I’m curious why coin and hold gained from a successful score are rolled as a single move/action
My other two recent questions about PC crew hold and NPC faction downtime actions circles back to the long thread by Duamn Figueroa (https://plus.google.com/u/0/+DuamnFigueroa/posts/9NSHAivGdH1) about rewarding PCs for what they earn in terms of more chance for coin for particularly profitable scores.
These issues cause me to wonder if the coin + hold gained from development rolls are linked set values for design or balance reasons. Or, what if players could choose either to specifically pursue coin or hold at the expense of the other.
For instance, if we pull a score that was mainly intended to fill our coffers, why can’t we have a full success give us 4 coin and 0 hold (or 3 coin and 1 hold) rather than 2 coin and 2 hold? Meanwhile, at other times your crew may choose scores that are almost completely meant to solidify your hold (such as whenever you raise your tier and reset to 1 hold): why couldn’t the development roll grant extra hold in place of the coin you might also have earned?
While pg 5 of the QS (under “Gaining Hold”) says that 1 hold is generally worth 1 coin, it looks like the development roll assumes hold may be more valuable than coin, or else perhaps gaining more than 2 hold from a single successful score would let the PCs’ faction grow stable too quickly. While I expect asymmetry since PCs are cooler than NPCs, PCs could much more quickly grow their hold than NPC factions (elaborated in my NPC downtime action question on a separate thread).
Question part B) So then I wonder: Why are coin and hold linked in a single development roll (other than for simplicity, elegance)? I can see plenty of legitimate reasons why hold could be gained dependent on crew effects other than Resources. Sure Resources elegantly explains how much of our coin we retain after all our expenses etc, but why can’t we leverage our gangs or our morale help strengthen our hold? Even transport could work if you spend time establishing vigilant and well-supplied patrols of your turf or invest in smuggling fleets, or investing in a better lair could believably enhance hold.
Since getting 1 entanglement always happens no matter what, why not separate coin and hold gained into 2 similar but separate development moves, perhaps called Profit (coin) and Development (hold)?
“I can see plenty of legitimate reasons why hold could be gained dependent on crew effects other than Resources.”
See page 5 (Gaining Hold). You can gain hold by striking a deal with a faction (note that this “deal” can be anything, including outright extortion). Other Crew effects may come in to play as part of that arrangement.
Otherwise, yes, Resources is the effect that matters most for hold — since it’s your crew’s ability to muster and retain your resources. The other effects… aren’t.
Narratively defining what resources you have at any given point (as flavoured by the fiction at hand) is one of the best ways of stopping the development roll being so boardgamey.
In fact, I think I might dig a little deeper when the gang ticks another diamond into resources – What does this look like in the fiction? What asset have you garnered, what collateral can you lever? And jot it down in the notes.
This then becomes something I can threaten during the game, either with heat, or DB’s or just the evolving fiction.
Just musing, but we made two ‘crew effect’ rolls last session (using morale and lair). One was for the gather information action, and the other to resist an attack effect. The resultant stress was taken by all crew members.
John Harper Maybe there could be a little blurb on ‘crew level’ action / effect rolls? How these interplay with character action rolls and stress? It seems fairly straightforward, but could be an interesting layer to explore in play.
Yeah, good point, Noofy. I’ll have examples for that stuff in the full game.