Special Armor: Possible Tweak
I’m thinking about changing the playbooks so all of the special armors are freebie starting abilities. They’re a nice ‘signature move’, but I’ve noticed that they aren’t chosen very often.
What do you think?
Special Armor: Possible Tweak
Special Armor: Possible Tweak
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Mmmmh, yeah, sure, is a good way to enforce niche roles inside the crew. All the lurks I’ve GMed chose shadow. Go for it!
I say yes. For all the reasons mentioned. I encourages a bit more the uniqueness of the playbook a. And yeah when you review which to take armor is one of he least “wow I want that!”
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One of my players actually choose the armor as his starting ability which surprised me because as a player I definitely was never inclined to pick them, but my player is a super defense and caution style player and once I noticed that it made a bit more sense.
I think making it a freebie would probably help make the classes feel a bit more unique (especially if you can no longer veteran advance into that armor ability from another class because of the change) from one another.
For me the special armor has been confusing, so I have steered clear. Is the ‘rolling a crit will clear one stress under these circumstances’ the sole effect of the special armor, or is there more going on? (Sorry – I tried to find details and my google fu was not powerful enough.)
I’m supportive!
Good idea!
Starting abilities are a good idea, but I think more straightforward abilities are better for the start of the game. The special armor abilities are good, but I think their utility becomes clearer to players deeper into the game. They seem more ‘advanced’ than others to me.
Arne Jamtgaard I assumed it was a universal perk of that ability. However if it became a freebie I’d interpret it differently.
Arne Jamtgaard My reading is that the ability gives you armor against specific things, which acts just like normal armor, blocking stress from a failed roll. And the secondary perk of the stress reduction on certain crits.
But more on topic, I think making the stress reduction a freebie is a good idea, but not the armor. To me that feels more like it should be earned. But that might make it underpowered.
I like it!
Hmm… as a player I’m all for it 🙂 As a GM it doesn’t seem necessary. I think the real strength of armor is it allows you to play more risky… which tends to be rewarded in Blades. And not just the player who has it, because you can Protect each other the whole crew benifits. All that may not be obvious to most new players…
I like it how it is now. One in four of my players ends up taking it, and it makes a pretty big difference when they do; so I am fine with making players earn it (it’s totally worth an ability choice).
I’ve noticed early on most of the players never really “grokked” how that special armor would work. Though its been picked up (the Spider’s one) once.
Additionally, (as a GM) I find it really hard to remember that added bonus of “critical success == get stress back” part of the Special Armor. I don’t think that’s ever come up in play I’ve had (at least that I noticed). I’m not sure if the stress recovery was meant to be really rare in that occasion?
As to the idea of special armor being an ability, I did like the idea of players being able to “veteran” multiple armor types. (I can imagine a certain build of a PC being full on resist everything with armors, stress, and good overall resistance- though I haven’t seen one in play yet)
It would encourage them to play to their roles, to feel more distinct from the other playbooks I think.
Personally, I think the fact that people haven’t chosen them is purely down to the typical player not really understanding that they could have armour against “consequences”. I’ve seen the Cutter’s special armour be chosen multiple times because that’s easy to wrap your head around. However I find even those with experience with PbtA find the notion of resisting things like “a guard spots you” hard to process at first.
I think adding this automatic special armour would help people into the mindset of realising they can resist such things.
Yeah, Dylan that was my hope as well.
It could potentially cause more confusion “I don’t think I can resist that… I don’t have the right kind of armor”
I’m not saying it will… but I’m also not sure it will help.
You’re encouraged to “play your roll” with starting action dots, special gear, and with XP (am I missing anything?)… I haven’t felt that it wasn’t enough…
Hmmm. Interesting point, Bryan. I’ve seen gamers think that way, for sure.
The question of “can I resist that” doesn’t go away without armor; the question with the armor is “can I use my armor to resist that?”
The armor lets you take a hit against one kind of resistible consequence without dipping into stress.
I feel like it would be an improvement to give characters some kind of distinct reliable ability related to their core concept in addition to the starting special ability.
If all starting characters can resist a consequence relevant to their type, then the GM can know that, and remind players they can use it in the early sessions. If only some characters have it, then the GM should not point it out, because why remind them of something they may or may not have? “Aren’t you a Hound? You’ve got armor against that, remember.”
Agree with the folks that have said this will help define the playbooks a bit more. If I make a Hound with two dots in attune and take a Veteran Whisper move, I may look mechanically identical to a Whisper, but with this, you lock each playbook into having some signature bit (like +Stras Acimovic did with S&V).
Edit: I re-read the resistance and armor section and see that discussion is already in there as of QS7. Sorry for missing that.
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So a few things.
#1. I have seen two get taken frequently – warded and battleborn. Warded was taken by whispers that wanted to push hard and play more ‘mage’ Tempest starting builds usually (I actually knew a Cutter that veteran’d Tempest+Warded for this). They’d use the armor to soak up bad casts. Although this stopped when tossing lightning became a thing that was done once a job tops (because even if you take a wound you’ve already expended your “charge”). The other was Battleborn, but that stopped being taken when you can take Crew moves that let you carry free gear, which is how people often shoehorn in armor in the games I see now. Not that a 3rd armor is bad in a fight, but often it puts it far far lower in queue for priority of moves taken. The rest – not as much. I’ve seen a few Lurks take theirs, and none of the others.
#2. Stress on a Crit is cute, but doesn’t happen often. One of the things I did in S&V is re-write the armors to have more practical and dynamic effects. Forex for my version of Battleborn, the Muscle clears a stress when they actually take a wound. Which is an active mechanic that plays into other powers and the fiction (and becomes proactive when the Muscle steps in front of their friends with Protect).
#3. The armor moves are reactive and don’t add fiction usually. Folks tend to want active powers (I can now command ghosts) rather than a reduction in wounds once a job, and a very iffy stress clear.
My honest advice is to tweak them and make the powers a little more fictionally compelling. Giving them to folks is fine, it won’t wreck the game – but I think cleaning up the moves might see them taken more rather than just had onhand.
You might consider not calling them “armor.” Call them something else, like “free resist,” and then make armor a special case of that. It just sounds weird to have “armor” against detection… but “free resist detection, once per score” is pretty straightforward.
My players really do want active powers. Failing that, they want “helps with something active” like sniper. That might just be taste, but means so far nobody has considered taking these in our game.
The players tend to also be fairly cautious, and can “avoid” the need for additional armor via RP and fiction. Plus they often enjoy the consequences, and don’t necessarily want to remove them.
One player has twice now mentioned that she doesn’t feel there’s enough to pick on the character sheet to make her character special, and to feel like it’s really hers. She’s used to playing White Wolf, with 20 or so skills and a number of powers, and feels like BitD gives her broad skills (so “tinker” rather than “Medicine” vs “Science” vs “Lockpick”) and only one special ability. I suspect having a special resistance by default would help with this a little.
I think we’ve only ever rolled two 6s in our game once so far, total. So the stress reduction seems pretty pointless compared to many other abilities. This will change as they get higher skills, of course.
My suggestion would be:
– Every playbook gets a special armor as a freebie starting ability.
– Possibly even let them pick which special armor they want – no reason not to make a mystic lurk, or a resilient leech from the start… give recommendation, but this is a nice “customize” option, where you pick what your PC is tough against. Are you the cutter who’s mentally resiliant because of their time in jail? The lurk who escaped from the chain gang? The ghost-hunting hound who is supernaturally immune to spirits powers?
– Ditch the stress reduction, or make it more effective – maybe rolling a 6 gives the stress reduction, or every 6 you roll reduces 1 point of stress?
– Allow purchasing more special armor and stress reduction as a playbook or veteran advance.
I agree with what everyone’s saying here. Armor and resisting rolls for non harmful consequences is one of the hurdles of learning the system. The other big one is teamwork/group actions.
I found in my own experience how useful armor is for my personal play style. I discovered the joy of armor the same time as group actions since I’m someone who wants to always do group actions, help you on your roll, or set you up.
When the dice flow, (especially with synchronized) we’re more successful and recovering stress or more like I’m taking blows and reducing the size of hole we’ve dug ourselves into 🙂
Making armor a playbook locked, autoincluded boon would help others to have those types of “oh I see how all the mechanics work together now” moments quicker.
I’m with Stras Acimovic on this one. If people aren’t taking a move then change the move instead of making it free. I like moves that are more active and bite into the fiction more.
Yeah, I sympathize with that outlook. Sometimes you just need a “You do +1 harm” move, but more fictionally bitey is definitely a good thing.
I’m messing around with a subtle but important revision to the armors today. Will share soon.
Edit: I had missed the resistance and armor section. The discussion of resistance and armor is already there, which covers the concerns I mentioned about about folks knowing all the ways in which they can use armor. Sorry I missed that. (post fixed).
So far I’ve never had a problem with people ensuring their characters are distinctive from each other. Following from the Fiction First principle, it’s not the abilities or moves in your Playbook that make your character unique, it’s the history you come up with and personality you infuse them with that do this.
That being said, I’m with Stras on this as far as the special armor. So far I’ve had one player opt for taking it (and it’s my Stress-heavy Whisper).