In this episode, I fly solo and talk about the excellent system of conflict pools, address the high pitch whistle in the episodes and strum along as I try and make sense of bards. Welcome to Mythras Matters Season 1 Episode 38 - Conflicting pools and singing bards
Hello and welcome to Mythras Matters, a podcast dedicated to the Mythras ruleset and all its supplements. As always, I’m your host, inwils, and welcome to July!
At this point, I would like to start off the episode with an apology. After listening to the last episode some people reported hearing a high pitch note throughout the episode that was distracting, to say the least. I reacted badly to this and should apologise for how I handled the incident.
Hopefully, you never realise that I am not an expert with podcasting - I'm a small content creator who teaches at a university part-time! I really have taught myself everything and, at times, things just seem to be beyond or out of my control. I do want to provide the highest possible experience with the podcast but on the last few episodes that high pitch whine has meant, I didn't achieve this. Thanks for pointing this out to me and please be assured that I am doing my utmost to try to eradicate the squeal - for want of a better word.
Even as I am recording this episode I can not hear the high note. This is probably due to the fact that I am too old. So if you are younger than me and do hear it, please do let me know and I'll try and eradicate it. I am constantly looking at the waveform to see if I can identify it.
Thank you to everyone who helped to work to a conclusion about this. I've reduced the levels on my mic and moved it away from my mouth so hopefully this has helped. If it continues then I will go back to the previous mic that I thought lacked quality but never had the high pitch noise!
Oh, and before we get going on the main content, I wanted to say a huge thanks to anyone who has ever watched any of my videos on YT. This month I actually got the email inviting me to become a YT partner. As you can imagine I eagerly accepted! This marks the end of 3 years of consistency, determination and hard work. The majority of the growth of the channel has happened through the Mythras content that I have made, so if you have ever watched, liked, or commented on any of that content then I owe you a huge thanks. In order to be a partner you need to achieve 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch hours, so it has been a long and hard journey but thanks - you made it happen!
An apology and a thank you to start the episode off, but don't worry, we are going to get on with some content now,
Let's have a look at conflict pools.
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If you have been watching our actual plays on YT then you will be aware that we are alternating between Mythras the fantasy setting and M-Space the sci-fi setting. I have to say that we really rate the M-Space rules. They provide so much flexibility that it has been fantastic to co-create the universe along with the players - we have a new player starting soon so we will be back up to four-time to recreate the overlays!
The people in the M-Space discord have been excellent and so many ideas and adaptations have come from the discussions that I think I have enough content for several years now!
BTW if you are not part of the discord, do head over there and join in the discussions, the link is in the show notes!
One aspect of the M-Space rules that I have really enjoyed implementing has been the use of conflict pools. I think they really had a valuable addition to the core rules - so what are conflict pools and how are they used.
Conflict Pools
I first came across conflict pools when we were playing testing the social conflict system in the Mythras Companion. If you don't have this supplement yet, then I would strongly recommend getting it. As well to the social conflict rules it also has rules on tactical combat, sanity, vehicles and races and chases!
Conflict pools came to my attention when I started to play M-Space and I must say I like them so much that I will be using them within our fantasy campaign as well.
In case you are not familiar with conflict pools they are simple and easy to use. I don't want to provide too much information here because the full explanation of how to use them is in M-Space - so if you do want more information then do support the writes and buy the ruleset.
When GMing games I often wanted a situation or a task to be more involved than just a single dice roll. An example would be say someone trying to crack a computer code or even trying to lockpick a very complicated lock.
Often in the games, these situations are resolved by a single opposed dice roll. I want to get into the computer system and then roll your computer skill, I want to pick this lock, go for it roll your lockpicking skills. Although there might be a time period assigned to the roll, for example, after ten minutes you succeed, the situation lacks significant investment of time and energy especially if it was a pivotal point in the game.
This is where conflict pools come into play. Basically, when a situation needs to be resolved, then skill and a conflict pool are identified and assigned. The participants take it in turn to roll their skills. I usually find that the participants might not be two people, sometimes it is a person and a computer system or a lock. The winner of the roll then reduces other opponents' conflict pool by a set amount. When one pool is reduced to zero then the other person, or thing, has won!
I usually embellish the rolls with narratives so it can really bring the process to life - this coupled with a time element assigned to each roll can really bring the situation to life.
One of my favourites uses of the conflict pool system at the moment is in M-Space when Hammond is trying to crack a computer code. Unfortunately despite spending hours on it, he has, up to now, been unsuccessful! He will probably need some assistance or a better hacker to allow him to find out what the code is hiding.
If you want more information about conflict pools then do check out the M-Space ruleset. It will be a great addition to your ruleset and you will definitely find plenty of situations to use them.
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Remember, if you would like to contribute to the podcast then why not just drop me an email or message and let me know what you would like to cover. I am always looking for reviews or interviews with people. So if you are interested, you can email me at inwils@gmail.com or send me a message on the various forums I frequent.
Before we get on with the next section, I want to try something. Don't worry it doesn't cost any money and of course, if no one comes forward then I know it wasn't the best idea around.
I really like to hear about other people's characters. Not their attributes or the skill values, but more their background, virtues, ambitions and even secrets. I thought it would be great to hear about some of your favourite characters and to share these with the podcast listeners.
If you are interested then you could -and this would be truly epic - use the recording feature in the show notes to record a brief description of your favourite character. If you are not keen to hear your voice being heard across the internet to an international audience, then don't worry you can just email me and I can read it out for you. I'll even use one of the three voices that I reserve for all my NPCs. Does anyone else have that? No matter what voice you start off with, it always ends one from one of three. Then the players exclaim - this really sounds like...
To give you some pointers, I thought if you include their name, their main skill/class-like abilities, what makes them unique, what was their background like one of their passions and finally why you enjoy playing them.
I'll start off by introducing you to Ulrich - a tank-style character that I played briefly in our fantasy campaign.
Ulrich is essentially a Mystic. He is a heavily armoured fighter with an axe and shield. What makes him special is where he gains his mystical powers. If ever quizzed Ulrich will refer to his Master, Lord Vex. Initially, people might think that this is a human he serves, but they could not be farther from the truth. Lord Vex is a demon lord. Vex bestows powers onto Ulrich in exchange for souls. After battles Ulrich can be seen kneeling over his fallen enemies, whispering in a strange tongue as he condemns their souls to Vex. It's a shame that I don't play him anymore, it would have been fun to see further interactions between Ulrich and Bartleby. You never know if he might return again to the campaign, but this time opposing the party.
There you go, over to you, it would be great to hear from some of you either by the recording option or by email. So get writing/speaking!
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A few episodes ago I reached out to the community about animists and got some excellent responses.
So I thought I would push my luck and reach out again and see whether there is anyone out that can help me with another class that I am finding difficult to implement into Mythras.
Does anyone remember playing Advanced Dungeons and Dragons first edition? I do, in fact, it was the first system I moved over to after enjoying the Basic Dungeons and Dragons Red book - I still have it somewhere!
One of the classes I always wanted to play in AD&D was the bard. There was something quite appealing about the strumming, silver-tongued rogue that appealed to me. However, in AD&D there was a huge barrier in the way to playing a bard.
To be recognised as a bard you had to first train as a fighter until they reached between level 5th to 7th. At that point, they changed class and started as a first-level thief. Again they had to increase in levels as a thief until they reached levels 5th and 9th they dropped back to the first level and started their journey as a bard.
I have to admit I was never able to achieve the dizzy heights of being a bard - but it was something that I really aspired to.
Of course, when the D&D 5th edition has published the bard became its own class. Oh, and while I am pointing out the difference between AD&D 1st edition and DnD 5th addition then do check out a series of blog posts that I wrote titled - You have never had it so good. - these focus on various aspects of the games that have changed over the year. You will be surprised what was available for us in the early days! Now I have instantly aged myself!
When I first started to GM Mythras, I've only played once when Loz GMed for use an adventure based in the Lyonesse setting, I instantly looked to see whether the bard was within the rules.
But I have to say, I was slightly disappointed. And this is where you experts in the game come in. I am sure that some of you have already played bards in your campaigns or created additional rules to expand the bard professions. So if you would like to come on the podcast for a chat or record something for the podcast then now is your chance! And just like the animist episode a welcome a range of ideas.
This is where I am up to so far...
There is a career in place - the entertainer - and not the one by Scott Joplin!
This career definitely hits the appropriate skills for the bard, deceit, influence and acrobatics but also acting, oratory, musicianship, and singing and seduction.
I can see these all being used with my bard character. Once I saw these skills I immediately went to the skills description to see what I might be able to do while strumming my lute or blowing my panpipes!
Sing allows you to decrease the difficulty of a subsequent influence roll but only on a critical success. With the professional skill of musicianship being able to do the same.
I was feeling a bit disappointed after reading that but was still keen to create a bard.
I was wondering whether magic could be used to fill the gaps, but there were no magic skills mentioned in the skills - possible a bonus skill or a hobby skill?
Some of the folk magic spells tend to lean themselves to a bard character - befuddle? calm? Demoralise and of course - Tune!
Then I got thinking about Mystics - one of my favourite spell users. Could bards actually be Mystics who cast their magic through the use of their instruments? Could their musical ability allow for stats to be increased or rolls to be made easier or hard? Maybe even soft calming tunes could increase healing rates?
For me, I think if someone would want to play a bard, I would definitely go down the magic route to replicate the effects that I associate with my perception of a bard with those skills supporting their action and storytelling in the local tavern.
But what do you think? Have you, as a player, successfully created a bard? do you as a GM have well-established rules for bards within your campaign?
I would really like to talk about bards more, so do get in touch if you would like to provide some written content, record something or even come along and talk in a round table discussion on the podcast.
I want to host more round table discussions, so do get in touch if you are interested.
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And that’s it, another episode of Mythras Matters completed.
Don't forget you can check out all my content by following my YouTube channel and the campaign areas on World Anvil and if you are running out of ideas, you can find one sheet encounters on my Ko-Fi site - links in the show notes. I really appreciate your support and do check out the TapaTalk forums and discord where there are some great people there sharing their ideas within the discussions.
So, until next time have a great month of gaming and I will chat again with you all in August
Until then I hope that all our opposed rolls succeed and provide you with a well-deserved special.
Thanks for listening cya - Bye!