Dungeonometry

The social combat rules introduced in *The Children of Eriu* bring the same mechanical depth I love in the base game to the social sphere. I am always excited by alternatives to the traditional skill based approach of most other RPGs. That said, social combat was a point of difficulty for me and my players when we first encountered it. The system is innovative, but it requires a mindset shift, too. So what's the real payoff here? This subsystem is wildly different from approaches in other traditional RPGs, so what's the point? Why go through all this trouble? For me, it's the same value we get from having rigorous mechanical combat rules. Rules for physical combat provide a consistent method to determine when a character is hit, harmed, or killed during the course of play. Likewise, characters may find themselves on the ropes, socially speaking. A character may yield information they hadn't intended to. No one can always keep a cool head. Characters may find themselv

When I first started running *Fate of the Norns: Ragnarok*, I had already been game mastering RPGs for over a decade. Over that time I had adapted a pretty improvisational style across a handful of different games. I initially had difficulty adapting this style to *FotN:R*. The game's deep tactics are part of its appeal. Building out encounters to leverage those tactics takes preparation. Worse still, I struggled to adapt when players took a left turn. Over time, I found ways to adapt enemies on the fly. One of the main things was being able to improvise talents just as an encounter started out. I hope this article will help other GMs who find themselves in the same position. The talents listed here are easy to remember. They are also easy to breakdown and to learn how to approach making our own combat talents. # Whirlwind Attack The most obvious talent to include for a combat encounter is an Attack. Whirlwind Attack targets up to three creatures with a Weak Attack. Essentially,