[Solar System] Armor as Effect
Eero Tuovinen:
I don't think that I'd have ever used the exact example of a plate mail armor in actual play, but in principle the way it'd work at my table is this:
The armor-user makes a narrative point of wearing his armor and preparing to rely on it for his defense. This lays the groundwork for later.The attacker describes an attack that basically highlights the character's inexperience or unpreparedness for an armor-using opponent - the attacker is a barbarian berserker, say.The attack glances off the armor with no effect. The attacker makes the choice of either retreating or trying to find ways around the armor. Let's say he's going to continue trying to attack.Basically anything the attacking player suggests as a way of getting around the armor is going to work, forcing the defender to defend himself in other ways (possibly burning the armor as bonus dice). Effects are inflexible and initiative-lacking things, a character should basically be able to concoct a plan that allows them to bypass the Effect once they're aware of its existence. This might require the character to use some other Abilities, though. In other words, the phenomenon you describe, where characters are totally protected by their Effects while the opponent flails futilely doesn't practically happen in my play because we make a point of being permissive in finding ways for characters to bypass Effects - it's the same principle of permissiveness we have in choosing suitable Abilities for conflicts; the player should basically be able to choose the Ability he wants in conflict, with the SG at most encouraging him to consider a better alternative. With Effects it's basically one good round of extended conflict that you can expect to get out of your Effect before the opponent starts trying something innovative to get around it. Then you can either reposition your Effects, if you can, or suck it up, burn them for bonus dice and resolve the rest of the conflict mano-a-mano. If the opponent thinks that there is no believable way around the Effect, then he is likely to concede the situation altogether and try some other way of getting what he wants.
The more we discuss this, though, the more convinced I am that armor is a stupid example of this usage of Effects in the first place. Perhaps we could pretend that I discussed poison and traps in the booklet, instead? Then again, the armor thing is an useful example in that it demonstrates one way for a character to enter into a multiple-participant extended conflict against the odds and still triumph.
As for your points on game balance, I agree with you in full - without the above method-based soft stuff (which I largely failed to explain in the booklet) the rule about Effects acting in conflict can get pretty overpowering when a player just insists on hiding behind his Effects and letting them do the work for him. I myself like the idea of requiring characters to spend Pool to make their Effects do these tricks, but then, I always like requiring Pool spends. You could also make a Secret that allows characters to create special Effects that can be used multiple times like this. Or, one rule that might work really well would be to just say that all characters need to spend a Pool point whenever they want to make their Effects act in conflict. I think that this'd balance the potential for misuse pretty nicely.
I'll make a point of testing this the next time I set up a Solar System game. Just have to set up a lot of Effects somehow...
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[*] Previous page