NEWS

6e Play/Stress Test

  • 154 Replies
  • 28006 Views

Lormyr

  • *
  • Catalyst Demo Team
  • Omae
  • ***
  • Posts: 820
« on: <08-26-19/1854:07> »
A few friends and I resolved to move past the theory crafting / assumption portion of 6e, and run an actual play / stress test this coming weekend. I've got the adventure all set for them, and I just got the last player's character an hour ago. I thought it would be interesting to let you guys know how our actual play goes after this weekend. In the meantime, here is the cast, and my initial thoughts looking over what they built. For note, we did chargen strictly as written and in step order.
"TL:DR 6e's reduction of meaningful choices is akin to forcing everyone to wear training wheels. Now it's just becomes a bunch of toddlers riding around on tricycles they can't fall off of." - Adzling

Lormyr

  • *
  • Catalyst Demo Team
  • Omae
  • ***
  • Posts: 820
« Reply #1 on: <08-26-19/1913:32> »
And last one.

They are all pretty min-maxed, which I both expect from them, and is also the stress test portion of our endeavor.

Cage looks pretty straight forward. Good soak, good defense dice, good DR. Crazy good grappler. With AR 21 and double-jointed, he is basically guaranteed his 2 edge for a turn when he attempts to grapple someone, and 18 dice to hit and 13 strength pretty much guarantees he will. Less attack dice for his archery, but still a high pool, and if someone gets hit by the nacrojet tree-trunk arrows it's just done.

I KNEW at least one of them would go for grenade abuse. Collateral (good name too Mike, well played) is going to be a combat problem. 18 stealth dice to force most defenders to make that surprise test, 5d6+14 base initiative is a pretty compelling case for always going first, and starting a confrontation with 2 grenades in hand probably means at least one high priority target is guaranteed to die before he gets to act. Possibly 2 if the surprise test is failed so they can't take avoid incoming. Good defense dice on him too, but soak and DR probably means anything that does land will hurt.

Lockdown is probably the most basic. Good matrix skills, and the ware/attribute/skill selection makes him a reliable combatant on top of that. I don't see any particularly nasty surprises from him though, just good raw bf/explosive rifle damage with a good attack pool.

Revenant is interesting. 24 base defense dice, 13 soak dice, DR 18 means that outside of improbable rolls nothing but grenades will ever touch him. Outside of spirits, he has absolutely no offense though. Do you need anything else though? Not having offense spells means he can hang his 3 concentration spells into physical resilience rather than need to worry about drain. When summoning, presumably from a safe location, he can have the drain resistance spells up to handle the summons, then pop on his normal load. Clever.

Sovereign I think I am most concerned about outside of Collateral. 22 drain dice, Thunderbird reduces the edge boosts on air spirit summoning by 1, and spending reagents will give him an edge when summoning. So each time he summons it is basically a free 1 or 2 edge use, so likely either turning a 4 to 5 for an extra hit for him, or making the spirit reroll a hit for that 66% of losing it. I am not sure if he will aim for the oversummon, or just shoot for the golden standard of walking around with 3 force 6's. He is incredibly unlikely to suffer drain from the later, even across multiple attempts, but he likes to go big, for might aim for a pair of 7's or 8's. He's more likely to fail to get services out of that than to get hurt trying it though.
"TL:DR 6e's reduction of meaningful choices is akin to forcing everyone to wear training wheels. Now it's just becomes a bunch of toddlers riding around on tricycles they can't fall off of." - Adzling

Stainless Steel Devil Rat

  • *
  • Errata Coordinator
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 4572
« Reply #2 on: <08-26-19/1922:27> »
I'm not sure if the golden standard for summoning will be 3 spirits each at 100% Magic rating.

I rather expect it will be 1 spirit at 150% and 3 spirits at 50%.
For Magic 6, that'd be a F9 for offense and 3 F3s for utility and (formerly) Watcher style duties.

Tho with my local group, I expect they'll be doing 2 F9s. Or maybe trying for 1 F12 and 1 F6.
RPG mechanics exist to give structure and consistency to the game world, true, but at the end of the day, you’re fighting dragons with algebra and random number generators.

Shinobi Killfist

  • *
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 2703
« Reply #3 on: <08-26-19/1924:55> »
I suspect the 2 impaired attribute thing will become the gold standard for min maxing qualities. Virtually any character can find 2 stats to dump. And 64+ karma is 64+ karma. And a lot of 1 strength trolls to get the most out of that.

As for spirits. Depends on how much people build for it I guess. Facing 18 dice is a hard road without focusses etc. so unless you are all in on summoning even force 6 might be a gamble.

Stainless Steel Devil Rat

  • *
  • Errata Coordinator
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 4572
« Reply #4 on: <08-26-19/1928:04> »
18 dice, but the spirit will be rerolling however many hits the summoner has in edge at that moment. Rerolling the spirits hits is the best option for your sole edge use... it increases your odds of succeeding at all, getting more services, AND lowers the drain you'll soak.

As a house rule I expect spirits should be edging against the summoner. If only when oversummoning. "Ok you made it reroll all these hits, NOW its gonna reroll all failures..."
« Last Edit: <08-26-19/1936:42> by Stainless Steel Devil Rat »
RPG mechanics exist to give structure and consistency to the game world, true, but at the end of the day, you’re fighting dragons with algebra and random number generators.

Shinobi Killfist

  • *
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 2703
« Reply #5 on: <08-26-19/1944:26> »
18 dice, but the spirit will be rerolling however many hits the summoner has in edge at that moment. Rerolling the spirits hits is the best option for your sole edge use... it increases your odds of succeeding at all, getting more services, AND lowers the drain you'll soak.

As a house rule I expect spirits should be edging against the summoner. If only when oversummoning. "Ok you made it reroll all these hits, NOW its gonna reroll all failures..."

If the player feels free to use edge on summoning them why shouldn’t they feel free use to defend.

Stainless Steel Devil Rat

  • *
  • Errata Coordinator
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 4572
« Reply #6 on: <08-26-19/1945:50> »
because you only get to spend edge once per action.

RPG mechanics exist to give structure and consistency to the game world, true, but at the end of the day, you’re fighting dragons with algebra and random number generators.

Shinobi Killfist

  • *
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 2703
« Reply #7 on: <08-26-19/1947:30> »
because you only get to spend edge once per action.

Maybe I don’t get it but yeah the one action they spend edge on is resisting your summons.

Stainless Steel Devil Rat

  • *
  • Errata Coordinator
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 4572
« Reply #8 on: <08-26-19/1954:59> »
because you only get to spend edge once per action.

Maybe I don’t get it but yeah the one action they spend edge on is resisting your summons.

Ah you meant why wouldn't the SPIRIT be spending edge anyway...

because they explicitly have none :(  They can't even gain edge for themselves or their controller.  Although, since they CAN spend edge (a summoned spirit can only gain edge by way of its summoner GIVING it some) it's arguable as to whether an unsummoned spirit has any edge.  Hence, my calling it a house rule.  It's a liberal interpretation at best that spirits can spend edge against being summoned...
RPG mechanics exist to give structure and consistency to the game world, true, but at the end of the day, you’re fighting dragons with algebra and random number generators.

Shinobi Killfist

  • *
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 2703
« Reply #9 on: <08-26-19/2018:24> »
Ah I assumed that was just a limit of when they were summoned. You don’t gain edge as a puppet type thing. Not a limit on whether or not they had edge at all.

Lormyr

  • *
  • Catalyst Demo Team
  • Omae
  • ***
  • Posts: 820
« Reply #10 on: <08-26-19/2158:26> »
I think that Force 9 out of character generation might be a bit difficult to do routinely, but 50 or so karma down the road it will be substantially easier. Less an issue of drain and more one of successfully gaining services verses those 18 dice.
"TL:DR 6e's reduction of meaningful choices is akin to forcing everyone to wear training wheels. Now it's just becomes a bunch of toddlers riding around on tricycles they can't fall off of." - Adzling

Shinobi Killfist

  • *
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 2703
« Reply #11 on: <08-26-19/2216:50> »
Yeah the drains not a big issue it’s not that hard to be at 20 drain dice so soaking 7 ish even a good roll by 18 dice you are probably only taking 12 so even a crap soak roll and you are up. But they fairly routinely will get 9-10 hits which is hard to beat until your pool is boosted with a focus and edge.

I’m baffled that they got rid of force in spells but kept it in spirits given that high force spirits were a much bigger issue than high force spells.

Jimmy_Pvish

  • *
  • Newb
  • *
  • Posts: 75
« Reply #12 on: <08-26-19/2238:11> »
Let's see 6e reputation/heat system can have any real meaning this time.

I'm surprise that no-one in your group choose to go "Anticipation of Doom" build.
When I read that option, I convince myself that this is THE option for non-mage combat build.
« Last Edit: <08-26-19/2240:42> by Jimmy_Pvish »

Stainless Steel Devil Rat

  • *
  • Errata Coordinator
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 4572
« Reply #13 on: <08-26-19/2322:10> »
Yeah after seeing those character sheets, I do feel even more strongly about wishing Impaired Attribute didn't give 8 karma/level.
RPG mechanics exist to give structure and consistency to the game world, true, but at the end of the day, you’re fighting dragons with algebra and random number generators.

Shinobi Killfist

  • *
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 2703
« Reply #14 on: <08-27-19/0045:39> »
Yeah after seeing those character sheets, I do feel even more strongly about wishing Impaired Attribute didn't give 8 karma/level.

Even if it capped at one level 8 points is massive for what it does compared to other 8 point flaws. A lower max in a stat I wasn't going to max anyways has 0 story benefits and has no interesting oops moments for your character and doesn't really impair them.  1/2 initiative with the inability to take move or sprint actions your first combat turn is brutal though at least I guess you can run from a grenade move, but at least your character freezing up in fights might have a interesting story element. Its going to be really popular not just because you can get 56 point or so out of it quick but because a lot of the negative qualities really can hit you hard and for a trivial karma gain.  But hey hey-fever gets you 11 points.