Temple Dog Catch

[Deadmanwalking]

It would. The research portion is +1 regardless.

Yeah, you're probably right.

Given that a character with Mythic Strength can destroy reinforced steel barehanded and punches as weapon 6, I think weapons designed for use against heavy armour are probably about weapon 6.

I dunno, some of that 'only' being Weapon 6 is the human body not being able to apply its strength effectively in a damaging fashion to other people (no sharp edges, for example)...something as simple as Claws raises that to Weapon 8. Still, 6-8's probably the range I'd use for such things, yeah.

The real effectiveness of an anti-tank weapon comes from satisfying the Catch of a tank, in my eyes. A car, though nearly as deadly to a human being, doesn't do that.

Hmmm. I'm not sure if building a tank with the existing Toughness rules and thus a Catch is quite the right way to handle such a thing. On the other hand I must admit to not coming up with anything more appropriate right now...

PS: I don't think it's possible for a weapon to have "ignores armour" as a quality. Weapons have a rating and Aspects, that's it.

Absolutely true, technically speaking. Giving some weapons a certain degree of ability to ignore armor is completely a House Rule...but a pretty reasonable one given the way some weapons actually work. I guess you could mimic it with an appropriate Aspect, too, but some people might easily go another route.

[Tarion]

The 'powered by thresholds' thing sounds more like a Feeding Restriction applied to some or all of their powers than a Catch, at least to me.

That's a fascinating way to do it.  Mechanically, it fits far better than a Catch for what I was trying to do.  It ties the Temple Dog to their home, without crippling them outside it.  In fact, the more I think about it, the more I think it's a near perfect fit.  Mouse, for example, pretty clearly takes a scene or two out to recover behind his threshold after using his Bark in White Night, in a way that's consistent with recovering from Feeding failure. 

The only downside is that this is already represented a bit in the Temple Dog kit by the options for them to take Mental Stress to power their abilities.  I suppose one way around this would be to switch The Bark and Sacred Guardian to Hunger stress, rather than Mental Stress, to represent them powering it from the energy they're channelling from their threshold. 

I also don't know the system well enough to say what that does to balance - If you give them a feeding dependency without changing their abilities, they're going to have three stress tracks on the go in a physical encounter.  It seems like it might be quite vulnerable to gaming, if done well (And YMMV as to whether that's a good thing or not). 

Also, I wanted to add that I genuinely love the way that discussions about mechanics on this board have a tendency to branch out.  We've got Temple Dogs, Tortoises and anti-tank weaponry, all on one page. 

[Deadmanwalking]

That's a fascinating way to do it.  Mechanically, it fits far better than a Catch for what I was trying to do.  It ties the Temple Dog to their home, without crippling them outside it.  In fact, the more I think about it, the more I think it's a near perfect fit.  Mouse, for example, pretty clearly takes a scene or two out to recover behind his threshold after using his Bark in White Night, in a way that's consistent with recovering from Feeding failure. 

Indeed. this has always seemed the logical way to handle such a thing to me, assuming you wish to handle it at all.

The only downside is that this is already represented a bit in the Temple Dog kit by the options for them to take Mental Stress to power their abilities.  I suppose one way around this would be to switch The Bark and Sacred Guardian to Hunger stress, rather than Mental Stress, to represent them powering it from the energy they're channelling from their threshold. 

Definitely a valid way to do it, if you like...though I might be more inclined to leave it as-is. Or, if you do it this way, keep most of the Inhuman level physical stuff (probably everything but Recovery, really) out of the Feeding Dependency, just so they don't get super-tired all the time just from a standard battle.

I also don't know the system well enough to say what that does to balance - If you give them a feeding dependency without changing their abilities, they're going to have three stress tracks on the go in a physical encounter.  It seems like it might be quite vulnerable to gaming, if done well (And YMMV as to whether that's a good thing or not). 

Eh...no more than a Wizard with a Feeding Dependency (Magical Energy) on, say, an Inhuman Physical Ability or two (a very valid build for a Wizard with a bit of a magic-enhanced physique). Any gaming the system is really slowed down by the necessity of taking both Conviction and Discipline at at least fairly good ratings to make full use of the abilities in question (switching it all to Hunger Stress is debatably more powerful, since you can drop Conviction to Average at little loss then). I'd rather encourage tough-minded Temple dogs all-round, mechanically speaking. The powers in question would also still fall under the Feeding Dependency, so they'd actually be double-costing, hitting two tracks at once (well, one during combat, the other afterward, but still). I'd likely be inclined (as mentioned above) to say that the basic Inhuman level physical stuff didn't count on the Feeding Restriction, just to make it not too rough on the poor doggies...

Also, I wanted to add that I genuinely love the way that discussions about mechanics on this board have a tendency to branch out.  We've got Temple Dogs, Tortoises and anti-tank weaponry, all on one page.

It's fun, innit?