I’m sure this has been well explained for battle interactive and stuff, but I’m new enough that I need to ask this:

How does one define a scene? I couldn’t find a definition in the book. It seems self explanatory in most cases, except possibly in surprise. If you like to keep some “scene” duration powers activated at all times, I assume it is no big deal to say you stop every hour or so to keep them up as you travel, but combats usually indicate a scene transition from “travel” to “fight.” So do all the buffs you normally maintain go away when attacked? That seems unlikely given that “Path of the Winged Raptor” is scene based, and thus if you use it to fly from one location to another, and aerial ambush occurs enroute would then end as soon as the ambush started with… instantaneous consequences.

So if you refresh scene based spells/abilities regularly, can they be assumed to me in place during an initial combat? No need to buff before a (reasonably quickly entered) combat? Is it all based on the gamemaster? Does the scene generally just refresh whenever you stop to heal/”catch your breath” between encounters, or is every new room you enter full of baddies a new scene?

Generally a "Scene" is an encounter that takes place usually in one location with one or more groups of people. It's defined usually in an adventure as "Scene X". There are not usually 'scenes' for traveling unless something can happen during travel.

There is a really good thread in the Chronicler's Quarter on buffing for scenes ahead of time: Pre-Buff Thread.

The general consensus is if everyone is assumed to have every scene buff at the start of every scene, it can create imbalance for casters/buffs and that encounters will need to be made harder to account for this.

There are some good GM thoughts on rules of thumb in that thread as to how people handle it. You might chime in there for further insights.

John

there is no hard definition of Scene, you need to think of them as scene's in a movie or book.

generally the end of a scene is end of an event, for example..


lets say you have been contacted by a local Coryani ex-legionnaire about a murder of a good friend..

If the party is ambushed in the way to talk to the ex-legionnaire that would be a scene...

reaching the ex-legionnaire's home to find him dead... that would be a scene (including looking for clues and searching the house)

done with your investigation (pause in the story) you leave and are confronted with members of the inquisition who are also been investigating a chain of murders... that would be its own scene.

scenes are abstract and uneventful story pauses (traveling between one place and another for example) would be their own scene


there is a reason why I designed so many spells with duration scene.. I want the casters to use up ticks casting those spells in the midst of the scene.. not before.