Thursday, June 1, 2017

The Far Marches: Stunt Trees

Moving forward with this project I am definitely getting a better sense for how things will look and what I am aiming for. I think I have a few ideas on fixing the unique skills from the last post, as well as a few clever ideas for down the line(at least, I hope they are clever ideas...we'll see). Now we will begin with how I see stunts working in this hack.

I wish to use stunt trees that fall into the general categories of the classic OSR roles of Fighter, Rogue, and Magic User. I will probably also do a few other stunt trees for other roles and maybe even a couple of smaller stunt trees for the different fantasy races, but I mustn't get too far ahead of myself. Right now I have worked out the basics for how I want the stunts to play out, and I have one complete stunt tree. I would love to hear any thoughts on how it could be improved or ideas for what to put in further stunt trees. My goal with the stunt trees is to have each stunt further down the branch be a little more powerful than the previous stunts.

My hope here is to incentivize specialization and thus allow for something that feels like a class without forcing that specialization. With these trees one could be a magic user and a fighter and a thief, but you would end up without a to of the cool fiddly bits that come later in the stunt trees. If that makes sense. Here, let me show you the stunt tree I currently have fleshed out, maybe that will make it make a little more sense.

Fighter Stunt Tree
A rough map of the stunt tree.
Fighter Basics: Gain a 3 Stress Box. This may be taken a second time to gain a 4 Stress Box.
Bend Bars Lift Gates: (requires Fighter Basics) Once per scene you may automatically succeed at a physique roll to destroy an inanimate object or lift a heavy object.
Weapon Mastery: (requires Fighter Basics) When using a specific weapon type you will deal an additional 2 stress on a successful attack action. You may take this stunt more than once. Each time you take it it must be for a different weapon type. Weapon Types: Swords, Pole arms, Clubs/maces, Chain Weapons, Bows and Crossbows, Daggers and Knives.
Leadership: (requires Fighter Basics) In combat when you use uplifting or inspiring words to aid your others with the create advantage action the subsequent use of that created aspect will grant a +3 on an invoke rather than the normal +2.
Powerful Physique: (requires Bend Bars Lift Gates) You may use your physique for defending against attacks by weapons. If you succeed with style on this defense you may choose to take one stress to destroy the weapon that just struck you.
Intimidating Presence: (requires Bend Bars Lift Gates) You may use Physique in place of provoke when attempting to be physically imposing or physically terrifying.
Counter-strike: (requires Weapon Mastery) When using a weapon type you have mastery in, when you have succeeded with style on a defense action, you may choose to do the difference in success level in stress to the attacker.
Extra Range: (requires Weapon Mastery) You may use a weapon type you have a mastery in as a ranged weapon even if it is not normally a ranged weapon. These weapons now have the ability to attack up to two zones away. If you have mastery with a ranged weapon you may double the normal range(out to four zones, normally)
Armor Specialization: (requires Weapon Mastery) You gain an additional condition when wearing armor, called Broken. This can be used to negate any single physical attack , however it does mean that you can no longer use your armor until you repair it or buy new armor.
Trusted Ally: (requires Leadership) You gain an ally who follows you around and will be of use, this ally has a +1 in three skills, two aspects(high concept which you create and trouble which the GM creates) and it has two stress boxes. You may take this stunt a second time to either increase one of their skills to a +3, or add another stress box to the ally.
Inspiration: (requires Leadership) Once per scene you may place an inspiring aspect on all allies in the scene and they will each get a free use of that aspect. This is very powerful and I am not sure I like it.

There you go, my first stunt tree for The Far Marches. I also have some ideas on how the other stunt trees will look. Here is the rough ideas for how those are going to look:

Rogue : Lucky Bastard; Assassin; Thief : Impossible Luck; Walking Curse; Sneak Attack; Ghost The Walks; Master of Poisons; Second Story Man; Friends In Low Places; Low Knowledge

Magic User : Conjuration; Evocation; Abjuration; High Knowledge : Familiar Strength; Familiar Endurance; Familiar Connection; Magic Missile; Shield; Blessing; Curse; Healing; Book Learning; Theoretical Magic

As I said, I would love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or critiques on how I am going about the stunt trees. I really like how they are turning out but it may be that I am not seeing the long term effects or short term flaws.

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Next: Gear and Stress

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