Quick question about the Cutter’s Not To Be Trifled With ability: Should it allow the Cutter to fight a small gang and take them down with a single roll, or does it just prevent limited effect and so on from being outnumbered?
All things being equal, if the Cutter wants to say, fight six thugs on his own, what’s a decent way to model that? I’d think making six+ rolls is kind of boring, but one roll might be inflating the value of “Not to Be Trifled With” too much? I suppose you could always go to the clocks, set up a clock and have better effect/successes involve killing more than one dude. A HP track for a group, essentially. Pretty simple.
“I haven’t fought just one person for so long. I’ve been specializing in groups, battling gangs for local charities, that kind of thing.” You’ve got the answer, make it a clock. The size of the clock is determined by how dangerous the group of thugs is. Every time slices are filled in, narrate how the Cutter has taken out a couple of them.
Just regarding the text of the ability, it means the second: the Cutter is equal in scale, an effect factor, to a small gang, so the Cutter isn’t at an effect disadvantage, scale-wise, when outnumbered (by a small gang). That also works in the Cutter’s favor when fighting opponents smaller than a small gang: the Cutter would have the upper hand, scale-wise, against a single opponent or a couple of dudes. The GM should judge the effect level of the Cutter’s actions appropriately, given the Cutter’s increased scale.
Could that also lead to the Cutter taking down a small gang as a simple action? Sure, if it makes sense in the situation. Maybe the Not-To-Be-Trifled-With-Cutter is so fearsome, and the enemy gang so puny, that it seems fine to dispatch them without a lot of fuss. It would be similar to another PC taking down a single opponent as a simple action. That’s also part of judging the Cutter’s effect in the fiction. That can follow from the Cutter having the ability, but isn’t necessarily always true.
For my games, unless the enemy gang were just mooks, I would stick with creating a clock for the obstacle and giving the Cutter normal effect for their actions.
Thanks guys. Everyone’s interpretation sounds pretty consistent and reasonable.
If the cutter were leading a gang cohort, would you allow the allied gang to take out the enemy gang in a single roll? I’d apply that same answer to the actions of a character with NTBTW.
Will Scott that’s exactly why I was a little confused. If it WAS a gang on another gang, then yes. One Skirmish roll should suffice. But the Cutter’s ability isn’t really saying he IS another gang – he’s just equal in scale to a gang. I think the first few guys are reading it right, and I probably have thought about it to the point where I lost sight of the surface interpretation. Like looking at a weird word like “manual” or “rogue” until you swear they’re misspelled.
I have a player who describes it as his character ‘s sword school [a rival to the Red Sashes, the Blue Void School] has specific techniques for dealing with multiple foes. I see it as your Cutter not losing his effectiveness when outnumbered.
“Get out or I’ll call the Brute Squad!” “I’m on the Brute Squad.” “You are the Brute Squad.”