So when a crew plan a score, they choose the load level they are going to have for it. Maybe they all choose a light load for a social score.
That means that they get to tick three boxes worth of items as and when they decide to use them, that’s super.
But how to 0 load items work in this scenario? Although they have a checkbox next to them, they don’t actually contribute to that light load, do they? So what is the idea around them?
Is it that any 0 load items everyone can assume to have them all the time? But why the checkbox then?
I’ve been back and forth over the rules and didn’t spot anything that clears that up for me, so any insight would be helpful.
So it does cost 0 load, but it’s less about the mechanics and more about the fiction of the game I’d say. For example, say you use the spiders palm pistol, that item is now part of, and subject to, the fiction of the game. For example, even if said palm pistol is 0 load or could still be the subject of devils bargains, maybe it also informs consequences. Ex: a standard pistol is super loud and obvious so a complication from that could be extra heat. How does the palm pistol change this? How does it relate to position and effect vs a normal one.
The opposite. Those objects are rather light, so they do not count towards the total load, but it does not mean that you could have a multiplicity of them or that anybody can have them all the time. Once they are checked, they are checked, and if they are used, spent, destroyed or discarded, etc, then you can’t have them any longer, even if they are zero load, because you have no box to check.
So presumably if there was a security pat down and you’ve already checked the palm pistol, then you’ve got it and have to decide how to get it past the security guards. But if you hadn’t yet checked it, then we don’t worry about the security pat down, but if later on you produce it… we would still probably want a flashback to explain how you got it in past the security guards, no?
Is a better example that a devils bargain might cause a 0 load thing to be crossed off for this score and not be available?
As you can see, I’m still wrestling with the general case reasoning for 0 load items and a checkbox for them!
The palm pistol itself is described as a thing which would evade a search (p 83). So here the reasoning is not valid, but yes, it could be the case for another suspicious item.
Devil’s bargains can be anything. So why not? It’s not a severe one though. But they don’t have to be very severe all the time.
I can see how the box is a bit confusing. You could maybe permanently fill it in for 0 Load items, then use slash marks for the boxes on stuff with Load that you declare for use during a score.