This week’s chipping away session on Steam Thieves has me updating the Scale section to include my game’s lingo. I’ve also added the name of a playbook ability that doesn’t exist yet… from a playbook that doesn’t exist yet… fun! We’ll get there. Of that I have no doubts.
My minor progress for the 26th week of my accountability project is presented below:
Steam Thieves
(Steampunk x Forged in the Dark, Ashcan here [link])
Scale
Scale represents the number of opponents, size of an area covered, scope of influence, etc. Larger scale can be an advantage or disadvantage depending on the situation. In battle, more people are better. When infiltrating, more people are a hindrance.
When considering factors, effect level might be reduced below limited, resulting in zero effect—or increased beyond great, resulting in an extreme effect.
If the Steam Thieves’ special abilities give “+1 effect,” it comes into play after the Operator has assessed the effect level. For example, if you ended up with zero effect, the +1 effect bonus from your Dive Bomber ability would bump them up to limited effect.
Also, remember that Steam Thieves can push themselves (take 2 stress) to get +1 effect on their action.
Every factor won’t always apply to every situation. You don’t have to do an exact accounting every time, either. Use the factors to help you make a stronger judgment call—don’t feel beholden to them.
Further distractions
While listening to Bolt Thrower in the car I got to thinking about a Forged in the Dark trench warfare game. The song was At First Light…
Would focus on the turf aspect of the rule system a lot. Aim of the game is to increase your trench network. ‘Scores’ could be assassinating rival officers, tunnelling to plant demolitions, gathering intel, building new trenches and going over the top to try and take an enemy’s positions. Not sure if it would be best to make this a WW1 game or to make it sci-fi (Cowboy Bebop’s Titan War anyone?).
A Cold War style Forged in the Dark game would also be cool, with a doom track counting down how often you can screw up before someone launches the bomb.
