I’m continuing work on my noir SF game which is FitD, and one of the things that I’ve been wrestling with is quality, and especially quality of weapons.
In standard FitD games, quality is used to give a virtual tier boost, and ultimately to improve the effect of an action. That can add to effect inflation at worst or lack of clarity in what is going on sometimes. So I want an alternative.
I’m considering whether to allow quality items to be more reliable rather than more effective.
Option 1
One way of doing this would be to allow a quality item to absorb one consequence when in use where appropriate. For instance, a consequence for guns might be “weapon jams” or “runs out of ammo”, and a quality gun allows the first time that consequence to happen it is ignored.
A potential downside of that is extra bookkeeping that might ensue,
Option 2
Another alternative that I’m considering is that if you are using a quality item, you get an extra +1d to resist consequences when performing an action with that item. So it is less stressful to use a quality medical kit, or duel with a quality fighting blade.
The latter is the one that I’m going to attempt to playtest first, and I’ll report back here how it goes. I’d be interested if anyone has any thoughts on this subject (apart from “don’t change it” )
Option one is interesting since it serves as an costumized armor (it reminds me of Wicked Ones’ gear defense). It can be an inquiring way to personalize, define and upgrade existing items mechanicly and narratively, and might work well for a FitD focused around managing limited resources and scavanging.
I think option 2 is interesting. But it could cause fictional problems, because why would the item give a +1 for resisting a consequence, if the consequence has nothing to do with the item or its quality?
We only ever had it give +1d for resisting a consequence if the item was significant in the fiction. e.g.
quality papers being used to bypass a checkpoint. Failure is probably related to the guards not liking the papers, so the +1d applies
If someone was in a fight with a quality blade, they would normally get +1d to resist consequences if the opponent stabs them. If the consequence was ‘rocks fall and crush you’ it wouldn’t, but that would be a pretty poor show if the GM was just trying to cheat someone out of a little bonus.
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