Constructive criticism about the Breakers gang type:
I don’t think they should have patron, it doesn’t make as much sense as the assassins having it and the overlap is meh inspiring. I propose a move that helps the breakers collect or set up protection rackets. This seems much more in line with what a gang of toughs (similar to the Peaky Blinders perhaps) would have instead of a person paying them to go rough people up. My argument is this let’s the players be Al Capone rather than going and finding him as a boss. Plus if the breakers still really want a patron they can just use a vet move on it.
Just my 2 cents, and I don’t mean denigrate your amazing rpg writing skills John!!
I believe all the crew types have an option for a Patron. And that makes LOTS of sense, because patrons make cool story elements for any type of gang 🙂
You can totally ignore buying the “Patron” advance and have a “Fuck ’em all, we don’t need ’em!” mentality, rising up on your own. It’s just going to cost the normal amount. Also, your patron doesn’t own you and isn’t the only source of jobs, they’re simply a stronger faction who has a vested interest in your crew.
Or did you mean you never do jobs for another faction, focusing solely on your needs?
Once you rise up I see no reason they’re no longer useful and their leader bleeds out with a shocked look in his eyes after you pull the knife from his back. That’s the drift in the Dusk!
Actually I’ve been thinking about this a lot (oh also it’s only 4 of the 6 that have patron so not all) and I think if I was running or in a breaker clan I would probably run a few missions (and then a few maintenance missions every so often down the road) of them shaking down businesses and count the “patron” as the collective pot of money they get in turn. The move is even financially based so it kinda fits.
Hmmm, you’re right, Cult and Smugglers don’t have Patron (although Smugglers have Leverage, which I guess is kind of in the same design space).
I’m sure you can skin “Patron” to your liking, but honestly, having a specific person or group who’s kind of dangling a prize over the PCs just seems really awesome for the game, in practically any scenario 🙂
Breakers control turf — to a much deeper, more everyday extent then pretty much any gang type. It’s very easy for me to imagine somebody who wants to buy their influence with cold hard coin.
The problem I have with the Patron advance is that its mechanical and thematic directions are at odds with each other.
It’s a strong choice thematically that determines a lot about your crew in the fiction. As such, if you want to take it, you want to take it early, as the fiction that “allows” you to take the move can be pretty hard to come by (same basic effect with slightly different colour should happen with, say, the Hawker’s Ghost Market).
Mechanically, though, it does exactly zero of anything for you for the first five to nine sessions. And even when it does finally kick in, it saves you 4 coin, which is piddlysquat at that timescale.
It’s only reasonable mechanical use is to make the mid-to-late game tier advancements something akin to manageable.
But thematically, the crews at that point are as powerful or about to get as powerful as some city institutions. That’s the point where they need an outside force working on their behalf the least.
It could be that there’s an intended effect of “you can only go so far without someone upstairs putting in a word for you.” And that’s a fictional effect I would quite enjoy!
But in my games at least, the rest of the fiction absolutely does not support that. At that point, the PCs are just really, extremely, almost astoundingly capable. Which means that during the scores or downtime, you do not see them needing outside help. Thus, at that point Patron seems a necessary mechanical choice, and a very lightweight, handwavy thematic choice.
While I was writing this, I also thought of a minor fix that adds mild mechanical usefulness already implied in the move that makes the advance a slightly more worthwhile early pick. Simply add:
“Add your patron as a Contact of your crew.”
John allows Adam to swap around his playbook to better reflect Cantor. I can totally see allowing that to happen for your crew and replacing Patron with another crew’s ability. Maybe they take Crow’s Veil from the Assassins to keep the heat off for longer. Or, since they’re so self-sufficient, the Bound in Darkness Cult ability. The possibilities are pretty extensive.