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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 9853348" data-attributes="member: 6785785">I mean I would generally use it for its special resistance the first chance I got if I thought it made sense to resist. You're right, actually accepting the consequences is a possibility, so I should have been clearer. As for the character being aware of the ability... I think they absolutely do. they know they're particularly good at avoiding detection, and can often manage to deal with it even when they are detected. That doesn't seem like some kind of unknown thing. Yes? Characters in Blades have a lot at their disposal to mitigate bad consequences. This is what allows the GM to hit them hard... to not feel the need to pull punches. It allows them to follow through fully on the threats that have been introduced. Stress is, therefore, designed as a fully player used resource. The player chooses when and how to use stress, and when not to use it. Its use is never dictated by the GM. That's important and very intentional. This gives the players the ability to survive their recklessness. Yes, I consider all those things as a player when I consider using my resources. Why wouldn't I? Again, they're representative of things in the game that the character would know. About how close are we to being found out? How much do I have left in the tank? These are things people have an idea about. The "So you do not stop to consider the mechanics when you play? " is important to me because it implies some need to do so. And I don't know what I'm supposed to stop doing to play the game. Similar to Hit Points? I think that's a pretty bad read of Stress and only a superficial read of Clocks. As I said above... Stress is spent only at the choice of the player. That's radically different from Hit Points right there. It also serves as a resource for a few things... you can Push for an extra die or Push for Effect, you can power special abilities, and you can resist. It's far more robust of Hit Points, and, in my opinion, a much better representation of something like "effort" or "will power" or "stamina", or some combination of those things. For Clocks, yes, they are a countdown. But they are (almost) always some external thing. This Clock is about the Red Sashes discovering you've sneaked into their sword academy. That Clock tells us how close you are to building a Hull. The other Clock tells us how bad the Gang War in Crow's Foot has gotten. A Clock can be used for a variety of things... unlike Hit Points. And also unlike Hit Points, it's pretty clear what they actually are. I mean, we still can't agree if Hit Points are meat or not after fifty friggin years. Looking at a Clock that's "Bluecoats Arrive" and is at 3 out of 4 ticks tells us something. Probably something like "Out on the street you hear whistles and shouts, and you know it's only a matter of moments before the Bluecoats arrive and everything goes teats up... what do you do?" Sure, and I made another point about how that may not be the case. Abstraction is not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself. I don't think things that are representative in some way need to be exactly so. Some level of abstraction is likely necessary a lot of the time. And yes, sometimes the mechanics can shape play a bit. Obviously, the initiative order is a big one in D&D... it really forces everything into a rather absurd stop and go situation that we know is solely "because game". If you feel that Blades does this, then I would say you should instead look to the fiction first and figure out why besides "because game". There are explanations that can be found for these things that will never be found for initiative. I don't think you and I are aligned on what it means to think about what my character would do. I mean, no matter what I do as a player, I narrate my character doing something, right? So that's what the character does! No the character doesn't say "I'm going to spend Stress and Push myself for an extra die here!". I do that as the player. For the character it's something like "Damn, we're in trouble... if I don't make this shot, we may not get out of this! I'm putting everything I've got into this!" This aversion to game mechanics is just odd. Play the game!Eh, this is why hypotheticals aren't really helpful. I don't think what you're describing here is really what happens in Blades, so I don't know what work this example is meant to do. Let's talk about actual games and actual rules, and if possible, actual examples from play. Those are much more enlightening. Sure. I mean, have you never wound up in a situation where you weren't entirely sure what your character would do? That there was more than one possibility you could see happening? If so, do what's interesting. It's still in character.</blockquote>

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