Wise Turtle Publishing

How does Gear work, and how is it different than an Attack.

Gear lets you put an ability into an item and pass it around. For example a jet pack would be flight ability gear, A magic invisibility ring would be invisibility gear, and so on. The upside is you can let your friends temporarily borrow it, the downside is an enemy could temporarily steal it.

Do you build it like a character? Or like an Attack in which you have to hit 0 if you don't want it to cost Endurance?

Though it’s odd to phrase it that way, Gear is like its own sort of “mini-character.” You have to balance out Abilities and Weaknesses, with a difference no greater than your level in Gear. However, any Attacks gained with it can cost Endurance if you like. You can even throw an Endurance Reserve to avoid it drawing from a character’s personal Endurance.

So, let me get this right, Clay. So I can spend as many points on the 'Gear' (which in this case is a sword) as long as it (for this example) does not break +2?

Chris Brady wrote:So, let me get this right, Clay. So I can spend as many points on the 'Gear' (which in this case is a sword) as long as it (for this example) does not break +2?

by balancing with weaknesses. yes. (provided you have Gear+2)

Exactly. You don't get a lot of benefit from it, it's just a way to neatly package sets of attributes. Though it does make it easy to pass around or remove, which can be advantageous.

Just got the game, never played it, and was looking into this exact question.

To make sure I understand I'd like to post an example. Let's use a magic sword for this, and Gear +3.

So with 3 points I could give the sword Agile +2 and Evasive +1, giving whoever wielded it increased attack and defense ( +2 and +1 respectively) but, that's not super awesome yet an magic needs downsides so I'll give it Room for Two at -2, giving the sword a voice and personality, perhaps a former wielder who causes the current wielder nothing but grief. That gives me 2 more points which we can put into Strong +2 to make the wielder mighty as well as fast.

So then whoever wields the sword get Agile +2, Evasive +1, and Strong +2 (stacking?) but has to deal with the Spirit of the Blade (Room for Two -2).

Am I on the right track?

That's just an example, but let's say the sword is possesed by a long dead samurai, with a strong moral code.
With the character having Gear at +3, the sword itself could have:

Abilties (total: 5)
+2 Strong
+2 Agile
+1 Evasive

Weaknesses (total: -2)
-2 Code of conduit (Bushido)

5-2 = 3 which is the character's level in gear.

Another example could be: A gigantic sword which is difficult to handle in tight spots (Like gatsu's sword from Berserk)

Abilities (total: 5)
+3 Strong
+2 Agile

Weakness (total: -2)
-2 Awkward size

5-2 = 3 which is the character's level in gear.

How about this?



Gear +2: Wakeru no Seikatsu Dai-Katana (Divider of Life)

Accurate 1
Effective x3

Weapon (-1)
Requirement: Two hands on Hilt (-1)

You’re mixing your Abilities/Weaknesses with Perks/Flaws. Gear has nothing to do with how many Perks or Flaws you apply.

You would instead create:

Gear +2
-------
Attack +2 (Accurate, Effective x 3; Requirement: Two-Handed, Weapon; 10 END)

If you didn’t want an Endurance cost, you would need to reduce your Perks or increase your Flaws.

If you really wanted to create this attack exactly as written, you would need:

Gear +4
-------
Attack +4 (Accurate, Effective, Requirement: Two-Handed, Weapon)

This would have the same DX and rolls as the attack you wrote out, but without the Endurance cost. Of course it’s a little more expensive for the character’s point buy, but that’s the rub of having a 6 DX Attack. But if you wanted to cheapen it up some:

Gear +3
-------
Attack +4 (Accurate, Effective, Requirement: Two-Handed, Weapon)
Slow -1

Same attack, but a little cheaper since while you are wielding the weapon, your defenses (and general speed) are slightly impaired. But because it’s Gear, and not a permanent part of your character, you can drop the sword if you really need to.

Aaaaand I'm confused again...

OK, let's see if I can understand it. A fantasy cloak stolen from a recent anime.

Salamander Wool

This cloak is designed to resist fire based attacks. It's rather heavy and scratchy but it's also very effective.

Gear +2

• Resistance: Fire +3
  Bizarre Appearance -1 (It's got only one colour, and it pretty obvious it's a magical cloak)

How's this?

Yep! That’s how it would work. Though the magical cape would have to be pretty conspicuous to warrant Bizarre Appearance. It would need to shimmer like fire or have glowing filagrees or something to that effect. Something that makes people stop, take notice, and make certain assumptions about its wearer. (Also, if every adventurer walks around with magical equipment, that would also hurt the case for Bizarre Appearance.)

Let's try this again:

Gear +2: Wakeru no Seikatsu Dai-Katana (Divider of Life)
-Attack +2

So if I built it like this:

Accurate (+5), Effective (+5)
Requirement: Both Hands on Weapon (-5), Weapon (-5)

Is this correct, and if yes, would that mean that it would do x3 damage?

If not, what did I do wrong?