Had my 4th play yesterday. 3 players, 1 that tried every iteration of the rules, 2 new players. Game went really well, everybody loved it, so i’ll jump right in the important part of my report.
QS V3 as been a really good improvement to the general feeling of the game.
Pro:
– Claim map added that many more objectives to the player and a fabulous tool to the master
– Details to consequences is really useful (p.13)
– Downtime are well structured and my players really loved to have it all written down. They loved entanglements, ect
– Playbook have better special abilities, feeling a little bit more unique (I’m not a big fan of “Veteran”, feeling some things should only be done by a certain character)
– Players really like to know “what’s up”, they know what is going on, what most of their action mean and what is their objective. They know they need to reach a certain amount of hold to raise their tier, they are able to plan wich gang they’ll befried and wich is going to be their foe. That’s something that is very unique to a RPG, feeling a little bit like a boardgame, my players loved that feeling and it’s really easy to get the master involved in the really long-time planning (sadly I just played one-shots)
Cons:
– I didn’t like to have to roll the tier of the gang to acquire asset, making it really difficult for a new gang and it doesn’t feels right. I would simply do the exact same thing than the “gather information” roll, player explain what they want to do and roll the action, no need for a different rule
– I like the new resistance rule, but I think the amount of stress is out of place. To avoid danger should never be that easy that it cost no stress, but I think a roll of 1 is to expensive. I’d go with something similar to every other roll: 6: 1 stress, 4/5: 2 stress, 1-3: 4 stress
– Finally, I feel there’s something missing from the effect of complex action roll, as if the suprise of the roll has to few of an impact. I know it was a lot of roll (Action, Effect, Resistance…), but I used to like to roll for effect. I’d propose a single dice (1-3: 1 ticks, 4-5: 2 ticks, 6: 3 ticks) and then you’d apply all bonus/malus on a 1:1 basis (ex: potency -1/+1). And the effect dice could even be rolled at the same time than the action roll with a different dice color. Some playbook could have a special ability that gives 1 more effect dice (and the possibilities of critical) to certain action. (Ex Cutter get an additionnal effect dice to 2-handed weapon)
– To replace the veteran special ability, a character could pick from a generic list available to every character of a certain crew type (I’ve seen really great ideas for a cult-crew, but i’m sure we could do the same with every crew type.
So those are all ideas and reflection, feel free to comment and share your toughts.