John Harper  – something I’ve noticed in two plays now.  We keep forgetting to choose loads before starting our…

15 thoughts on “John Harper  – something I’ve noticed in two plays now.  We keep forgetting to choose loads before starting our…”

1. Yeah that’s actually something we keep missing too. We sort of end up just being like, “yeah of course I brought my bandoleer of lightning oil and Death Essence..never leave home without it, wink“

2. Jacob Kent

   Well, remember that that is actually how the game work; You don’t have to pick your items, you just have to pick your load level.

   But we don’t even remember to go light/normal/heavy at start.

3. Oh gotcha…ok. I totally missed that! Thanks!

4. Does it matter? Only set the level when it becomes important. Otherwise, carry on.

5. Jacob Kent

   Section 6 of Chargen:

   6. Items Carried

   You have access to all of the items on your character sheet. For each operation, decide what your character’s load will be. During the operation, you may decide that your character has an item by checking the box for the item you want to use — up to a number of items equal to your chosen load. Your load determines your movement speed and conspicuousness (items in italics don’t count toward your load): Light (you’re faster and less conspicuous. you can blend in with citizens). Normal (you look like a scoundrel, ready for trouble). Heavy (you’re slower. you look like an operative on a mission). Some items count as two items for load (they have two connected boxes). Note that the Cutter playbook can carry a heavier load.

   Bolding mine. 🙂

6. Christopher Rinderspacher

   Level is important for a whole bunch of stuff though.  And the rules basically say “pick it at the start”

7. Mike Pureka

   , sure. But if not even the GM thinks load is important to the action, then it’s unnecessary for the narrative. The first action that would be impacted by load is when the player(s) choose. E.g., in virtually every social scene I consider the actual load unimportant.

   If load is too much of a burden (punny) to your game, then don’t use it.

8. No, we LIKE load, we just tend to forget to set it beforehand.

   And the problem for us is that it’s often not “actions” that are impacted by load – the main thing load influences is how you look, so it’s important for how people react, but we don’t always remember to evaluate it because we haven’t thought about it yet.

   I am not asking for any changes to any RULES. I just want a reminder elsewhere in the text.

9. I find it really useful when I play to have them pick out equipment before the action commences. I take what we figured out with our investigative questions, and while they’re loading up I’m sketching out some details about the mission. So for me, them loading up is my “load screen” if I was a computer game. =)

10. Andrew Shields

    Cool if that works for you, but it’s not what the rules say to do.  I’m trying to play as written here.

11. Mike Pureka The rules have changed. I set my practice before those were in place. I just haven’t updated them. But, I also haven’t played the game for a while, and my primary group wanted a rules freeze many versions back.

    This is a useful clarification I’ll bear in mind as I get ready for my open table game next week, where I’ll do my best to update all the small hidden nuances of change in the most recent quickstart.

12. (As we established a few days ago, I shouldn’t even be giving them investigative questions unless there’s a down time. So, my methods are TOTALLY outdated if they were ever right!)

13. (Andrew, that’s not true. Gather Info is allowed at any time, not just downtime. I thought we established that a few days ago.)

14. Mike: yeah, there’s probably a place to put a reminder. Thanks for the feedback.

15. I’ve updated the section on the character sheet so it’s now “Plans & Load”. It reminds you to provide a detail and set your load. And there’s a reminder in the planning section of the text.

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