Stress are like hit points in a non-leveled game (like Call of Cthulhu, where you can't have more than ... twelve, I think). So taking 1 Stress (or 2) is ... not likely to be a best-case scenario. And if Flashbacks automatically bring complications with them (I have no reason to doubt
@Manbearcat on this) then it seems as though it would almost have to be an act of desperation, or one that would guarantee success on the score, or both.
Not exactly hit points, although if you run out, the character is out of play, so they have that in common. But aside from that, it's more like "effort" or "will" or "stamina", or some combination of all of that. It is the resource used to: activate some special abilities, Push an Action to roll an extra die
OR to increase the effect of the outcome, Resist Consequences (including Harm), Assist Others, and Invoke a Flashback.
So Stress really affects so many different elements of the game....to put it in D&D terms it's a bit of a combo of HP, AC and Saves, Inspiration, Aid Another, and Spell Slots/Ki Points/Battle Master Dice/Other Class Ability. If all of those things were managed by one pool of points, then you'd be closer to what Stress means for the game.
I remember thinking when I read the SRD that Flashbacks seemed ... overhyped, and likely to be a really bad idea in play, just based on costs and likely outcomes (not like a bad idea for retconny reasons).
I think it's a rather small element of the game that becomes the focus of much discussion to a disproportionate amount....so I agree in that sense. However, they can be very exciting and engaging in play, and they represent a different take on skilled play.
As an example, the big one I can think of in my game with
@Fenris-77 which
@Manbearcat runs.....our crew was basically assaulting a tavern that had been taken from one of our contacts by a rival gang. We were going to take it back. Upon setting the scene, MBC placed the tavern (which had previously only been mentioned, but never actually "shown" in play) alongside a canal, with a bridge that spanned the canal nearby. Prior to that point, we didn't even know of the bridge.
We decided to strike at the time of a shift change from one group to another in order to get an advantage (they're a little vulnerable at that point) and also to do twice as much damage to the gang. So essentially, we'd need to take out one group outside as they depart, and then the other group inside. This would be a pretty tough thing to pull off.
So I came up with a Flashback for my character, a Leech or tinkerer/alchemist, to have rigged the bridge to explode when the gang was crossing, and that this would look like an accident due to a faulty electroplasmic streetlamp. This would (hopefully) eliminate one group entirely, and also not arouse suspicion that foul play was involved (you can't really kill willy nilly without piling up some bad consequences). The Flashback cost 2 stress, and then I had to make the roll to see if it worked.
I rolled a Success with Consequence, and that left that group decimated (most were killed outright), one was wounded badly but alive, and another was thrown into the canal. So we still had to deal with those two guys, but we were able to do so without too much trouble.
So this decision to use the Flashback meant that for the cost of 2 Stress, the Score was almost halfway completed, and without much blowback at that point. If we instead had decided to engage in a direct fight, or even tried to sneak up on them to take them out, we likely would have used more Stress and perhaps added some other consequences to the situation.
So this was a skilled move on my part, I'd say. But I couldn't plan this ahead of time, because until he started setting the scene, we (the players) didn't know the layout of the site or similar details. But once that bridge was mentioned, it was free game for me to use and incorporate it into a Flashback. I think I added the detail of the Streetlamp in order to make it look like an accident, but I may be misremembering.
Now, this isn't something that really presents itself all the time. As I said earlier, I think we've done 2 or 3 Flashbacks of this kind in our entire campaign so far, and we've done 7 or 8 Scores at this point.
So you're a PC and something unknown to you as a player is attacking and you want to know what it is and what it can do. It might be a matter of life and death, or it might be nothing, or it might not be useful now, but be useful later. You don't just get to have the knowledge for free just because it's not helpful right now. That's why the dice are being used. Unless of course there's no chance of them knowing, in which case it's a no per RAW, or if they would know automatically for some reason, in which case it's a yes per RAW.
The above happens all the time.
It's usually creature lore, one of the most common types, where the information isn't always useful. It's more often useful in a situation where you have a more narrowly defined mystery, like
@Fenris-77's mystical runes example upthread, a success will generally be of some amount of use.
So no actual example then?
Gimme a situation where my party is fighting a monster and I try to recall some lore about the creature to help us, and instead I get nothing. Why would a GM do that to the players?
So ignorance is bliss? That's your argument?
If I want to know something, it's better to know it than to not know it.
Thanks for the more detailed explanation. I knew that there were costs potentially involved, with greater costs the greater the impact. The costs don't change what I dislike about the mechanic as it is stated in Blades, though.
No, they don't, and that's fine. I'm not trying to convince you to like the mechanic. I'm just saying that D&D is not this one way linear trip that many are saying. That there are non-lineaer elements like Blades' Flashback going on in D&D all the time. That's all.
