It comes back after some time. I kept listening and just now realized it was back!
Trophy Gold Discussion
Hopefully itās still useful for showing how the game is run.
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It definitely was still useful, and the audio problem didnāt last too long in any case.
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I ran my first Trophy Gold game today (and livestreamed no less, which didnāt help the nerves). The group had a good time and particularly liked using the random character generation by @funkaoshi. This really highlighted the idea that looking for those connections between otherwise random results can create interesting narratives in a way that feeds into collaboration!
However, I canāt shake the feeling that I was ādoing it wrongā. (We had a good time, so Iām not getting down on myself - it wasnāt wrong wrong!) Specifically, I kept referring to the original TSK text instead of the example conversion in TG. I think this might have been part of why I had trouble with Hunt vs Risk rolls, because I used these mechanics at the same time I also used traditional OSR/D&D techniques (in hindsight, anyway). Much like when I first started playing Dungeon World, itās hard to run things without falling into old habits!
With that in mind: how do folks determine when to use which kind of roll? Specifically, letās say a player is describing how they are interacting with a dangerous object or environmental element, looking for clues. On the one hand, it fits the criteria of āexploring your environmentā. On the other hand, it definitely also qualifies as āattempting a risky taskā. Sometimes I used a Hunt roll, with the idea that that (say) the poison gas inside the coffin or whatever would then generate a Risk roll if they got āsomething terrible happensā. Other times, I felt like they knew it was dangerous and I just had them make the Risk roll straight out.
Again, this was our first session, and we all went with the stated assumption that we are learning and figuring out the system. I will do some things differently next week, for sure, but Iād really appreciate any advice on this aspect.
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Congrats on running Gold for the first time, and extra congrats for doing on a livestream! Youāre braver than me!
Iāll check out the recording and give you more specific feedback later on, but based on how you described what you did, you made the right call.
If they were looking for clues, thatās definitely a Hunt Roll. And following up a Hunt Roll with a Risk Roll or Combat Roll is also the right call in a lot of cases. Hunt Rolls shouldnāt directly affect Ruin, so if theyāre about to do something dangerous, then call for one of those other two rolls.
Baso (Ruin 2) is exploring the room for secret passages. The GM calls for a Hunt Roll. Baso gets a 2 as their highest. Something bad happens: a trap is triggered and a volley of arrows are flying toward Baso! The GM calls for a Risk Roll to avoid them, but their body is at risk, so they need to include a dark die. Baso rolls a 5ā¦ on their dark die. Baso avoids the arrows, but their Ruin still goes up to 3 and thereās a complication. As the complication, the GM decides that in the dive to avoid getting hit, Baso twists their ankle and takes the Condition āLimpingā.
In this case, a Hunt Roll failure leads directly to the Risk Roll. Had the trap been a wondering monster, then it could have lead to a Combat Roll instead if the players decided to engage with the monster, or a Risk Roll if they just wanted to get away.
Original Trophy is all about the Risk Roll, but in Trophy Gold, almost everything that happens flows out of a Hunt Roll.
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Hi everyone, I published last week a french adaptation of Trophy Gold, along with a Trophy Dark one. Since itās on a pwyw basis, you can check both there, even if youāre just curious and donāt have any french skill: nicolasfolliot.itch.io
ā¦ and since I finally started playing the TOSK incursion (yes, after publishing the game), here I am with a couple questions I hope you might all help me with.
Starting Ruin and Rituals: Does the starting Ruin being at 1 goes with a mandatory pick of at least 1 Ritual? Or should you be allowed to pick no Ritual, which means a 1-Ritual character should actually start with 2 Ruin points?
Rituals and Spellbooks: What happens to your learned Rituals if you eventually lose the book? Have you learned the Ritual enough to use it without it, and if so why hasnāt it raised your Ruin like starting Rituals?
Weapons and Combat: āWeapons allow you to participate in a Combat Rollā, does this mean you canāt even get involved in a fight with your bare hands?
Thanks for your thoughts!
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You always start with 1 Ruin. If you pick a single Ritual, your Ruin begins at 2.
You study the spellbooks to learn the Rituals ā narratively, you donāt need the spellbook and once a Ritual is learned it canāt be lost, even if itās one you learned after character creation. The reason your Ruin doesnāt go up is purely mechanical, so that you can learn more Rituals without running out of Ruin, since there are only 6 Ruin slots to play with.
You canāt participate in a Combat Roll without a weapon ā you could make a Risk Roll instead, however, or help set up your fellow treasure-hunters to help them reduce a monsterās Endurance.
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OK you canāt brawl with a monster, got it, thanks Jesse! Iāll probably explain it more precisely on my next version, along with Rituals & Ruin rules.
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Hi guys, for some reason the Trophy marketing didnāt clicked with me initially so I skipped it completely. But Iām really happy to have backed yesterday after reading the Dark quickstart (and Gold partly) and Iām frankly so stoked about the rules, I canāt wait to get down with it at the table!
For now I just have a question about Gold: how is it supposed to work on module conversions from different settings? I understand itās a more abstracted approach for the structure part of the module and I love it. But. More specifically for the setting, if Trophy have no classic Tolkien/D&D creatures like Dwarves, Elves and Orcs, what am I supposed to do when they are part of a module? I presume I can:
- convert them to humans
- leave them as they are and just exclude them as āpeople of the crownā
The first solution can be OK in some case, but probably less so in others. The latter solution seems a bit off to me.
What I think right now is to exclude Tolkienās humanoid āgood peopleā and just go with humans, and also not to use the Tolkienās ābad people/mass foesā Orcs, Goblins-Hobgoblins which are all very specific to the Middle Earth setting. D&D and other fantasy games versions are more varied but I consider them similar, particularly because they are all implying some sort of standard for the āsizeā, power-level and social organization of those creatures.
On page 15 of the Trophy Gold quickstarter when describing Medium monsters, I believe goblins, orcs, skeletons, dwarves, and elves are referred to the typical D&D module version, right? But folklore orcs maybe would better fit a Large monster.
In Trophy I would be more inclined to use some sort of folklore versions of the same creatures, which are vastly varied in scope, specific powers and role.
What do you think about all this? (I hope itās clear what Iām talking aboutā¦)
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First, thatās just because Trophy includes a built-in setting of Kalduhr. If your game is not set there, all that means is that you have a few minutes of writing to do. The game currently contemplates three other ābackgroundsā that are not, strictly speaking, āhumanā: Unmasked Faeborn, Cured Beastbitten, and Orphaned Manikins. Mechanically, all you do is write a skill for each of them (and of course you could have more than one background per heritage, each with its own skill). The rest is just in the fiction, and thatās up to you!
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Yeah but D&D/OSR modules most often include, letās call them āclassic fantasy creaturesā, so I expected this stuff to be somehow āencodedā in the conversion rules. Is it a limitation of the quickstart rules?
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I only have the quickstart doc and I donāt see any kind of ruleset for building a setting, collaboratively or not, and I donāt see the Kalduhr setting. So should I also get the version of Gold on Codex? I mean Iām ok with light settings, or even no setting at all, but I would expect some rule to guide the world-buildingā¦
I canāt see how to run this game further apart from the provided examples without using some other setting I can have previous knowledge of.
Or am I getting all wrong? 
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Itās up to you if you map the module you are converting to the Trophy setting, or just use Goldās rules, but ditch the setting for one more appropriate for the module you are running. I think in general itās not uncommon to re-skin a module to make it work with the game youāre currently playing. (If you have a long running D&D campaign set in a world without orcs, what would you do? Trophy isnāt special here.)
The Kalduhr setting is currently some forum posts, and whatever is implicit in the rules themselves, and the existing incursions.
The version of Gold in the Codex is the same as the version distributed for free as part of the kickstarter.
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Oooh I seee, so these are like two different ways to play the game right? Or you stay in setting and maybe convert alot of stuff, or you simply use Trophy as a tool to play old modules with all the implied setting. Ok.
Frankly I was hoping in something more then āitās up to youā in the system (not in your answers). I still think itās a fairly common situation and should be addressed directly if you take the time to build a conversion system āfor classic OSRā to a game with a setting that is pretty different.
Btw itās a long time that I donāt play old-school fantasy stuff (early 00s) but Iāve never seen a D&D campaign without orcs. And Iāve never really been a fan of reskinning modules; I think it was a pain in the ass and ultimately not worth it (often) because every setting has its own mood and itās not āsatisfyingā to import export that between games. But thatās me, and maybe in Trophy that works better, Iāll have to try.
Iāll think about it a bit more
I mean, Iāve run D&D in Gothic settings that had no orcs but did have lots of zombies and wererats and whatnot. For this purpose, Trophy Gold is analogous to D&D 5e and Kalduhr is analogous to the Forgotten Realms. You can have one without the other.
Trophy feels very specific to me and I like it because of that. I donāt want it to be a catch-all system. So thatās why I want to think about how to deal with different settings.
I donāt know 5e, I only played BECMI and AD&D 2nd. But personally I think D&D played outside its tropes is a bad idea unless itās heavily hacked. Itās how I look at games, I like them to do specific things with its rules and settings. I think mixing the Trophy setting and PC Backgrounds with high fantasy (for example) would make no sense at all. Since the majority of OSR modules include classic elements of high fantasy I think thatās something to deal with.
Itās not a huge problem though, just something Iād like to talk and think about.
If there are modules without orcs they are the exeption and it would not change much in my question. Or do you think we should just convert modules from non-classic fantasy settings?
I mean, D&D (regardless of edition) already works with other settings: Ravenloft, Dark Sun, Spelljammer, etc. Trophy does require some things of its setting due to the mechanics, but those are largely about social structures and not orcs, which are problematic on their own ([1],[2]).
But it sounds like you really have some specific things you want for your games, and so my suggestion is do those things and not worry if others do it the same way. If you and your group are enjoying, then that works!
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What do you mean?
Donāt let me started on TSR āsettings breedingā because Iām very critical about that. But I donāt think we should discuss that here 
Not really. I rather want to know the game do specific things. Iām not worrying about anything 
Well we didnāt play yet. So maybe itās better to talk on some more concrete stuff later.
Is this still the place to ask questions about Trophy Gold? I just discovered it, by way of FoaBD, and while Iām really excited about the game, I have a LOT of questions and things Iām unclear on. Iāve listened to all of the relevant FoaBD episodes, and Iāve watched a couple of actual play videos, and I still have so many points of confusion. Should I post them here, or has the conversation moved elsewhere?
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Sure! You might also join the Trophy Discord, where the game gets discussed quite a bit: https://discord.gg/4XbKDD
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