Craft an elixir to clear stress? Pros, cons, dos, don’ts?
Craft an elixir to clear stress? Pros, cons, dos, don’ts?
Craft an elixir to clear stress? Pros, cons, dos, don’ts?
19 thoughts on “Craft an elixir to clear stress? Pros, cons, dos, don’ts?”
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Sounds like the sort of thing that might be half as effective, and likely very addictive. 😉
Yes but it should take a lot of effort and possibly have a HIGHLY IMPORTANT flaw
What effect would it have that would make it a more worthwhile activity than indulging vice?
Jason Eley I could see it being useful mid-score.
Stress is one of the main economies of the game: all the game is actually based on juggling the clocks, stress, heat, factions and gold.
Reducing around 3-4 stress in downtime it is a rough equivalent to 1 gold or one rep – the cost of an additional downtime action.
A potion that is used during downtime is not a big deal
Reducing stress during a score, however, makes the thiefs a LOT more sturdy against trauma – they can use the potion when they’re at 4-5 stress, to be ready to take pretty much any consequence without problem.
So, if the potion is to be used during a score, i’d fetch a good cost for it. Perhaps even a 4 tick clock score for every 1-2 stress potion, or 1 gold for every potion.
Or you can have the potion opening a clock, like “Addicted” or “Numbed soul”
Yeah, at the very least you could clear stress out of downtime, which’d help avoid trauma and dropping out of a conflict, and perhaps avoiding overindulgence complications.
I think the flaw would be exactly the same as the benefit, it makes you feel relaxed. Which is bad because your suddenly not as responsive to dangers as you should be, and you make mistakes that a worried person wouldn’t, and it turns off your adrenaline when you need it. You know how they say that you shouldn’t operate heavy machinery while taking certain medication? Well, Duskvol is heavy machinery, every building, person, and ghost of the damned place.
Mechanically I’d represent this as either harm if using already existing mechanics or adding a new rule that when rolling a 1-3 on on a resistance roll, the stress isn’t taken and you still get the consequence. I’m not sure how this would work in play as I’ve just came up with it thought.
Gorinich Serpant interesting drawback.
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Gorinich Serpant What if the drug made it impossible to push yourself, as you’re too relaxed to care?
other ideas for cost/drawbacks
– take harm, e.g. numb, dazed
– take a trauma on first use, e.g. obsessed/addicted
– draws out stressful energies causing an electrical discharge in the area, intensity dependent on stress cleared; 1: tiny spark, 6:
electrical maelstrom
– only temporary clear affordable e.g. stress returns end of next downtime bumps Quality up 4 or 5 levels (a day or several), while permanent bumps up Quality up 7 or more
– requires a human spirit as an ingredient
– soul chugging would make it arcane, so each use ticks a 4-clock to attract Spirit Wardens ire
ideas for benefits
– clear half current stress, rather than a set amount
– still requires a vice roll, perhaps overindulgence still possible
– take -2 stress on any resistance roll you make during the hour/a few hours/the score, e.g. on 1 take 3 stress, 4 take 0, 5 clear 1, 6 clear 2, Crit clear 3.
I did a similiar thing, having a blade which cleared stress from its wielder (kind of a leeching weapon), but (there’s always a but): Everytime it did that there was a chance to tick a clock which would create a trauma. So, clear stress but don’t avoid trauma and a little bit of story what all this is about. Player could decide if he wants to play the story in direction of the blade or not. Not sure if this is working, because the campaign is on hold right now.
Stefan Struck cool. I like taking trauma as a cost. But yeah a few folk I play with would shy away; yet others would leap at it. I guess that’s why the invention creation questions work better as a conversation. No fun in making the costs so high no player wants to craft things.
I would advice against trauma – i mean, you reduce stress specifically because you don’t want to get trauma.
Yeah, counterproductive drawbacks are a real concern. I was thinking about them with the idea that drinking the elixir causes an electrical storm in the area. Because the drinker might get incidental harm from that effect and that would be counterproductive if they resisted that. It might be useful to swap stress for harm, to shift the cost elsewhere, but resisting that harm is probably counterproductive.
A one-off trauma would be counterproductive if you used it only once. But if you used it over and over, then it might let you avoid several potential traumas for the cost one sunk trauma. So as a cost it would demand committed use, addiction, if only for the sunk cost fallacy.
But yeah, I agree it probably is too high a cost.
You reduce stress to stay longer in action. That don’t mean you don’t want the drama (because you may get sweet XP or an interessting story from it). You just want it later or other. If you’re interested I could post more details about “den Aderlasser” which is – of course – a Jira blade 🙂
A Jira blade! Nice
The “I take a trauma now to stay in the battle” idea is actually VERY BitD, in my opinion. It’s the kind of hard choice that makes me really excited, actually.