Notecard Play Aid: Getting a Handle on Position/Effect

Being an artist, I ended up designing and printing out a variety of notecard-sized player aids for my group simply because the system has so many moving parts, which can seem overwhelming with the number of options available. Each card details one of the actions a player can take (Push, Devil’s Bargain, Resist, Flashback, etc). I was quite happy how effectively they worked in play!

So I also designed a bunch of notecards for myself with reminders of things like levels of Harm, the various Consequence options for rolls, etc. And because I was having such a difficult time wrapping my head around the Position & Effect resolution system in Band, I put together a notecard for that as well.

I’m posting the card here to see if I’ve missed or misunderstood anything before I print it out for play. Here’s how the card works:

  1. Run through the list of Position modifiers to determine Position.
    1a) Determine what Harm/Consequences would be based on Position and Scale/Threat modifiers.
  2. Turn the card 90-degrees clockwise, run through the list of Effect modifiers to determine Effect level.
    2a) Determine the Ticks/Consequences for the opponent based on Effect level.
    –inform the players, discuss, make modifications as necessary–
  3. Based on the result of the roll, check either or both of the appropriate columns for outcome.

Obviously, I haven’t included “None” or “Exceptional” Effect levels (I can keep that in my head); I also know that Position outcome doesn’t have to be Harm (which, again, I can keep in my head…I put Harm on the card because math), and that a Setup is either Position or Effect, not both.

Note: This design is based on my understanding that, essentially, Position is how screwed you are and Effect is how screwed they are. And that while Harm is based on Position, it is calculated separately from it (ie: a Broken is a Threat 5, so even if you are in a Controlled position against one, the base amount of Harm it deals to a Threat 1 Legionnaire is lethal (5 – 1 for Position, 4 for difference in Threat), so you’re going to want to peg that roll of 6). Hopefully I’ve grasped it correctly.

p_e__chart_notecard

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Have you check the cheat sheet by Paul Beakley on The Indie Reading Club blog?
https://www.indiegamereadingclub.com/indie-game-reading-club/band-of-blades-position-effect-cheat-sheet/

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I really like that card! I’d love to see the other ones!

I have, Oliver! Thanks!

Paul’s cheat sheet was one of my inspirations for putting this notecard together and wrapping my head around the workings of the P/E mechanic holistically. I wanted something a bit smaller for at the table, and quicker (for me) to flash-reference (the right-to-left order of Paul’s columns kept tripping me up).

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Thomas, I can do that! I’m glad you like it! I put the cards in sets as a few 8.5x11 sheets in PDF format for printing out.

But I would like to check with Stras–or someone else who can OK it–before I put them anywhere for download, since I used (heavily cropped and faded) pieces of the images from the rulebook to provide a little bit of texture to the backgrounds. I don’t want to step on toes.