Items in AtD

[varagon]

Hi all!

On page 34 of the Against the Darkness RPG book, items are listed with advantages. In addition, the text describes items has having a maximum of +7 in advantages.

What stops a player from simply picking a pistol and giving it a +7 to hit? Is there some guidelines in creating, modifying, or increasing the advantages of a weapon or item?

I'm discussing allowing weapon advantages to be no higher than a character's combat rank. However, that wouldn't allow players with a low combat score very good advantages.

Another option is to give characters "item" points to build and add advantages to items. For example, give a player +5 item points where it requires 1 item point to buy/get an item, then +2 item points to increase it's advantage. Item points will be given out like experience points each session as needed.

Another option is allowing a character with mechanics or technical skill to add an advantage equal to the rank in said skill when modifying or changing an item.

What do you guys think?

Bob Nolan

[varagon]

Any thoughts?

[Cassandra]

Originally Posted by varagon

On page 34 of the Against the Darkness RPG book, items are listed with advantages. In addition, the text describes items has having a maximum of +7 in advantages.

What stops a player from simply picking a pistol and giving it a +7 to hit? Is there some guidelines in creating, modifying, or increasing the advantages of a weapon or item?

I'm discussing allowing weapon advantages to be no higher than a character's combat rank. However, that wouldn't allow players with a low combat score very good advantages.

Another option is to give characters "item" points to build and add advantages to items. For example, give a player +5 item points where it requires 1 item point to buy/get an item, then +2 item points to increase it's advantage. Item points will be given out like experience points each session as needed.

Another option is allowing a character with mechanics or technical skill to add an advantage equal to the rank in said skill when modifying or changing an item.

We envisioned that item advantages would be set by the game master, so that if a character wanted a pistol, the GM would say, "Fine, that gives you a +1 advantage" at a certain range, or whatever. A character would not be able to simply buy a weapon and decide that it had a +7 to hit. As you can see from the examples, a single weapon may have advantages under different circumstances. It is the total of all these advantages that cannot exceed +7. However, even for a weapon that can give an advantage of +7 total, there could be many circumstances in which not all the advantages would apply.

Requiring characters to use a weapon with advantages no higher than their combat score seems overly restrictive; in that case, a person with no ranks in combat would never be able to use a weapon with an advantage at all.

If you want to give characters a chance to use their own skills to modify items, that is perfectly fine. In the playtest games we have played, the assumptions have been that the Church has either provided equipment (when appropriate) or made arrangements for Justiciars to get what they need through legitimate channels, so they did not need to build their own.

I'll see if I can get any further comments on this matter from the Overlord, who has additional thoughts on the topic of weapon advantages and how it plays out in the game.

[skeetyrbug]

I suggest the shotgun get a +7 enhancement, eh Cassandra??

[Cassandra]

Actually, if you look at the chart on p. 34, you'll see that a shotgun has a +1 Advantage against unarmored enemies and a +1 Advantage at close range. If you want it to have more than that, you'd have to set up the conditions yourself, or persuade a GM that he or she should accept an Advantage you suggest.