I had a player come back last session with quite a few questions that came up during play. I’ll freely admit that some of these might stem from misconceptions built from my own mistakes running the game, but I thought I’d ask anyway.
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The Whisper has multiple abilities which refer to the “magnitude” of something. We couldn’t find the definition of this term.
Can the Whisper affect beings that it Summons without the Control ability?
Does the person who executes a Setup action roll for effect outside of the Follow-Through action?
After a Setup action, does the person performing a Follow-Through receive the Setup person’s exact effect dice result, or do they just add the number of their dice to their own?
Can the “on point” person only be altered through taking stress to switch or through setup? Can it be changed between scenes freely?
If you are Backup do you have to take a Backup action? Can you choose not to back up a team leader?
When a character takes trauma, how long is there character considered “out?” For the scene, score, or session?
Outside of the Hound’s ability that gives a boost against people who have been scouted, there does not seem to be any mechanical advantage in doing a “planning” phase. Since every “job” requires a certain number of encounter wheels with appropriate challenge, finding out more information about your target ahead of time seems to serve only narrative purposes.
If you fail a roll during a wheel challenge which currently has no threat of complication, since you can’t retry the exact same thing again, is the only way to continue the challenge to invent a complication so that a new skill can be used? For example, failing a roll to load stolen goods onto a transport after knocking out all nearby guards and disarming alarms. Since only one skill makes any sense for loading stolen goods, do the players now have to create a new problem with the goods just so they can use a different skill to try and fill in the last slice of pie? This seems counter-intuitive.
A lot of good questions, and i’m curious to see how others respond. I’ve got a little to share on a few:
I expect the On Point character can change freely between scenes. At the beginning of each scene, lay out a brief sketch, and ask which character is On Point only once the group has enough information and needs to plan a course of action.
It doesn’t seem like Backup characters need to be engaged in an action. They may be in the scene, but doing their own thing and not involved. Or just watching idly without assisting.
In a game last night, during the planning phase my players were able to set up a meeting with their target on the pretext of selling a valuable item. Not wanting to risk anything of value, they discussed creating a forgery to pass off as valuable. I advised them that the plan was good, but perhaps unnecessary, and would be a great flashback if needed, to which they agreed. During the course of the game, they found a great opportunity to whip out the forgery; because it was clearly discussed before hand, i gave them a zero-stress flashback. because they didn’t design the forgery until they were in session, they were perhaps a bit more clear in what they wanted to design. All in all, i think it worked out great to discuss the option during planning, but delay the action until a flashback when they were more clear on what they would want.
Finally, the question about a challenge with no threat of complication – why does it need to be rolled? Assuming they have plenty of time and means to accomplish a thing, they can do it. If they lack time or means, then there is a threat or complication. I guess i’m just not clear on why the characters in your example can’t just be assumed to have successfully loaded the stolen goods once the guards and alarms were handled, unless they had to do it quickly and/or unseen.
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Andrew Fish Thanks Andrew. Granted, the example provided was a bit rough, and I think it was mostly a by-product of me messing up. See, my plan in that scenario was that the players did have to load the stolen goods quickly and quietly to avoid arousing suspicion, but in retrospect there didn’t seem to be much to ‘do’ without having to invent additional complications onto the initial thought of “load the boat,” ie a patrol of Bluecoats.
If you are Backup do you have to take a Backup action? Can you choose not to back up a team leader?
— No one has to fill the “Backup” role if they don’t want to. That being said, if you’re just talking about the people who aren’t On Point, they do not have to assist if they don’t want. That’s because assisting will cost 1 stress
When a character takes trauma, how long is there character considered “out?” For the scene, score, or session?
— My group counts that character as “out” for the rest of that current score in which they suffer trauma.
The person On Point person also changes whenever they use any On Point move like Lead a Group Action, Overcome, or Setup. I’d assume once a scene is over you can change too though it’s not stated. Backup is a tad confusing since it in the action roll it states “+1d for Backup” but the Teamwork section pretty clearly states everyone not “on Point” is technically “backup” that the +1d is a special Backup:Assist move that is available but not required.
The supernatural Whisper stuff is obviously still being fleshed out since it’s a big rules gap. I’m curious what will become of the “magnitude” mechanic that is implied but not discussed in much detail. The Channel ability seems to imply that you gain extra Supernatural Effect dice (use electroplasmic energy to produce supernatural effects. Costs stress equal to the magnitude of the energy 0-4). Not sure about the summon part I don’t have an answer but ‘m curious how others might handle it.
Your outside complications seems pretty much is what exactly should happen. The game is about creating things out of whole cloth rather than having every complication preplanned. If say they already knocked out the guards and disarmed the alarms you could have it a snap to load everything and thus not call for a roll. If it’s still complicated to escape with the loot without being seen (say by Bluecoats or maybe a rival gang who also came for some piece of the action) then they have to rush it and may fail. Failure then becomes either being seen or maybe they rush and drop the loot the the water while loading the boat. Next action is then to either rescue the goods from the murky water or fend off/hide from the Bluecoats so they can escape with the goods. The same clock for this “escape with the loot” becomes then no longer “roll to load quietly” and then becomes “roll to fend off or hide from or trick the Bluecoats” so you can get away with the loot. Or if the danger was that they drop it then the clock becomes rescue the loot from the murky waters. It’s all about having flexible Clocks that revolve more around goals obstacles than specifics set actions.