It was my understanding with the “luxury” vice in Blades that the “downsides” that Zeke’s character Aldo would face if he overindulged would be that patrons of the the higher class would see that he stuck out, and report him or shame him, or maybe even goad him into open conflict. This to me is potentially a HUGE downside to this form of vice because he is calling direct attention to himself and could get thrown in prison or barred from certain establishments, adding heat or exposing aspects of the crew.
From the episodes I’ve watched, it seems like either Zeke is misinterpreting what the “struggle” aspect of a vice entails, in that struggling with a vice ONLY happens when one misses a role, which he never has. Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems as though he’s interpreting the “struggle” aspect to tie directly into how he role-plays the vice, which from what I understood from the book, is not the case.
If I’m right, and struggling with a vice does only occur when one overindulges, is this simply not explained well enough to Zeke? Perhaps John doesn’t realize that this is the miscommunication that is going on? Maybe Zeke hasn’t been given enough examples of how the luxury vice could negatively impact him?
I’m probably just overthinking this, but to me it comes across that Zeke has misunderstood exactly what struggling with a vice means, or simply isn’t considering possible downsides to overindulging.
I use it a bit different. Yes, overindulge may qualify regarding struggling with vice. I tend to shy away from that interpretation because I don’t want to give xp for a pure “healing” game mechanic but if the player has a good story about it, I’m happy to give xp for it.
I prefer to see the struggle with vice during a score when the PC should do something and she/he doesnt because the vice got priority. You’re expected to meet a client at a specific time? Didn’t manage to show up on time because you had a run of good luck in your gambling den? Great for the xp and great for story complications. How decides if that happens? The player has the final word here. If he/she states that it should happen, it will. If we make a roll to find out, this is cool too.
Struggling with a vice can happen at anytime. You get xp when your struggles invite complications into your life. This might be overindulgence, or might mean being distracted on a score because there is a lovely gallery nearby.
BitD is a game where I feel, plays best when you lean into these bad decisions. Yes you could look at the tiers of the wealthy factions and say you don’t need that heat. But there are plenty of protections for the characters. The game rewards you for fighting above your weight class, and for getting in over your head.
This might bring too much heat down upon Aldo but that might be the path Zeke wants to tread. The worst that can happen is Aldo might be forced to retire. But even then the crew is eternal.
I would imagine that overindulging in luxury means, like with every other vice, you overdo it. So you spend too much on clothes, on fine food, oversleep in a luxurious bed, and it impacts your ability to be a team player for your crew. You pamper yourself so much maybe you ponder if going back is worth leaving all this finery.
I’m with Stefan Struck on this one, more or less: I don’t like an XP trigger tied to a player rolling a bit too well on a downtime “healing” action. Which is what Vice Indulgence really is, mechanically, you’re performing a Recovery action on one of your resources.
But, the flip side of that is that from the release text of v8/8.1, John does make it clear that it’s intended for Overindulgence to be linked to that XP trigger, per page 48.
Like all the xp triggers, the player decides what constitutes a struggle. It can and will vary from player to player and group to group.