Author: Erik Bernhardt

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.

—

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.

During a recent playtest, my Whisper complained that it seemed like it was harder for him to gain playbook advancements than the other playbooks. He argued that the actions other playbooks are rewarded for are more likely than those presented in the Whisper playbook. I pointed out that it was really the group that decided where they went and what they did, and it’s up to him as to what goals he wants to pursue.

Still, he might have a point. Does the Whisper maybe have a harder time gaining playbook advancements because those advancements are more powerful? In other words, is it a balance thing?

In either case, our discussion ended up on a valid point, in that players should be aware that they may discover that they’re playing a character they don’t actually want to play, and shouldn’t feel bad about re-rolling if that’s the case. That’s kind of a broader point when it comes to all roleplaying games, but I still thought it was salient.

Heya, just backed the Kickstarter and checked out the Quickstart Guide, and I had a few questions. I already checked through the FAQ, and didn’t see any answers, so I’d figure I’d ask here.

How many obstacles should the players face in a given score? In the sample play, the players are shown 3. Should the number of obstacles vary along with the amount of players? How much is too much / how much is too little?

When are the obstacles introduced? Do the players have to gather information in order to know what obstacles they’re up against before they run into them?

Should “gathering information” scenes be played out / rolled for, or should the GM just answer questions based on how players say they’re gathering the info?