Jason Richer – Blades in the Dark G+ Archives

Scum & Villainy question here. So one of my players will be playing a xeno and on page 57, under starting ability it states:

“If you want to play a xeno (a member of an alien species) with a decidedly exceptional physique or abilities, you can replace your playbook starting ability with the following: Xeno: You may spend stress (0-2) to perform an inhuman feat only members of your species can do.”

On page 296 however, under Xenos in Play, it says to discuss what sort of things we can expect their xeno abilities (plural) to do with some guidelines for 0, 1 or 2 stress abilities.

My question is this: for a xeno character, mechanically, do they simply have the option to replace their starting playbook ability with a predefined stress-costing xeno ability or should they be fleshing out a whole host of differing-stress-cost abilities they can use on top of their playbook abilities? This really was not clear to me in the book.

Thanks in advance for any clarification y’all can provide.

Starting up a new Scum and Villainy game soon. One of my players wants to play a Manufactured Mystic that uses The Way to “see the matrix” when he hacks into things so I created an alternate starting ability for him. I would love some feedback. Is this too strong? Too weak? Overlap too much with another ability?

Ghost in the Machine

When you push yourself on a HACK action, you may make a fortune ATTUNE roll. On a 1-3, the visions granted by The Way are too cloudy to decipher and grant you no additional effects. On a 4-5, The Way guides your mind and highlights appropriate exploits; you gain potency on this HACK. On a 6, you become one with the machine; you gain potency on this HACK and the stress cost is refunded. On a critical, you gain potency, the stress cost is refunded and you clear 1 stress.