Boons and Banes

[mancerbear]

I want to get boons and banes clar, so please bear with me.

My character wants to climb a mountain. I have Athletics, and I going to do it freestyle with no equipment. The weather is lovely, and there are plenty of hand holds. Let's say it's average difficulty (8). This would be just a standard roll, no boon, no bane.

Now, I decide to pull out all of my mountain climbing gear and I'm all decked out. Nothing else has changed, but because of my equipment, I now have a boon, right?

On the other end of the spectrum, a forego my equipment, but half way up the mountain, the weather turns ugly, with high winds and rain. I find it hard to see, and the Rock is slippery, so I now have a bane?

Putting it all together, I have my equipment, weather turns to crap, so my bane cancels out me boon for just a standard roll.

Does that sound about right?

 

[rust2]

According to the Central Supply Catalogue there is also a modifier of +1 or +2 (depending on TL) for the Climbing Kit, and I am not sure whether the use of the equipment should give both this equipment modifier and a boon.

 

[dmccoy1693]

Yes, Boon and bane cancel each other out, as you'd described.

Having said that, I wouldn't give you a boon for normal gear. I'd give a DM+2 to the roll. I'd also give a DM-2 for normal bad weather and a bane for exceptionally bad weather.

More often than not, i give boon and bane based on how the characters are doing something. So I'd give a bane for having an argument over commdot while climbing or a boon for having a hover drone shine a light on or Google glass point out various handholds, non-standard gear that doesn't give you a direct assist as much as provides a variable bonus.

 

[mancerbear]

The climbing kit does give a +1 or +2, but if I'm using more than just the kit? Rope, grapnel gun, and winch as well? I'd be inclined to give a boon for that as well as the +1 or +2 DM.

The boon/bane description isn't all that clear really, which is a pity.

 

[rust2]

The climbing kit does give a +1 or +2, but if I'm using more than just the kit? Rope, grapnel gun, and winch as well? I'd be inclined to give a boon for that as well as the +1 or +2 DM.

Lovely weather, plenty of handholds, a maximum of equipment ... - with such conditions I doubt that I would ask for a skill check at all. :wink:

But there is really a rules problem caused by the possible overlap of task difficulty, equipment modifiers and boons. In your example one could treat the action as one of a lower task difficulty and/or use the equipment modifier and/or apply a boon. I suspect that each referee will have to find his own way to handle this. I am tempted to give boons or banes only for advantages or disadvantages the character could not foresee before the activity in question: While climbing he discovers that someone else has already placed pitons in the rock (boon), there is an unexpected rock slide (bane), and so on.

Just an idea.

 

[arcador]

I find the skill system pretty good, especially how it is explained in the core book:

* How difficult the task normally is the Target Difficulty. Doing something faster, or slower - increased or decreases the difficulty with 1 level, considering the referee allows it.

* Equipment or specific circumstances give bonus DM or penalty - those cases are listed in the rules.

* Any other circumstance which helps or hinders the traveler imposes bane or boon.

Example: Trying to spot movement on the ground from a flying vehicle might have a difficulty of 10. Trying the same thing via a small window, while the flyer is making a maneuver gives a bane.

The mechanics of boon and bane is - while they increase or decrease the probability of a task, they don't influence the minimum or maximum effect. If someone is overqualified for a task, the bane can't stop him. Or if someone is underqualified for a task, the boon can't help him do it.

---

I agree it might create difficulties in deciding what to apply. But whatever a referee decides it will probably be the best choice. My advice is - if you want to make something easier or harder, but to stay in the same range of effect - use boon or bane.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

I want to get boons and banes clar, so please bear with me.

My character wants to climb a mountain. I have Athletics, and I going to do it freestyle with no equipment. The weather is lovely, and there are plenty of hand holds. Let's say it's average difficulty (8). This would be just a standard roll, no boon, no bane.

Now, I decide to pull out all of my mountain climbing gear and I'm all decked out. Nothing else has changed, but because of my equipment, I now have a boon, right?

On the other end of the spectrum, a forego my equipment, but half way up the mountain, the weather turns ugly, with high winds and rain. I find it hard to see, and the Rock is slippery, so I now have a bane?

Putting it all together, I have my equipment, weather turns to crap, so my bane cancels out me boon for just a standard roll.

Does that sound about right?

Boon/Bane is looked at last whenever a roll is needed, after the difficulty, skill level, and hard-wired DMs have been determined already.
Remember: Boon/Bane is simply a type of skill check roll. And the Referee decides if any skill check roll is going to be a 2D, a Boon, or a Bane roll.

 

[legozhodani]

Ill be using them to aid/punish the players. If they plan something well with ideas I never thought of then that's a few sneaky boons here and there :shock: . If they blunder around and act like fools and ignore the obvious and go on the piss (yes they have done that before, hit the pub rather than investigate the foe) then banes have been earnt :twisted: . Also fun to use the boon and bane on them but not say why. They may have upset someone along the line or unknowingly aided some one, a bane or boon from out of the blue should always be fun. You can always tell them after. I use the boon system anyway, and have done for a few years so it's not going to be much of a shock to them.

 

[dmccoy1693]

Here's my rule of thumb:

• if life is obviously better with something, it gets a flat bonus.
• if it might help or might do nothing, it gets boon.
• if it is cool and cinematic, it gets a boon, but it might be more difficult

Similar is true for bane.

Examples:

• Using a grill to cook meat over an open flame instead of putting it on a stick and holding it over the fire: flat bonus
• When questioning someone that doesn't want to talk, they offer some kind of incentive: boon.
• Player wants to shoot the gun out of someone's hand, boon but higher difficulty.

Does this help?

 

[dmccoy1693]

Ill be using them to aid/punish the players.

IME, punishing players doesn't work all that well. IMO if a player is going off the rails and not taking an active part in the main story, it is because the player is not invested in the story and punishing them is not going to make them want to be in the story. Instead they need some aspect of the story that interests them more. This can be a small addition of a certain type of NPC to interact with or this can be an entirely different campaign, but it comes down to the GM talking with the players.