Assorted C&S questions

question

#1

Hey guys. Continuing to read through the rules for some solo play and GMing in the future and I’m afraid I have a few more questions.

Combat-related questions:

  • How is damage tracked on companions? How do you handle equipment-related attrition? Do you simply ignore equipment-related attrition and only use skill-based attrition?

  • How do you handle monsters fighting one another? Say you’re running something like Forbidden Caverns of Archaia or anything else with faction play, and you end up fighting alongside some NPCs like orcs against other NPCs. How would you handle NPCs damaging one another?

  • In what circumstances would Evade be used over a Defense roll? The description states that Evade is for things that armor cannot protect against. However, the Werewolf creature entry Tactic 6 states that either Defense or Evade can be rolled to avoid. Can a PC choose to use Evade rather than Defense?

Equipment-related questions:

  • Reviewing the equipment table, short sword states “no hindrance in tight spaces” and short bow states “use point blank.” However, I can’t find any other reference to these mechanics anywhere even on a word search. Are these holdovers from previous iterations that maybe slipped through editing? I’ll likely just ignore these points but I’m wondering if I’m missing something.

  • Likewise, both leather armor and jousting plate make reference to blunt attacks but the only other reference to blunt attacks is a bit of descriptive text on the Inflict Attrition section of the GM section on p 122. Again, I think I’ll end up ignoring these parts of the item description as nothing else seems to distinguish blunt vs piercing vs slashing (which I am thankful for) but I’m curious if I’m missing something

  • I’m a bit confused about custom equipment costs vs basic equipment costs, specifically for ranged weaponry. On p. 35, it lists descriptions of 1-point gear as D6 damage, 2-point gear as D8 damage, 3-point gear as D10 damage, and 5-point gears as D12 damage specifically calling out firearms. However, some of the basic weapon costs don’t seem to follow this. Long Bow costs 3 points and does D8 damage, but at least it fires again on max damage. Crossbow costs 5 points for D10 damage with no additional benefit. Pistol and musket both cost 7 points and do D10 and D12 damage, respectively, with only the pistol having an added benefit. Is anyone else confused by these point values? Other basic item costs seem to be in line. I’ll likely house-rule as follows:

  • Long Bow - 2 points, D8 damage, no extra shot on max damage
  • Crossbow - 3 points, D10 damage, 1 turn to reload
  • Pistol - 3 points, D10 damage, one-handed, concealable, d6 phases to reload, rare/requires expert Proudfoot blacksmith
  • Musket - 5 points, D12 damage, two-handed, heard for miles, d6 phases to reload, can be used as a melee weapon with D4 damage, rare/requires expert Proudfoot blacksmith
  • Should there be a quiver listing on the equipment table, as there is a 3-point listing for powder kits for flintlock weaponry? I’ll likely eliminate this piece of kit to give players a bit more inventory space and points to play with but this stood out to me.

#2

Some of these jumped out as me also. Back when I published zines I mentally filled in many things (looking back at them now). That’s a product of needing eyes reading things not involved in the project.

I do also believe some of this is intentionally left to GM/player interpretation.


#3

Yeah I can definitely see that and I agree, as a player I would ask my GM these things and go with whatever they rule, especially with stuff like whether Evade is applicable for whatever attack. As someone who is more interested in solo play and perhaps GMing one day (though I still have much to learn), I’m curious how the community has ruled on these and if there’s authorial intent I’m simply missing.

A lot can also be resolved with using some tables outside of C&S like Mythic to see how allies and hirelings are doing against monsters or just house ruling some dice rolls.

Honestly, this is part of why I took the time to compile my questions. I imagine this might come off as perhaps annoying or pedantic to some, but hopefully topics like this will help highlight to the team anything that needs revision or another pass on future iterations of C&S. I’ve worked as a copy editor before and have a lot of sympathy for the creative team, especially factoring in playtesting and rule revisioning, so I hope this doesn’t come off as being nitpicky. I think I saw that C&S vol 2 is in the works so hopefully some of this feedback will help them out.