Ok. How about a quick dissertation on what you MEAN by "prepare, prepare, prepare"? It's a great concept, but I don't always have a good idea how to go about it.
It's really a matter of information gathering. 1. Know thyself and thine world 2. Know thine enemy 3. Know thine allies.
1-3 Be a Know it all Research action is king, advisor queen. Use them to focus your efforts, find out what info there is on a problem out there - even if it is just to understand the world more in-depth. Then start a training regime and/or find more and bigger "guns" (diplomacy with other realms both PC and NPC, dig up that info on what heroes are out there, read every bit of info you can from all of the domain descriptions, then start bugging Bjørn for an upload of the old RoE turns, chock full of good stuff they are
. Read everything you can get your hands on, three times. You'll be surprised how many weird ideas suddenly spring into being once you understand more of the RoE world...
Oh and diplomacy and adventure can be used to conduct research as well. I sent my lieut into the far east for a couple of turns, just so he could investigate some rumour. While I spent adventure actions going places and trying to find answers to the big adventure ahead.
Because you see, when you read all the domain descriptions, you begin to discover pockets of special people and special places. People who knows certain stuff, places of insane power. Things that haven't been in the SR or elsewhere, but still lie there waiting for your visit. Hell, I thought up the crazy idea of finding out what the EO had done with his original eyes. I wanted to use them somehow... That particular idea fizzled, but the intention led to all sorts of other discoveries - research and advice is king and queen, but your own harebrained ideas are Divine!
Gather the know it all Send all your aa's on adventures whenever an event pops up. Try to gauge the danger level between minor nuisance and major event, to earthshaking incident. Stealing the Book of Laws is a major event (earthshaking for the OIT), the obelisk isn't - HOWEVER, the fall of Xavier Zenneth COUPLED with the ambush at the obelisk is a major event. It all adds up, something nasty is going on down there. You were expected?
Anyway, what I mean to say is, try to judge whether the event you're sizing up for adventure could do with a probe first - espionage or research f.ex. Minor events equal xp. Major events need dealing with before they turn into crap for your domain. Earthshaking events have potentially catastrophic consequences - so when you deal with them, do so decisively and well prepared. Send your aa's on adventures as often as possible, preferably one's you semi-make up yourself and place them in your DO (bandit hunting is always good). Otherwise training. Send your regent well protected along if you have the time, the bodyguard is not enough.
The adventuring groupHire aa's specifically for the task of adventuring with your regent. Fighters, paladins & rangers in particular. They aren't able to do a wide variety of things, but they keep people alive long enough for the variety classes to step in (spellcasters and sneaky buggers taking people down from behind).
Get a hold of every damned kind of major class you can and use their abilities to the maxx (gotta love that cartoon
, especially the spellcasters, protect them with tanks and take your time to get acquainted with
http://www.d20srd.org/ - especially the spells section. It has been noted by players that the spells don't have the effect they expect, that is because you're using them wrong. Consider them options in a sea of divine channeling or nature's inherent resources.
The why of magic (you figure out the how) Most of the really standard spells aren't necessary to spell out - A cleric f.ex.: "I heal the wounded" (all the cure spells) "I bless the troops" (that can be anything from bless to prayer and so on), "I curse the enemy" (you get the idea). But some of them are worth your lives (sanctuary, protection from evil - don't know why? READ THE DESCRIPTION!, magic circle of protection from evil, air walk, meld into earth, heat metal, darkness, daylight, lesser planar ally, summon monster and the list goes on and on - most, if not all of these spells have at some point been used by me or others to great effect.) So read every damned last one of them, it adds to your possible repetoire of actions and reactions - then expand from there, into the realm of description and planning. Don't bother with the rules, just make it up and spin it into your tale.
The point is to create characters able to take action in ANY situation (running away is a fine and time-tested action
The joys of the adventurous lifeA lot of you are still talking your way through encounters, but you should also look upon every adventure encounter as a tactical situation from the moment Bjørn starts narrating. So keep doing the heroic statements, but crank up the planning. Especially on the sidelines, you don't have to involve Bjørn in this kind of planning, he just needs to know your decisions and preferably quickly.
Example: If I had been one of you, I'd have been throwing myself at the Governor's proverbial poking of the ant hill and trying to prevent it. Because there is nothing worse in RoE than acting just to see what happens. Poking the ancient artifact with a stick or the like.
Investigate, take your time - let the arcane and divine know it alls look at the weirdness first. If they don't do it, then order them to do it! That's their damned job! Through the use of detection magic (again, a common use of channeling or natural forces), close, careful study and the like, alot of information can be acquired and an informed decision be reached. Meanwhile; have the tanks keep guard, while the sentinels watch your perimeter. You gotta stay frosty and alert, can't allow any of those bastards in here! Oh yeah, and if you do bring anyone able to cast spells - even if it's a paladin... Detection magic gives you a head's up on those nasty ambushes. Detect thoughts f.ex. or detect evil maybe.
You will notice I haven't gone in-depth with the wizardly types. That's because I rarely play them, but I promise you, their place in the party is central. Make certain you use them to full effect.
Cooperation Most of this was 1. and 2... No. 3. is really a question of helping the others out. If you're adventuring together, help the others out and cooperate. I got my very first lesson of that when I decided to attack the Eyeless One and got feebleminded for my troubles, while (at that time unfortunately not very active) Gray had urged us to "join hands and unite our priestly powers". I thought "HIPPIE! LET's KICK ASS!", but later discovered that priests have the special ability to pool their powers and cast much more heavy duty spells that way.
Now that is an actual D&D concept, don't remember from where, but I surmise that it could, possibly, have kept me from ending up going "cluck cluck" in the corner!
So do the D&D rules apply? HELL YEAH! Just not in any way you would expect them to. They are behind the scenes so to speak.
United you stand, divided Bjørn will kill you all!
For the REAL strategy players Obviously, for the less adventurous, you can ignore most of my ramblings here. I would definitely still urge you to read everything you can get your hands on thrice. Knowing is half the victory. Just don't start quoting from the BRCS, that's a completely different place (though a bit of inspiration never hurt anybody eh
Oh yes, and don't worry so much about sending too many emails. We'll let you know if you need to take a break.
