Gear and Attack

[Atmo]

It depends on the setting/game you have. Yes, that's the answer.

Gear You have equipped yourself with an item (or a collection of related items) that augments your own talents and capabilities.
It may be a power suit built to increase your strength and toughness, a magical sword that grants you mystical power, or a customizable mechanical arm with an array of special effects. While you
might consistently have access to this Gear, you are not required to use it all the time. Nor is its availability guaranteed, as it can also be lost, broken, or taken from you.

Nor is its availability guaranteed, as it can also be lost, broken, or taken from you.

It means you can have it or not during some scenes, or borrow the Gear to another person. Imagine a character buying healing potions on a magical shop of sorts: this Gear will have Heal and Ammunition on its smallish sheet, no Health (or yes, in the case you want to break it later).

If you don't want to have Gear in your game, that's fine. What I don't understand is this inquisitory crusade against its very existance.

[Oni]

Gear has its place. It has a couple unique advantages. First, it can be shared. Second, any weaknesses associated with the gear can be set aside easily if they become inconvenient. These are both minor advantages, but they are advantages, certainly enough to offset being occasionally disarmed, needing a round or two to get to your gear, or other similar small hiccups in accessibility. Also, if I were running a game and deprived a character of their gear in a more significant manner, I'd toss them a drama dice or two on occasions where this would significant impact the character. I would be less inclined to do so for foci, vehicles, etc since they already got their reward for those options.

Foci versus gear also tells us something about the character. When a character has a focus it tells us there is some special relationship between the character and the focus. For instance if we look at Natsuki's gauntlet it's a focus, so we know there is something inherent to her that is important to its function. It could be a few different things, but I'm going to guess it's some sort of bio-scanner that locks out people that aren't Natsuki. No one else is going to using that gauntlet short of making a clone of her or maybe Braun hacking into it. I.e. Extraordinary circumstances. Focus is where you want to go for things that only function for a certain bloodline, or species, etc. I'd even allow combining gear and focus for circumstances like a power armor that only works for a certain species, but you can bet the moment you attach that weakness I'm going to occasionally go out of my way to pick on it and be less generous with the drama dice when I do.

Or, if the player isn't hunting for extra points, just let then choose at character creation if the gear is sharable or not, in which case treat it as regular gear, as that is just trading one minor advantage (sharability) for another (can't be used against you).

Anyway, rambling aside, gear has a distinct function and reason for being.

[The Reddest Mage]

So what's the point of gear?

Again, I think that if there's ever a third edition, Gear gets removed from the list of attributes. If none of the NPCs use it, what does it tell the average player?

Personally, I think it's the other way around. I think Gear should be kept while Focus and Weapon are dropped. Basically, I think it's more intuitive to think of owning useful items of equipment as an advantageous Ability (Gear) than it is to think of having them as a disadvantageous Weakness (Focus) or Flaw (Weapon).

Since when is owning a mystical elemental sword, a giant sci-fi boomerang, a super strong iron gauntlet, a magic gun, a super powered armor mech suit, a laser sword, etc. considered a Weakness or Flaw?

[Clay]

And this is why I have both options in the game.

Some people, especially those that grew up with stuff like Champions and GURPS, totally get the idea that an item is a “weakness”, while others will want a more narrative approach and just cram the whole thing under Gear and call it done.

In any case, I think all that can be said about these attributes has been said already. Just pick the method you like, ignore the one you don’t, or use both interchangeably. OVA is about options, and not all these options may be for you. And that’s okay!

[The Reddest Mage]

And this is why I have both options in the game.

Some people, especially those that grew up with stuff like Champions and GURPS, totally get the idea that an item is a “weakness”, while others will want a more narrative approach and just cram the whole thing under Gear and call it done.

In any case, I think all that can be said about these attributes has been said already. Just pick the method you like, ignore the one you don’t, or use both interchangeably. OVA is about options, and not all these options may be for you. And that’s okay!

Indeed. Well said.

[Chris Brady]

After discussing it with my players we've decided that Gear works best as a Flaw, like Focus.

Because although it can be shared, it's also easier to take away than a focus. A lot of foci isn't obvious, like (in the current campaign's case, Myu Myu's locket) but a magic sword is clearly visible.

It also will mean changing Shadowman if we ever get back to the Karis campaign (His Focus will be Gear) also, it gives Braun a point or two back, because his laptop IS gear, and CAN be destroyed.

[The Reddest Mage]

After discussing it with my players we've decided that Gear works best as a Flaw, like Focus.

Because although it can be shared, it's also easier to take away than a focus. A lot of foci isn't obvious, like (in the current campaign's case, Myu Myu's locket) but a magic sword is clearly visible.

It also will mean changing Shadowman if we ever get back to the Karis campaign (His Focus will be Gear) also, it gives Braun a point or two back, because his laptop IS gear, and CAN be destroyed.

If you turn Gear into a Flaw though, how would it be any different than Focus? As it already is, a magic sword can be made with the Focus Flaw, and a magical locket can be made using the Gear Ability. How obvious the item in question is has nothing to do with it.

[Chris Brady]

If you turn Gear into a Flaw though, how would it be any different than Focus? As it already is, a magic sword can be made with the Focus Flaw, and a magical locket can be made using the Gear Ability. How obvious the item in question is has nothing to do with it.

Gear tends to have a power intrinsic to it. A focus helps augment what's already there. It's a hand wave mostly. But if you lose a focus you're not losing the power.

Combining both is pretty much what we're doing.

Actually, the new guy (JRutterbush) with his Warmage just pointed out the big difference between Gear and a Focus.

A Focus can be taken away, but it often cannot be used against you. A piece of Gear can.

Let's use Auren and Fukiko (although my character Aurunox would fall under the Auren category.)

If you take away Fukiko's locket, she can't transform into Myu-Myu, BUT you also can't use it to become Myu-Myu.

If you take away Orion from Auren (or the Rune Blades from Aurunox/Hayato) you can stab him with his own blade.