perm. feats

comedyofhate · perm. feats

To slow down power creep one of the ideas is to make perm. feats once per day, any ideas?

This is just an idea, nothing official.

You opinons please?

<<Edited for me being crap.>>

sm0keyb

The flip side of power creep is player frustration at not being able to do what their character should be capable of. We're all supposed to be the best of the best. In some ways we're super human. Many of our characters can survive combat better than RL SAS, Delta force or Spetznats but the specialist can't always do what I could do, never mind a real 40 year Royal engineer vet.

comedyofhate

Indeed character progression both in skills and IC progession in the organisation is needed. Crippling slow character progressions is not fun. Still play balance and the need for new players and esiting players to have fun has also got to be taken into account.

I for one love character progession. The problem is not the players, it is not the refs, I think we all believe in the same thing. The problem lies with the fact that no one expected the system to last past three or four events, and the rules were originally designed with no character progression built in.

this means we are left with the situation with that power creap is taking place , and we need to remedy the situation.

Part of it lies also in the writing of plots and storylines, and the stating of combat encounters, as well. They have to be challenging and interesting for all characters of all levels. This can only come via interesting story lines, Combat encounters that avoid "five jaffa" on path and help encourage Ic immersion.

sm0keyb

Could some of this be addressed by writing some plot around specific feats which might only be given to newbies as their random feat? Thus complete newbies could become vital to certain missions.

Another thought, not sure if it's in the right place here but some plot could be made ref independent if you had hardware tasks that if done correctly would result in a working widget? DHDs spring to mind. I could build a "hot wirable" DHD! Doesn't need a ref, if the team get it right, the gate works & we all go home. If not.......

Broz

I don't hink once per day, all said and done those feats were legitimatly gained and have proven life saving for some characters. Even in the case of characters such as Lucky, Molly or Calvin they only acount for 2 or three uses at the most.

On the other hand I do support the idea that feats should be capped (mostly motivated by when I did the maths on what it means towards vitality amounts have 7 A Personal Sense of Purposes available.)

Though you have hit the nail on the head there with you last comments in that a lot of it is dependant on the plots and missions. If there weren't montsters running around with spray haevy or oodles of cover fire then players would feel less compelled to buy 5 jammy bastards evenry event.

Reaver

How about trade-ups for 3 permenant feats for a 'super feat'?

Example = Lucky Bastard.
Make an automatic trade-up when you get three for a one-a-day Lucky F**ker that lets you avoid Ring Devices or Gate Whooshes and remove the ability to do that from the Jammy/Luckies. (Which I don't think is in there anyhow, but people use them for it)

This removes the possible stock-pile of Lucky Bastards.

Harry Font

do we want people to play and progress .. i think the answer is yes

if we had once per day perm feats at the last event then at least 4 characters would be dead..

i was targeted by 2 criticals in one mission

then 3 on the next

that would be me dead..

as would probably be doc gorden and modetski

so no

Colour Sargent Rob Knight

Maby we should limit the number of perminant feets rather than making them once a day, I agree with alex it would be unfair and result in much higher casulties/less action.

comedyofhate

Okey dokey, if anyone wishes to any comments all is good, but the players who have commented are all singing the same tune, which is a resounding no. Smile

Harry Font

this is suposed to be a hero type event.. if you take away the hero type effects then it stops being that

there is no quick healing the system..

yest at the last event a healing couch was put in !!

why..

coz the dmagae being delt out

if you take away the feats then you have to reduce the power of the bad guys.. have to balance it for play (to a degree)

Fenric

Whereas I'd like to see the removal of "healing couches" - but I would like to see Vitality increase a lot less quickly than one per hour (which does mean most people seem to be on full vitality - especially with PSP and WHAJTDs)

Perhaps 1 vitality per 2 hours (so basically overnight the majority of people will start a new day afresh with vitality)

Olivia Chase

The healing couches had to heal the body damage, which is what effectively takes the player out of the game. Two vitality per hour is good for vitality, but makes no difference if you're on -3.

However medical rules etc are for a different thread...

Fenric

People are ultimately careless if there is limitless healing available.

comedyofhate

I think this subject has a lot to do with event balance and how combat plots are written. If a plot writer throws wave after wave of gribblies, then players no matter how many hits they have are going to be ground down.

A good example of this is the final mission of the final weekend. Not only did the team have to to contend with fast moving hand to hand gribblies, their own movement was constrained by enemy fire. On top of this you have to contend with the gribblies mobbing or or two targets.

I would also consider last weeks event to be a high combat, medium threat event.

For an average mixed team of six characters versus jafar for instance, how many jafar are reasonable?

eight waves of three? eight roadbumps if the players have the ammo.

Three waves of six jafar, difficult

two waves of twelve jafar, exceptionaly challenging, even for a combat team.

One wave of twenty four jafar. Team KIa.

In the final instance you are talking roughly 384 damage calls approx to take them all down.

But this doesn't take account the pc's getting flanked, surrounded, melee etc?

the job of the plot writers is to write challenging storylines, my job is to ensure play balance in the rule system.

challenging combat storylines comshould not just involve combat, the best combats involve both the pc's and the monsters having their own set objectives to achieve. The more objectives the better. This adds interest to otherwise fairly dull mass combats, it makes it more interesting for the monster crew and more interesting for the players.

For instance last event.

Pc's Blow up the cave, kill the hordes of zombies, stay alive, rescue the tank girl Okay.

Zombies, kill em all.

A better example of a combat mission

PC's objectives
Capture the communication post intact from jafar.
Prevent jafar shutting down the communication post
Prevent jaffar sending a distress message
(stealth, combat and tactics required, sniper skills etc.)
Send own message from comms post. (comms challenge)
Identify and extract the free jafar who has an identifying mark on them, whom is based at the station and is disguised as one of the jafar station.
(sneaky characters may be able to use him a diversion to get into the base)
Inside the post, their are encrypted documents that the players can capture.
(encryption skill, used either at the post or more likely at the player base, that can be used to introduce more plot, see how base plot is introduced there).

Then you can have the crew brief.
You have the spy of course.
Maybe one of the jafar is constantly at the posts dead man switch and can only be lured away by tasty doghnuts that all of the jafar know about.
Maybe their are a couple of jafar who are waitinf for the boss jafar to go for his daily walk before they can slip off and spend the afternoon with the local women.
Maybe the rest of the guards just want to play dice when the sergeant knacks off. With the seargeant going at a certain time they wont be as alert.

How many jafar do you want for this mission, how prepared do you want the monster crew to be on, what defensive tactics do you want the jafar to employ when they defend this comms post all effects how much damage the players are going to take.

This was not a dig at paths weekend plots, merely pointing out that rules and plotlines should be used to complement eachover. Otherwise it can be like mixing two malt scotches in a whisky glass, you cannot be certain about how well they will blend together.

this probably makes no sense except for me.

Harry Font

i agree a referee is there to make sure that the scenario is not out of balance to the potential capabilaties of the players

he is not there to lead them by the hand and show them the way

if the team are stupid and screw it up so be it

if they are sorted then they can do the job.

on the last mission we got pinned down and in no fit state to carry on the assualt. So using the tolls available we secured a holding position and called for back up.

we have done it before.. thats what ready teams are for.. though recently it seams that the rapid reaction team principle has gone out the window.

combat has changed from the first games and is far more deadly now. we are getting better at tactics so are fighting harder. any new player joing has a quick learing curve. I think brining training missions back for newbies would be a good idea.

Colonel_moletov

In relation to the zombies on the weakend the way i interprated it (and the other srew members) was that it was a 28 days later senario; i.e. the zombies see someone go after him/her, see someone closer and being pritty crazed go for the nearest target. I think therefore from a monsters point of view it has a lot to do, as i have just alluded to, how the monster/crew interprates the current situation.

Naturally however as hat states this is different with free thinking semi-rational jaffa.

Sean