“Shadow: You get special armor vs. consequences from detection
or security. When you roll a critical on a feat of athletics or stealth,
clear 1 stress.”
Trying to figure this out for a player. Does this mean they don’t get detected if they’re sneaking and fail the roll or does it mean they resist consequences from failing the stealth roll.
I was under the impression that you still failed the roll (meaning you get detected) but the armour prevents the consequence of the guard punching you in the face once he’s noticed you.
Is this correct? Armour doesn’t negate the roll it negates the consequence which follows? In the same way regular armor doesn’t stop you getting shot it just stops the damage.
I would say if the roll was to keep people from knowing you are there it would still prevent that, but you would fail to make progress, essentially starting at square one except without that extra resource to spend, similar to a resist roll, the guard thinks he sees someone but dismisses it as the shadows after some quick backpedaling on your part and not enough sleep, they assume your a servant and order you back in the opposite direction, something along those lines.
Mark Moller what about in a sneak attack? I agree with you for trying to stay hidden and sneak past somewhere, but in a sneak attack, wouldn’t that negate the roll entirely?
Antimatter I think armour can also reduce harm rather than remove it entirely, so maybe if a character fails a prowl roll to sneak up on some guards and they’re spotted, the guards advance on them swords drawn, they use their ‘armour’ to smoke bomb out of there and get the chance to do something before the guards call for backup.
I would think it negates the consequence of detection and you don’t get caught (at least that’s how I’m going to handle it). Resisting physical harm is what the Cutter’s special armor does. The smoke bomb example is another very cool route to go. Go with what keeps with the spirit of the ability and the fiction?
Per p. 11 of the v7.1 Quickstart, if you have armor that applies to a consequence, you can mark off a use of your armor instead of rolling to resist (and consequently spending stress). Resisting consequences doesn’t change the outcome of the action roll. So it might go like this, if the PC fails the roll:
Player: I’m gonna Prowl my way across the hall to get to the treasure room.
GM: Cool. Sounds Risky to me. Roll it.
Player: Crap. 2.
GM: Bad luck. Okay, so, as you come around the corner, it’s just crappy timing, but a guard is coming out of the room at that exact second. He sees you and shouts to raise the alarm–there’s no way you’re sneaking into the treasure vault from here. Unless you want to resist?
Player: I’ve got Shadow, so I’ll just mark my special armor vs. detection so he doesn’t see me.
GM: Cool. So he’s not sure there’s somebody there, but he’s on high alert. There’s no way to get past him now.
(Mechanically, the GM decided on two consequences: a complication in the form of alerted guards and a lost opportunity for action. The player resisted the complication, which the GM downgraded to “suspicious guards,” but since the player didn’t resist the lost opportunity, it still comes to pass.)
On the other hand, complications are independent of success or failure, so it could just as easily go like this:
Player: I’m gonna Prowl my way across the hall to get to the treasure room.
GM: Cool. Sounds Risky to me. Roll it.
Player: That’s a 5.
GM: Okay, so you’re in the treasure room, yeah? But just as you get to the door of the Baron’s vault, you hear one of the guards outside say: “Come on, time to check the vault.” They’re coming in any second.
Player: Nah, I have special armor against security, remember? I’ll mark Shadow instead.
GM: Right. In that case, her buddy says “Brr. The wards in there make my scalp itch. We clock out in 15 minutes, let’s leave it for the next shift.”
(In this case, the player succeeded on the roll, but still incurred a consequence–in this case, the GM is implying that the roll to open the vault will become Desperate thanks to the time pressure. The player marked Shadow to resist, and the GM decided that consequence went away.)
Travis Stout Thanks for such an in depth answer! So the roll isn’t negated and it’s still a crappy outcome, just not as crappy!
What about the situation:
Player: I’m gonna prowl up behind him and take him out quietly.
GM: Cool! Roll it, sounds risky standard to me!
Player: 3! Damn!
GM: OK so you sneak up on him perfectly until you step on a twig “crack”. The guards twitchy and swings around hitting you in the chest with a baton. Take level 2 harm, cracked ribs.
Player: I wanna resist with shadow!
Would they not be seen? Resulting in the entire roll essentially being negated, or would they leap back all ninja like and dodge the baton but the guard still sees them?
To me the baton swing is the consequence of the failed stealth, not the detection itself. Do I have this wrong?
It sounds like you’ve got at least 2 consequences there: the harm and the guard knowing you’re there (which I read as “lose this opportunity to act;” you can’t Prowl up and kill a dude who knows you’re there).
7.1 gives two options for the GM to assess consequences: either she can allow the players to resist each one individually, or she can threaten several consequences and let the player resist to eliminate one.
In this case, it really wouldn’t make a lot of sense to take Harm but not lose the opportunity to act (what, he hits you with his club by blind luck and doesn’t realize it?), so I’d probably go with the first approach here.
So, at my table, at least, the player could use Shadow to resist the “lose this opportunity” consequence and then choose to roll to resist the Harm (or vice versa). I probably wouldn’t let them resist the lost opportunity without losing the Harm without a cool justification.
Since wholly negating both consequences would lead to the dreaded “nothing changes” result (aside from spending some Stress), I’d downgrade the lost opportunity to a Desperate position.
“Okay, yeah, you manage to not step on the twig, but while you were catching your balance the guard stepped forward into the light more–it’s gonna be Desperate to take him out without being spotted.”
From my inexperienced view it seems more a matter of practice in assigning consequences and applying abilities in the fiction.