Les Ombres d'Esteren - Forum officiel

For me as GM it is not difficult to decide when calls a Passion roll, but what with others Faults?

Can you suggest when roll other Faults and what can become if roll is failed?

Examples are provided in the associated section of Book 1, but as far as more general examples are concerned:

Subversion: everytime the PC has to obey blindly, without question, or do something for a cause he/she does not support. Basically, everytime submission to authority is required. For particularly headstrong (and obnoxious) Characters, it might even extend to refusing to do something simply because "I don't want to."

Influence: during very moving situations, whether as a result of human outpourings (during a festival, a mass, a funeral, a battle, etc.) or simply because of a place's atmosphere (in a Cinthareid, a torture room, a peaceful garden, etc.)

Doubt: potentially anytime quick decision-making is required, as opposed to the PC's usually reasonable way of taking care of a problem. Basically,the idea of Doubt is that the PC is caught flat-footed.

Guilt: anything going strongly against the PC's set of ethics or ideals. A devout follower of asceticism most probably won't object to having one or two beers, but will feel disgusted if the whole thing turns into binge drinking. Another example could be a very principled Hilderin knight having to deal the finishing blow to a defenseless opponent.

Hope that helps!

I agree with Clovis on situations. For particularly empathetic characters making a decision based on their own interest over the interest of another would be more difficult regardless of their Conviction. I like the Empathetic yet Disciplined combo it creates very awesome situations where you must determine which holds more weight.

Regardless in terms of what happens with a failure that is part of the character. As the GM you can create situations where you know what will happen when the succeed and when they fail.

A prime example is in my group we have a character with a high Conviction that when he does feel guilty he feel he must pay penitence, he does so by spending extra time in prayer and although he may still have guilt after he spends time in reflection he also feels he has guidance and strength to make a better decision in the future.
Where as another player in the group also has a high conviction but when an action causes guilt he does not seek forgiveness through his faith but rather seeks an understanding of the situation and will wrack his mind for a solution and will not be able to fully focus his attention on anything until he can determine whether the events were a direct result of his actions, or his actions were a direct cause of the event.

The way I interpreted them and used them as a GL is as a way to force players to play their characters. Its a way to deal with meta gamers, if a player and thus a character has always followed the church no mater what then that's what they will do. When a player knows the town witch hunts followers of the church but the character does not and try's to avoid following the church based on meta knowledge I make him do a Fault roll.

As players my players have taken to using them on their own to augment their roll play if something happens that they think would anger their character but as a player don't care or don't know what to do they roll a passion roll. Which I absolutely love because it lead to the death of one PC and almost killed a second which wouldn't of happened if they did not and avoided bad things as players often do.

Ultimately its up to the GL how they are used and any way is worthy just don't use them as a way to trap your players. Don't make them roll passion without reason just to make the PC angry to progress your plans or to punish. They should be used to augment and at times enforce the role play of the PC.

A good analysis. The Faults and Test roll system was indeed designed as a way to enhance and, if needed, enforce good role-playing. With experienced Players who are not afraid to portray their Characters' shortcomings, Test rolls should seldom be required (and mostly in cases where you can't really know how your Character would actually react), but for Players who are novices and/or prone to meta-gaming, they can prove useful to push things in the right direction.