Melissa Fisher I’ve had some time to digest the Oni playbook (which I think is great by the way!), but I have a few questions/clarifications that I’m curious about if you don’t mind me asking.
Regarding Henge:
If one turns into something like a bird, a bat, a mouse or some other discreet creature:
does one become a normal-sized version of said creature, a human-sized version of said creature, or can one just not become those kinds of creatures?
Reading the note near the end, it suggests the one of the latter two options to me, but also calls out the Kyojin background. Does being a Kyojin Oni allow one to become the normal-sized version of those kinds of creatures?
Can Henge be used to mimic the appearance of others (for fun and/or profit :3 )?
Regarding Favorable Form:
The move says “you can take -1 ongoing…” Is it optional? I mean, if one wants to use Henge and doesn’t really ~need~ any of the bonuses at the moment, can one choose to just not activate Favorable Form?
Regarding Fire and Thunder:
Is one limited to just one element or can one use change to other elements on subsequent uses? Additionally, is some kind of cataclysmic multiple-elements attack valid?
It says ” you can use your CHA instead of DEX,” but does one ~have~ to use CHA instead of DEX?
Actually, several moves actually share this “can do so and so” type language, and I just want to clarify if the “can” means it’s optional or if you must always apply to whatever the “so and so” portion of the text relates?
Thank you for your consideration and the great product!
Thanks Michael Snow! Here are my answers:
Henge:
The intention is that you can only turn into shapes that are roughly human-sized, not small things like birds and cats. We couldn’t find any Japanese myths were oni changed into small animals, but if you know of any we’re happy to edit the text (since we want this to be as mythologically accurate as possible, within reason).
Kyojin allows you to transform into shapes that have the Large tag. Some oni were pretty big, but we didn’t want all oni to start Large, or take an advanced move to “get big” suddenly.
That said I don’t see anything wrong (either mechanically or fictionally) with transforming into, say, a human- or even ogre-sized rat. We’ll update the pdf to make that explicit.
Yeah, you can use Henge to try and mimic one’s appearance (again, can’t think of any fictional reason why you couldn’t). You could just have the player defy danger when interacting with someone, to see if they see through the ruse.
Favorable Form:
It is optional. You can change your shape all you want, but if you want to squeeze out another benefit you’ll need to take the -1. We’ll also add that to the pdf.
Fire and Thunder:
I think this should just be using CHA, since it’s magic. We’ll edit the move. You don’t have to set your element in stone. I’d say that you should pick the element each time you use it, but don’t see any particular problem with a multi-element attack.
And for the last bit:
Can should mean optional. In the case of Guardian Spirit, you don’t have to take the +1. You can, but then you have to redirect attacks to yourself. In the case of Vanish from Sight, you don’t have to turn invisible on a 12+.
We’ll go through them again and change the ones in which the effect is not optional, and clarify everything in the back portion.
Thank you so much for the quick reply! Much appreciated.