FotN: 3 Active Talents For Your Back Pocket

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, it's a Weak Attack with a free Multi meta tag. Pretty straightforward to remember.

This talent is useful especially when you have a brute type denizen. One that expects to take the brunt of attacks, or loves to be in the middle of a fracas. The attack may be less impactful on its own, but getting multiple opponents to burn runes on defense is essential in fights where the Dwellers massively outnumber their foes.

We can expand this idea of Attack + free meta tag for adapting our own talents. Adding a Range or Swift to a basic action is pretty straightforward. Or for more magical denizens, empowering an action with one of the Element meta tags.

Here are some other talents which may fill a similar role:
- **Lunging Attack**. I probably fall back more on this talent than Whirlwind in practice. It is generically useful for just about any type of denizen: Weak Move and Attack. It gets you that much more bang for your buck with a single rune attack.
- **Twin Strike**. This is sort of the inverse to Whirlwind Attack. Rather than attacking multiple foes, this one lets two denizens attack a single foe. This talent is more appropriate for foes that tend to focus on a single enemy, rather than one who expects to take the brunt of all attacks.
- **Riposte**. Getting a bonus attack after defending is another appropriate talent for a hyperaggressive foe.
# Throw Dirt
This is a pretty straightforward talent: "Pocket sand!" then run away. Or if you prefer, run up from nowhere, then, "Pocket sand!"

I *love* this talent as a Norn. This talent makes for enemies players love to hate. The Blind condition is a particularly cruel one. Denizens under its effect must spend an additional rune to target someone. I like watching players learn to deal with it. I find the process looks something like this:
1. "Blind!? Absolutely not, I spend the Physical rune to counter!"
2. "Hang on, I can clear the Blind condition just by spending any rune, right? I'll hang back on the counter and clear my eyes on my turn."
3. *The Blind conditions begin to stack on a single Dweller.*
4. "Wait, I can only clear one level at a time? Maybe I'll just pay the extra rune to target instead..."
5. "Blind!? Absolutely not, I spend the Physical rune to counter!"

Obviously that process really only happens once. If every encounter features sand-throwing bandits, this gets old quickly. I advise using this talent sparingly. So why did I include it on this list? Quite simply, this is a straightforward talent to adapt on the fly. Its structure, Inflict + Move, is useful in any encounter.

Conditions are the lifeblood of this game. I try to feature at least one in each of my encounters. They are an easy way to break a combat away from a blank state where theorycrafters thrive. Though Blind condition is especially cruel, it is more important that we include *some* conditions to vary our encounters. It is not necessary to include special talents to inflict these conditions. But using such talents helps us leverage those conditions more efficiently. 

Movement talents are great on any denizen. Such talents always come with an additional effect. Positioning is critical in *Fate of the Norns*. Movement is common throughout the entire encounter, unlike, for example, *Dungeons & Dragons*. Getting an additional effect out of a move action can be the difference between a tense encounter, and one the players steamroll.

Throw Dirt is not the only talent with this formula. Here are a few other talents that you can rely on, or adapt in similar fashion.
- **Run to Shadow**. Remember you can use positive conditions instead of just negative ones. In this case, Shroud.
- **Cleansing Sprint**. The defensive brother of these talents. This talent reduces a condition rather than inflicting one.
- **Maim**. Instead of getting a free Move with your Inflict action, Maim Inflicts two conditions at once. This format is great fun to play around with and see the interactions.
# Regenerating Block
Always include a defensive interrupt. Yes, it keeps the denizen in play longer. But it is also helpful to disrupt player actions, keeping them out of that blank state we mentioned earlier. This is not to say we wish players to be incapable of using their abilities. Opportunities for players to show off should occur with good play or luck. Not because we failed to challenge our players.

Regenerating Block is a great choice to keep around. After you defend, you heal. Stacking a heal and defend with a single rune means you don't have to always defend yourself. Certainly not right away. This opens you up to play more aggressively at the start.

In addition to it being an Interrupt, it gives us a quick lesson on another talent structure to improvise with: basic action + heal. Like the others, pretty easy to remember and adapt on the fly. And now that we have a few formats, we can start mixing and matching. Heal + Inflict. Heal with a meta tag. Inflict with a meta tag. These aren't the only ways to build talents, but its good to have a place to start.

Some related talents you might consider also:
- **Vengeful Parry**. This talent pairs a Defend action with a Knockback. This can be more effective than a Defend with extra bonus, as it places a burden on the attacker to attack a second time.
- **Regenerating Attack**. The obvious dual to Regenerating Block is one that heals after an Attack instead of a Defend. Though not an interrupt, including healing talents can offset the need for explicitly defensive talents.
- **Assisting Attack**. This is another defensive interrupt to consider, especially for swarms. It supports an ally both by adding to their defense, and by damaging their attacker.