p. 11-12 Bard Feedback
…From My Friends
Who treats a 6- as a 7-9? You, your ally? The character aiding? The character rolling a move? The text is very vague and there are some extremely broken interpretations like any time two characters work together treat all 6- as 7-9. That seems bad.
It would be nice if Disarming and Open gave you the choice of asking and additional question or not allowing them to ask you.
Worldly intentionally one rank shorter?
Aid is a move, and “From My Friends” refers to that move; I could see how it could be interpreted otherwise, though. Any suggestions on how it could be better worded to make “Treat any result of a 6- on the Aid roll as if it were a 7-9” the explicit wording?
Alternatively, if that’s too busted – which it might well be – do you have any suggestions for an alternate move?
Worldly is intentionally one rank shorter, yes; we’ve cut down on multiclassing so that it’s not so prevalent. And I like that idea for Disarming and Open!
I think the wording you suggest is good and clarifies the intent. I will point out though that with the static +1 from With a Little Help and the improved Bond rules which make it easier to accumulate bonds with your party, this could easily be rolling +3.
The effect of treating 6- as 7-9 is also kind of boring. It’s mechanically the same as With a Little Help, only sometimes you get +2 instead of +1. I do like the flavor though, and I like that different classes have basic moves that they have affinities for and that Aid is the Bard’s affinity.
I don’t have a suggestion that I’m in love with but some ideas:
…From my Friends could replace With a Little Help and instead of giving +n change Aid so that it stages the Aid roll up a category like in Uncharted Worlds.
Alternatively, how about “On a 12+ your Aid is couldn’t have come at a better time, you move together as one. Treat it as if the character you aided rolled a 10+.”
Changing it into a 12+ actually seems like a great idea!
“When you Aid an ally, or when an ally Aids you, on a 12+, you move and act as one. Treat the result of the action as if you rolled a 10+.” (Or similar; perhaps only when it’s the Bard Aiding their ally?)
This means that, with a good roll (say, +3 from Bonds, and +1 from the Bard move), a Bard might just be able to help someone so exceptionally well that they don’t need to spend a bond on the effect.
I think it’s important to make sure the roll result is unambiguously tied to which roll it comes from so I’d say something more like this:
“When you Aid an ally, on a 12+, you move and act as one. They may treat their roll as if they had rolled a 10+.
When an ally Aids you and rolls a 12+, you may treat your roll as if you and rolled a 10+.”
Even if the second part of this were dropped (only the Bard can super aid on a 12+) this is still quite powerful.
I think it makes sense if it’s only for the Bard Aiding someone else. They may be good at teamwork, but they’re not THAT good.
“you act together in perfect harmony” because you’re a Bard, see.
Actually this brings up another question, the multi class moves state one level lower, so that means characters would have to be level 7 to take 6+ level moves right? and they would have to be level 2+ to take any other move? is this important?
Seth Halbeisen The intent here is to offer some niche protection between the classes, because it’s important that each feels unique (especially if they both exist in a single game group).