure" indicate when you're trying to herd the sheep back home? - You spend all night on the hills looking for them, because they have already made their own way back doen to the pen?

> > A character with a single mastery (1W) only permanently looses
sheep
> > once in every 400 times (so less than once per year). He has a
92%
> > chance of bringing all the sheep home and a 6% chance of getting
> them
> > back early.
>
> I'm thinking that your math is wrong for the getting them back
early
> but I'd rather not get into the excruciating math arguments again.
> Afterall, I have a bump up.
>

I've just checked, and I think you're right - should be 11% (1.25 Complete Victory, 6.25% Major Victory (you crit he fails) and 3.5% Major Victory (you succeed, he fumbles). I've either got a bug in my spreadsheet, or I just read the results wrong... I'l check tonight

> > Finally the Voirof Devotee Master shepherd with 8W2

<snip>

>ANd
> remember he's a devotee with all that lovely Voriof Godtalker
> Goodness (tm).
>

As I said, I ignored the bonuses you could get from assorted Augmentations - I thought there was enough numbers in there already (and even then I got some wrong!) - It was really just trying to look beyond "A character with out a Mastery will Fumble 5% of the time"

> And, of course,
> the number of sheep might kake a difference too.
>

And the weather, and the number of predators around, and whether you're neighbours are raiding... It depends what the point of the sheepherding is (Well I know it's to get the sheep in...) - Is it a Shepherds & Sheepstealers Campaign, or just a lead in to the adventure ("You are all out fetching the sheep back in from the hills, make a roll - Those with a Complete success are already back in the Stead when the Lunar Patrol march in, demanding to see your Cheif...)

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