Ammunition flaw

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Chris Brady
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Ammunition flaw

Post by Chris Brady »

...is a little over penalizing, I'm finding, compared to it's cost. Typical anime weapons that have limited shots do not take hours to reload. I'm thinking of altering it to just an action, and that the player can decide how many rounds the weapon holds under say 20 to 30. Any more then it doesn't use this flaw.
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Clay
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Re: Ammunition flaw

Post by Clay »

Maybe your games pan out differently from mine, but I’m hard-pressed to think of a case where a character makes anywhere near 20 or 30 attacks without a period of rest in between. Certainly not often enough to warrant any Endurance cost negation.

You may want to consider Activation instead, or Requirement “requires an action to reload every 2/3 turns.” This might be closer to what you’re aiming for (no pun intended.)

But if you just lose an action every 20 attacks...well...I’m not sure if that’s worth any Endurance reward.
cassius335
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Re: Ammunition flaw

Post by cassius335 »

Clay wrote:Maybe your games pan out differently from mine, but I’m hard-pressed to think of a case where a character makes anywhere near 20 or 30 attacks without a period of rest in between. Certainly not often enough to warrant any Endurance cost negation.

You may want to consider Activation instead, or Requirement “requires an action to reload every 2/3 turns.” This might be closer to what you’re aiming for (no pun intended.)

But if you just lose an action every 20 attacks...well...I’m not sure if that’s worth any Endurance reward.
Just curious... why does it "take a full day" to reload the Ammunition flaw, even at lower amounts of the flaw?
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Re: Ammunition flaw

Post by Clay »

Don’t take the name too literally. Just because a weapon has ammunition does not mean it has to take the Ammunition Flaw.

If a weapon uses ammunition, but all that means is your character reaches down to his bandolier and pops in a few more rounds without fuss, that’s not a Flaw, that’s flavor. Only something that actually impacts the players options in a significant way is worth an Endurance kick-back, and having to spend one action every 20 shots isn’t worth much of anything (to me.)

Personally, I’d treat the typical “out of bullets” as an activation of the Weakness/Flaw Complication and Weapon. Instead of being disarmed (as with a sword) the gun jams or runs out of bullets. It eliminates note-taking and behaves more similarly to most cinematic stories. Or, as the book suggests, use the Activation Flaw instead.
Chris Brady
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Re: Ammunition flaw

Post by Chris Brady »

Then let's name it something else? Because ammunition in the context of gaming is usually referring to weapons whether handheld or bigger.
"And now my friends, a Dragon's Toast! To life's little blessings; wars, plagues and all forms of evil. Their presence keeps us alert-- And their absence keeps us grateful!" - T.A. Barron
cassius335
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Re: Ammunition flaw

Post by cassius335 »

Chris Brady wrote:Then let's name it something else? Because ammunition in the context of gaming is usually referring to weapons whether handheld or bigger.
I'd have to agree. Having a flaw called "Ammunition" that seems to assume the spare ammo is a day away is very strange. A name change to something more intuitive (something people can take literally) would perhaps be useful.

Or maybe spilt up the flaw into two: One "Ammo" flaw for "Number of Shots" and another for "Reload Time." (Level 1 = a round, Level 2 = a minute, Level 3 = an hour, etc)
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Re: Ammunition flaw

Post by Sabersonic »

It would probably be slightly beneficial to note that a normal reload time would be approximately a Turn, though this can be increased to a Round or longer as cassius335 suggested to lower the cost of the weapon/ability itself.

Granted, there's already a Weakness that can simulate the Reload time, that being Activation but unless it was properly noted, one would make the assumption that the Activation meant use of the weapon rather than the reload of said weapon.
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cassius335
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Re: Ammunition flaw

Post by cassius335 »

Sabersonic wrote:It would probably be slightly beneficial to note that a normal reload time would be approximately a Turn, though this can be increased to a Round or longer as cassius335 suggested to lower the cost of the weapon/ability itself.

Granted, there's already a Weakness that can simulate the Reload time, that being Activation but unless it was properly noted, one would make the assumption that the Activation meant use of the weapon rather than the reload of said weapon.
*nod* Activation really only works for a slingshot or similar (something you really do need to load just before firing), not for something with multiple shots.
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