Hey all! Loving the KS campaign, and I spent all weekend poring over the quickstart rules, which look absolutely fantastic.
One area I’m still very very confused about is Assets. Obviously, I could fudge or houserule this reasonably well. But I’d love to hear a little more detail:
1. Is asset acquisition at downtime always “Temporary Use,” or is “Temporary Use” a special case (like its neighbors “Heal Thyself” and “Overindulgences”)?
1a. If “Temporary Use” is the norm, how do I acquire something long-term?
1b. If it’s a special case – when does it apply?
2. I’m not clear on the distinction between a “fine” asset and a “standard” one (except for +dice). Can any asset have both a “standard” version and a “fine” one, and then I declare which asset I’m after, and Acquire whichever version my roll gives me? Or are some types of assets “standard” (e.g. “a blade”) and others have to be “fine” (e.g. “a spirit mask”), and so my roll limits my asset options as well as its quality?
3. Are Assets going to have precise mechanical effects and limitations? Or are they defined mostly by narrative?
I’d assume that a character wouldn’t be able to fight effectively without A Blade Or Two, or pick locks effectively without Burglary Tools – but I’m not seeing where in the mechanics this fits in.
I’m guessing it’s something along the lines of “Use your best judgement, and apply penalties to action roles if your character’s poorly equipped”; I’m just wondering (given the focus on Assets as a mechanical element) if there’s anything more than that.
Thanks!
1. Always temporary. To acquire permanent stuff you need to spend advancement on 2 items from another playlist. (Unclear how you would acquire, for instance, a boat, which isn’t on any list.)
2. No official rules yet. You declare what you’re looking for first, and it’s ultimately up to the fiction. I would think anything is available in regular and fine as long as it’s not completely ludicrous.
3. This is a narrative game. It’s all pretty much defined narratively.
1) Assets acquired via the acquire asset roll are always temporary. If you want the asset longterm, either keep rolling “acquire asset” for it after every score you use it, start a long-term project to acquire it permanently, or buy it as a character or crew upgrade, as appropriate.
2) You can probably get a fine version of almost anything. The way it would work is you say “I’m going to go acquire the poison we need to assassinate Baszo Baz,” then roll the acquire asset action. On a 1-3 you can’t get the poison. On a 4-5 you get regular poison. On a 6 you get a fine poison (+1d effect). On a critical, you get a fine poison that’s also rare or unusual. Exactly what that means would come down to the fiction, but maybe here it means the poison’s much harder to identify or trace.
Say you kill Baszo with the poison and the Lampblacks add a new project clock: “Figure out how Baszo died.” Maybe a common poison would make that a six-segment clock, but the rare version makes it an 8-, 10, or even 12-segment clock as they have to bring in alchemists from outside the city.
3) Fictional positioning determines what the risks of an action are, whether there’s a penalty, and what dangers you’d be exposed to. If you’re unarmed, going up against someone with a sword is probably Desperate; trying to charm a lock with nothing but a twist of your own hair probably counts as facing exceptional resistance, etc.
Remember though that the worst thing you can do is say no! The GM is supposed to be a fan of the characters, and if you throw the characters naked into a locked jail cell, saying “sorry, you don’t have your lockpicks, you can’t pick the lock” isn’t being a fan. Let them come up with hare-brained, impossible escape plans and break out in some crazy, cool, unexpected way, and throw lots of dangers at them! Ask “how do you pick the lock without tools?” rather than say “you can’t pick that lock.”
Thanks! Awesome.
It feels like there should be some process to acquire “simple” assets simply, but maybe I’m just overthinking this.
Remember that all the stuff on your character sheet is always freely available any time you want it. You never have to acquire assets for “a blade or two” or “burglary tools,” because you always have those things, if not on your person then stashed safely at your safehouse. The only time you might need to roll for any of the basic gear is in extraordinary circumstances, like ‘just broke out of prison, can’t risk going back to my known haunts” or something.
I think how I would handle acquiring simple assets is to include their acquisition into the score (as part of a linked plan). Ask the PCs how they get the item(s) and then if there’s a chance of opposition or a risk associated with the approach, roll to find out how it goes. So if they need some Bluecoat uniforms, do they break into the watch station changing rooms, mug and strip a patrol, or raid the nearby laundry after hours – each of these could be a mini score. Though if it’s something they could reasonably get without risk or opposition – say a bottle of fermented seaweed rotgut to bribe or distract the warehouse watchman- then just frame a quick flashback and say they’ve got it.
It depends on the item/resource they want.
All good answers.
Also, don’t forget the small personal item. That can change, session to session (or scene to scene), to account for all sorts of ordinary incidental things.