I’ve finally read through all the changes, and I’m super stoked for all the new changes. As always, here are a few thoughts/questions I have.
Spider
– Great work Stras, if I actually got to play instead of GM, I’d now have a tough choice between the Spider and the Slide.
– Does foresight apply to healing long term clocks also? I don’t see why not, and rules as written is certainly does, just checking.
– I like all the abilities but I really wish they had one more ability that could be used during a Score. At the moment it’s really just Ghost Contract and Mastermind, which feels a little limited. Ideally I think they should have some power related to flashbacks. Like +1d or potency on rolls that happen during flashbacks.
Thieves
– I’m sad to see the Shadows ability be replaced by Patron, which appears on multiple sheets. Couldn’t you have a list of advances available to all crews and put Patron on that? Unless you really don’t want cults and smugglers to have patrons. It’s not even that Shadows was outstanding, I just don’t like the, albeit minor, loss of diversity.
Ghost
– I really like this class, and now am even more excited for the Hull and Vampire playbooks. Drain and gloom are my favorite new rules. I almost wish it was harder to get Possess, making it more unlikely that a ghost player will survive, and insuring those that do are suitably insane.
– The manifest ability makes it seem like a recently dead NPC (who probably hasn’t leveled as a ghost yet) could not be summoned via Compel, is that intentional?
Breakers
– Pretty sure if my crew could start over, they’d be breakers instead of thieves. Maybe I’ll float that idea past them.
– I wish they had at least one more fictional move instead of a mechanical move. For example thieves have Ghost Echoes and to a lesser extent Synchronize, Cults have Bound in Darkness and Glory Incarnate, Hawkers have The Good Stuff and Smugglers have Like Part of the Family and Ghost Passage. Maybe something based around lower tier factions being scared shitless of you and able to be bullied? Or maybe a better idea than that.
Cult
– I don’t know if I’ve said this before, but Bound in Darkness and Glory Incarnate are super cool. They are the measuring stick I think all other abilities should be compared to. Of course I realize not every ability needs to be that cool, but each crew should have 1 or 2.
– What does blessed do to weapons and armor, or to documents, gear, etc? Is it basically like +1 quality? Something cooler? Up to the GM or the players?
Hawkers
– This crew sheet is pretty good. It doesn’t have any abilities that quite live up to Glory Incarnate, but still solid. What I love is the Arcane Market crew upgrade. Somehow I wish it was a special ability instead of an upgrade to make it more prominent and give it some more oomph.
Smugglers
– Like Part of the Family is another amazing ability. All rules should endeavor to make BiTD more like Firefly or Star Wars.
– I want more from Ghost Passage. Because smugglers are all about movement, I really expected to be granted passage somewhere ghostly (though I guess that would step of the toes of the Thieves Ghost Echo, secret ghost passages seems pretty smugglery to me also ). I guess this does allow you to smuggle ghosts, but I’m left wanting more.
All in all, I’m super happy. I didn’t mention enough things that I loved, but there were many many more great things I didn’t mention.
“All rules should endeavor to make BitD more like Firefly..”
Yes.
Thanks, Mark! This is good feedback.
Thieves:
Yeah, this was the first crew I wrote and it shows. I’ve gotten better at it, so now I need to revamp them so they’re as cool as the newer ones.
Ghost:
Without manifest, you cannot travel instantly to a compel, so The Whisper has to be present where you are to compel you. This is the default deal with summoning a ghost — you have to find out where they are, then summon them at that location.
Hawkers:
Arcane market should totally be a special ability! Good call. I’ll move lookouts down to an upgrade.
John Harper I’m a real sucker for witch markets. The ability to have my own would make the Hawkers my crew type of choice.
Mark! Thanks for your kind words about the Spider. Also you had some good points – let me address them.
Does foresight apply to healing long term clocks also? I don’t see why not, and rules as written is certainly does, just checking.
It does actually, but as a GM I always ask for foresight. So Spider, how did you plan for this? How did you foresee this type of injury and prepare? I might change one of their sly friends to a back-alley doc or something to make this an easy one to account for and make it more obvious.
I like all the abilities but I really wish they had one more ability that could be used during a Score. At the moment it’s really just Ghost Contract and Mastermind, which feels a little limited. Ideally I think they should have some power related to flashbacks. Like +1d or potency on rolls that happen during flashbacks.
It’s interesting that you bring this up. There was an ability a lot like that that got cut right at the end, but particularly with the new clarifications on flashbacks in QS5 (where they are played out and when a scene takes place is irrelevant) this may become a lot more useful. It may be something we look at bringing back exactly. Good feedback.
Also two other notes.
Note 1: Calculating also helps with Gather Info checks which can happen mid-run. I envisioned the Spider during the heist as more of a Survey/Study machine that comes up with the plans and triggers group-actions who then jumps in to cover a spot when things go wrong (think Nate Ford).
Note 2: The spider is supposed to have an extra veteran slot (I think it got lost when everyone got an extra skill for special-abilities/permissions) ^_~ Partially so that the player can customize their spider and bring another actionable skill to the table of their choice. I’ll leave it in notes to John for the next update.
Stras Acimovic Thanks for the quick response Stras. A couple more questions though.
What clarifications were made to flashbacks in QS5? If anything changed there I completely missed it. Either way I’d love to see a move like that come back, since I picture the Spider as the king of flashbacks (very much like Nate Ford in that respect).
Did you mean Connected and not Calculating in your first note? By my reading the move pretty specifically states that it only works in downtime. Perhaps this was not the intent, but as written it seems clear to me. I assumed it was like how when making a gather info roll during downtime you can get +1d when you get help from a friend/contact, but during a heist you cannot.
Mark:
Consider the move back on the workbench ^_~ Watch for something like that in the next version.
You’re right. I meant Connected. And your point is legit, I’ll see what can be done to maybe tweak the power in-text.
Thanks for your feedback!