Under the “Acquire Asset” downtime action it reads, “Since you can spend coin to get an extra downtime activity, you can essentially “rent” an asset indefinitely. Spend a coin during downtime for the activity, then roll Tier to see what quality it is right now”.
This is tripping me up. I was under the impression you rolled Tier regardless, so if you wanted to “rent” an asset by spending a Coin each DT, once you rolled initially, why would you roll again? To see if the asset somehow degraded?
Or do I take another DT action to “rent” it after the initial roll?
For example, our crew is Tier 2 so I roll 2d for Spirit Warden gear. I get lucky and crit. When do I spend the Coin?
This is probably obvious, but it’s eluding me. If it’s tripping up others, I’ll post it to the “Oopsie link”, but before I did that I figured others might have insight.
You do need to spend a downtime action for the asset. You can use one of your standard downtime actions – or you can buy a downtime action with 1 coin. (or 1 rep)
What’s keeping you from just spending coin when you first roll to “rent” the gear acquired with a crit? Also, it makes no sense to have to reroll and spend Coin in order to keep what you’ve already acquired. It’s better to just roll your Tier on a new DT action as normal, not spend Coin and roll, possibly getting a worse result, while also taking a DT action.
If it’s just a matter of spending Coin to keep what you have and it spends a DT action to do so, that’s fine. As it reads you’re gambling with a precious resourse.
Well, as far as I know, the rules require you to spent a downtime action (which my be via coin or not) and roll each time you want an asset for a score. It’s a bit awkward really, and if you want to roll with “just spent a coin and keep your nice crit stuff” that’s fine, but according to the rules, you just have that asset for a very limited time and need to aquire a new one afterwards. I think the passage you refer to just means you can rationalize this by saying to continue to rent the same stuff, but it will still have varying quality (or possiblly extra cost, since you can still buy up the effect of your downtime with coin).
For example: the rat pack aquire a carriage because they plan on raiding a warehouse and need a way to transport all the loot. They roll their tier (which is 0) and come up with a 2. So they get a bucket of bolts of a carriage that barely rattles along, drawn by a single weak old sickly goat. For the next score they also need a carriage, so invest downtime again and roll again. This time they come up with a 4. So after the payout of the last score the owner of the carriage apparently had the money to effect some repairs and get a younger, stronger goat to pull it.
But this doesn’t change the rules. Even if they blew up the carriage, it wouldn’t necessarily have a bad effect and they could still aquire an asset to get another one for the third score.
The reroll might also be about whether you can keep the asset or not, if the GM sets a minimum quality level to acquire it. Maybe the Spirit Warden kit is in high demand and the lender wants it for another job. Or worse, the ritual that jams the Spirit Wardens tracking signal is fading, and if the ritual’s not reset then you’ll get more heat than you can handle. Better hit that Tier 4 quality on your asset roll (you’ll probably need Coin for that).
Read it again. Thought I had it. Still lost. Plus, I have time to better articulate my confusion.
The bit I quoted seems to be an unnecessary addition because it covers rules already explained.
For example, two players each take one of their two DTAs to acquire assets. They roll their Tier and get them. They use the assets on a score.
New downtime…
Both players need to reduce stress twice but also want to acquire assets.
Player 1 wants a new asset, spends a coin and rolls Tier for quality.
Player 2 wants to re-acquire (“rent”) their previous asset, spends a coin and rolls Tier for quality.
There is no difference in this.
Now, if it was simply a “You can keep a previous asset at its current quality rating by renting it. Simply use acquire asset but forgoe the roll, instead paying a Coin” or such, that’s fine. As it’s written it makes no sense to me. This coin would represent things like upkeep and fees.
I believe that you have to pay the first coin regardless to keep renting the same item and reroll for it. Some items need to be a certain quality to be acquired. For example a Spirit Warden uniform would need to be tier III, and you’d need to pay up to tier 3 to get that asset and to continue renting it after your roll.
It’s more cost effective to simply take a fresh acquire asset DTA since you’re rolling for quality again.
Ben Liepis except if you’re reaquiring the same asset, the GM should enforce the rent rules. Otherwise you essentially get a new item for 1 coin.
The “rent rule” is exactly the same as acquiring an asset to begin with, that’s one of the issues.
BTW, I’m debating to understand this, not be right. Please don’t think I’m arguing just to argue. 🙂
Ben Liepis So think of it like this:
Do you have the item?
No?: Acquire it.
Yes?: Rent it.
If you already found a perfectly good Spirit Warden uniform, it makes 0 sense to give it back and go out searching for another one when in the fiction you could just rent it.
Difference between renting and acquire asset:
For acquire asset, you do not have the asset to begin with.
For renting you already have acquired the asset.
When you rent, you roll tier to judge the quality of the gear for the next score. Fictionally this could be described by the gear degrading overtime, the owner wanting more for it and giving you a worse one because you didn’t pay enough to keep it, the owner finding a better one for you to loan (in the case of a better roll).
Also bear in mind that some items have a specific tier that you MUST meet to acquire it. If you roll to rent and don’t roll it’s base tier, you’ll have to pay up to keep it.
Example: You acquire asset for a Spirit Warden’s uniform as a tier 0 crew. The GM rules that this uniform is a tier III item, because the spirit wardens are tier III. You roll and get a 6, granting you tier I items. You then spend 2 coin to boost your result to tier III and get the uniform.
Next downtime, you need the uniform again, but it’s a rental. You roll acquire asset again and come up with a 4, giving you access to tier 0 items. You’ll have to pay 3 coin as rent to keep the asset, otherwise you’ll lose it.
For items without a set tier, the degrading or owner giving you a worse one fictionally makes sense.
I can totally see that. I’m not sure how that will play out yet. I appreciate everyone mashing ideas through whatever wall my brain created to keep from getting this!