A partially formed thought for setting a different tone:
How badly do you think it would break the system math if, instead of stress (which builds up until causing trauma) the track was called courage, and it was a pool that decreased according to the same guidelines that stress increases?
Trauma would result from overindulgence?
If you’re out of courage you’re restricted or limited in the actions you can take or perhaps you just can’t make resistance rolls?
I mean, you could just have Courage being reduced to zero result in a Trauma-like effect. Maybe you pick a Fear?
Seems like it would be appropriate and cool for a hack about noble heroes going on quests.
Seems to be functionally the same, honestly it might as well be just a name change.
The details of the limitations at the end would make the difference more than labels tho.
I hope you try it! Maybe it breaks.. well?
In fact, I have been brewing a thought along those lines too. It’s uh.. more destructive to Blades though. I kind of.. do away? with downtime phases, but not really. More like assume them. And I definitely do away with stress and add a thing called Momentum that works kind of like your Courage mechanic. This kind of thing should end up being great for pink mohawk stuff. Or a game about war heroes. What have you.
By assuming a crew less emboldened to things like heat or stress, and providing alternate routes to the trauma and entanglement fictions, we can take the underlying game philosophy to very.. different places. I, for one, am hyped to hear how it works out for you!
The part that seems like it might break is “wrapping.” If you have 7 stress and take 4 more, you take a trauma, clear your stress track, then fill in the two additional marks. I’m not sure of the best way to capture that in a system where you’re subtracting from a pool rather than adding to one.
I suppose the easiest is to suffer trauma at zero and then refill the track when you suffer trauma?
I’m pretty sure stress doesn’t roll over when you take trauma, actually
Thomas Berton right you are! That makes for an easier transition. (Also, holy crap have I ever been punishing my players more than the rules called for!)
Your players just exist in a REALLY gritty take on the Dusk. 😛