Implementing Advantages / Feats / Edges

[pansophy]

Well, a player came up with the question if there is an Edge mechanism as you would find in Savage Worlds or other games. I gave it a short thought and quickly came up with the following idea: just make it a 'Recurring' or 'Permanent Consequence' that can be invoked once per Conflict or once per Session, depending on how powerful it is.

It was a very easy approach and did not change any rules at all.

An other idea would have been to make the Advantage a Stunt to be used with a Skill. But I think it all depends on the type of Dis-/Advantage one tries to implement. A 'Deadeye' advantage would be best simulated by declaring it a Stunt, but 'Easily Distracted' or 'Access to powerful Politicians' sounds like a Consequence to me.

I love the system. 8-)

[soltakss]

 

6 hours ago, pansophy said:

Well, a player came up with the question if there is an Edge mechanism as you would find in Savage Worlds or other games. I gave it a short thought and quickly came up with the following idea: just make it a 'Recurring' or 'Permanent Consequence' that can be invoked once per Conflict or once per Session, depending on how powerful it is.

It was a very easy approach and did not change any rules at all.

 

I have not played Savage Worlds, so am not sure what the Edge mechanism is.

However, Consequences can be used to gain a number of things, some good and some bad. A well made item might have a good Consequence, such as light or easy to use, a poorly made item might have a bad Consequence, such as heavy or hard to use. Defeating an enemy might get a Consequence of Feared by Orcs, or Hated by Orcs, or Beloved of Orcs, depending on who the enemy was. You can play around with them and use them however you want.

 

6 hours ago, pansophy said:

An other idea would have been to make the Advantage a Stunt to be used with a Skill. But I think it all depends on the type of Dis-/Advantage one tries to implement. A 'Deadeye' advantage would be best simulated by declaring it a Stunt, but 'Easily Distracted' or 'Access to powerful Politicians' sounds like a Consequence to me.

I would agree that something like Deadeye could be a stunt. In fact, many of Legend's Heroic Abilities translate as Stunts in Revolution d100. 

having the others as Concequences works as well.

6 hours ago, pansophy said:

I love the system. 8-)

The more I use it, the more flexible it becomes.

I just need to use it to run a game, now.

In any case, I will be using a lot of the rules in any future RQ game.

 

[pansophy]

Just added a few files to the Downloads section: My house rules, a Revolution D100 Cheat Sheet with a rules summary, and a character sheet for Basic/Narrative Combat. See the link in my signature.

[Tanaka84]

Actually I have done something of the sort for my game

Since my group is lazy and I will never get them to read the main book I wrote a "redux" version (in spanish) for them; as I was organizing the information I had a flash of insight: Stunts and powers are also traits. (Duh I know)
 

Once I started thinking like that, I realized that I could hack stunts into my game (I don’t use advanced combat), in essence a stunt is a trait that a. doesn’t provide a bonus b. changes at least one mechanical variable c. may provide narrative permission (for example Acrobatics and Read intentions both provide narrative permission, they justify why you can use acrobatics to make a Wuxia like jump, or use dodge to avoid bullets)

 

So basically I defined a trait as “a word that specifies something about your character” and it can be an Enhancer, a Stunt, or a Power

Enhancer traits are what we know in RD100 as a “trait”; if you can justify how the trait aids you, you get a bonus to your check, or it can be used for support actions (Denoted on the character sheet with an E after the trait)

Stunt traits on the other hand, do not provide bonuses; instead they may introduce a new mechanic into the game, change the way a mechanic works, and provide narrative justification. (Denoted on the character sheet with an S after the trait) In order to buy a Stunt trait you need to have a pre-requisite Enhancer trait

Power traits are a mix of enhancer traits and stunt traits, that is, it’s a trait that can be used to get a bonus, but which also introduces new mechanics.   (Denoted on the character sheet with an P after the trait)

So a character may have for example

Spellcasting (E), Range (S), Demoralize (P)

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Up till now, it’s just semantics (I’m just teaching the same game with different words), but here is where it gets interesting, let’s say I want to run a game about supernatural creatures, so I come up with two enhancer traits, Werewolf and Vampire

 Now, each enhancer trait can have a family of stunts and powers associated, for example:

Werewolf (E):

Regeneration (S): Once per physical conflict, you may choose to regain 1D6 resolution points. You may do so a second time if you take an “enraged” consequence.

War claws (S): Your natural weapon damage is D6

Protection (P): As per the protection power

 

Vampire (E)

Invisibility (P): As per the invisibility power

Blood sight (S): You never take penalties from environmental sources that would impair your vision

Haste (P): As per the haste power

 

If you are lazy like me, you can get rid of Powers (powers as freeform traits) and just use Enhancers + Stunts, that pretty much hits my crunchiness sweet spot.

So I guess my hack is that I opened up stunts to be like edges/feats from other systems 

Edited August 24, 2017 by Tanaka84

[Zit]

5 hours ago, Tanaka84 said:

So basically I defined a trait as “a word that specifies something about your character”

I like this.

[RosenMcStern]

On 24/8/2017 at 5:56 PM, Tanaka84 said:

So I guess my hack is that I opened up stunts to be like edges/feats from other systems 

I am sorry to tell you this, but... you did not hack anything

This is exactly how you are supposed to use Traits and Stunts.

Quote

Stunt traits on the other hand, do not provide bonuses; instead they may introduce a new mechanic into the game, change the way a mechanic works, and provide narrative justification.

This is a perfectly valid rephrasing of the definition of "Stunt"

[Tanaka84]

12 minutes ago, RosenMcStern said:

I am sorry to tell you this, but... you did not hack anything

This is exactly how you are supposed to use Traits and Stunts.

This is a perfectly valid rephrasing of the definition of "Stunt"

Hahahhaha, i was under the impression that stunts only work under certain subsystems, for example in advsnced combat, good to know I was wrong

[RosenMcStern]

They are certainly more effective when used in conjunction with crunchy subsystems, but there is absolutely no limit to what effects a Stunt may have. In fact, I absolutely encourage everyone (see sidebar on p. 27) to encapsulate their variant and house rules in Stunts, so that they are easier to port to other settings and campaigns.

If your house rule is encapsulated in a Stunt, you can always determine that in your own world that Stunt is automatically acquired with its parent Trait, whereas in other settings only the lone hero who has visited the faraway land of Zipango has it.

[Archivist]

This should totally go in "how do I do that" under "how do I implement" advantages, disadvantages, and edges.