Homebrew Stunts

[Mr. Death]

That would explain a lot. And why he always seems to be taking compels. He's in a Submerged game, as a pure mortal, and he's probably down to 1 refresh on those stunts.

[Blackblade]

Playing Possum - The best defense is letting them think you're dead. After any failed defense, you may sacrifice your next turn to make a maneuver or block with Deceit to convince your attacker that they finished you off. If the failed defense results in a consequence, roll the Deceit maneuver at +2.

Looks to me like the best way to set it up would be as a block vs. perception, as in a veil; they'd still see you, of course, but you may as well be invisible, because nobody pays attention to a dead body on the battlefield if someone else is still shooting at them.  If the block is successful, you could use it as justification to set up an ambush with Stealth.

[Mr. Death]

Yeah, I like that idea. And I should probably reword it to say after any failed physical defense...then again, maybe there's potential to leave it as any defense, and reword it to say it's a block to make them think you were Taken Out. I don't know, are there Social ambushes possible? Or would that be too broad for one stunt?

[Blackblade]

Too broad, I think.

[Mr. Death]

Hm, true. Might be the basis of another stunt to do similarly for Social conflicts: Convince the opponent that they've gotten you on their side.

[Lanodantheon]

Reminds me of the latest "Sherlock Holmes" films and their approach to Holmes' boxing prowess. In those films, Holmes seems to have damn near every skill trapping stunted out to work off of Scholarship.

That's what I was going for actually. I wanted to see how far you could take stunt trappings AND I've thought about a true Sherlock Holmes type character more than once. That and in the game I'm in I'm playing a Venatori SI Detective who just got some more refresh and needs to become more of a detective. 


Though I personally think the new Sherlock Holmes movies have a Holmes that uses both Investigation and Scholarship.

Also now that I think of it, Knowledge is the Best Defense could partially be blamed by the Clock King episode of Batman: The Animated Series. "I've watched footage of you on the news. It takes you approximately 3 tenths of a second to throw a punch."

There are a number of Stunts I'd love to have, but I have no idea what they would be called or what the ration ale for them would be:

• A Stunt that allows you to to use Scholarship/Investigation as a better booster for Physical Attacks/Maneuvers
• A Stunt that allows you to to use Investigation for Social Attacks/Maneuvers
• A Stunt that allows you to use Investigation to Cold Read
• A Stunt that allows you to use Investigation/Scholarship to determine your Social Stress Track
• A Stunt that allows you to use Scholarship to determine your Mental Stress Track
• A Stunt that allows you to use Investigation for Social Defense
• A Stunt that allows you to use Investigation to use the Case trapping of Burglary (This isn't necessarily one that Sherlock has, but it would be fairly Holmesian)

[Sanctaphrax]

You're probably right. In fact, I think that's how I had it originally. I think I added the +1 on the logic that you're only going to get one shot at it in any reasonable circumstances.
I was kind of dithering on that, hence the wording saying a maneuver or a block--I have ideas about how either can be useful, depending on the situation (a maneuver would be better if you're planning to wait til he turns away, then tag it for a sneak attack, a block might be better if you're simply planning to let him leave). Do you have a suggestion?
Narrow how? Do you mean it should be usable in a broader set of situations?
So, maybe make it something like Harry's Listening stunt, where Athletics is rolled from 0 or worse when using it? I was imagining this for a sniper-type character, if that helps.
I was imagining it in Social conflicts, mostly, asking questions to get specific information out of someone (this is for a reporter character)
I was thinking of making it so that it'd be +1 in general wooded areas, and maybe +2 if you specify, like if it's a rain forest vs. something in the American northeast.
Yeah, I wasn't sure exactly how to word it. Any suggestions?
Would it be more palatable if you had to spend a fate point to use it, or if it could only be used once per scene (so you don't have someone leaping back and forth across the room to shield everybody)?

@Mr Death:

Having reread Playing Possum I retract my objection.

I've Seen Worse could be usable against all fear and disgust without any real balance issues. I always thought that Fearless was kinda lame...maybe I'll make it into an armour stunt.

Swing For The Fences from OW gives +2 to attack in exchange for -2 to defence. But it's worded so that anyone defending with a non-traditional skill gets no penalty. This stunt has the same problem but worse. I suggest dropping the bonus to +2 and making the penalty work as a bonus to attacks.

Social conflict stunts are the center of a rather tedious argument around here. I'm too tired to explain the details right now, but basically my side of the argument says that the interview stunt should only give +1.

I think that "in the woods" is narrow enough for a full +2 bonus.

If you don't mind, I'll reword these and then I'll slap them onto the master list.

@Lanodantheon:

I think this ought to have a restriction. Check the Cleaning Up The Stunt List for why. Basically I just think that it's overpowered and boring if everyone just moves physical defence to their apex skill with a stunt.

@ways and means:

We pretty much already have this in the Weapons stunt Defeat Armour. Which will be made available to other combat skills in the current rewrite.

[Mr. Death]

Yeah, go ahead.

[Lanodantheon]

Fair enough, I understand the argument.


Not sure what kind of restriction would be fair. Maybe a Fate Point for it to work? There are Stunts that use that.


I searched for "Cleaning up the Stunts List" and couldn't find it.

[Mr. Death]

@Sanctaphrax: Looking at it again, I'm not sure I like the idea of the penalty being a bonus to attack, because that means the attacker gets that bonus even if the shooter has also set up a block. The penalty, as I had envisioned it, was to represent that it's harder to dodge if you're lying on your stomach. If he's also set up a block of some kind (either magic or through a previous action), should that get the same penalty?

@Lanodantheon: Thinking about it, instead of using Scholarship directly as the defense roll, maybe make it so that Scholarship can modify the defense roll, or you can make Declarations regarding the opponent's fighting style with Scholarship and tag the resulting Aspect. This seemed more like what Sherlock was doing, giving his opponents a quick scan, then planning it out, rather than just being that good (note how he gets hit more often in fights he can't stop and prepare for) Something like...

I Can Read Your Body Like A Book: You may not be an accomplished Pugilist, but you've studied up. In battle, you may use Scholarship to make assessments and declarations regarding an enemy's fighting style after you've seen them in motion.

[Lanodantheon]

@Lanodantheon: Thinking about it, instead of using Scholarship directly as the defense roll, maybe make it so that Scholarship can modify the defense roll, or you can make Declarations regarding the opponent's fighting style with Scholarship and tag the resulting Aspect. This seemed more like what Sherlock was doing, giving his opponents a quick scan, then planning it out, rather than just being that good (note how he gets hit more often in fights he can't stop and prepare for) Something like...

I Can Read Your Body Like A Book: You may not be an accomplished Pugilist, but you've studied up. In battle, you may use Scholarship to make assessments and declarations regarding an enemy's fighting style after you've seen them in motion.

That might also work.

[Sanctaphrax]

I like the new Scholarship combat stunt. Given the precedent of Martial Artist, though, it could probably give +1.

Using a block should involve the same penalty as rolling your defence. Otherwise enchanted armour guy gets off without a drawback.

admiralducksauce more or less explains why not to allow unrestricted physical defence with a single stunt here. There's also some relevant discussion at the very beginning of the thread.

[ways and means]

I actually like the Defence shift powers but that is because having every character who ever wants to be component in physical combat having Olympic level Athletic is 'boring'. As an Apex skill (character defining skill) Athletics is just not as interesting a skill as Performance, Investigation or Scholarship (IMO) and so if these stunts allow players who want to be competent in combat to play non-standard PC's that is a good thing.

[Mr. Death]

Having everyone be extremely tough to hit is boring. Some characters aren't going to be as competent in physical combat as others, and the characters shouldn't be based entirely around whether they can stand up in a fight.

If your character is a bookworm who's not very athletic, then yeah, he probably isn't going to be very good in a fight without some training (milestones) and can pull his weight in another way--maybe he can ID the weaknesses of a monster, or can do things to the environment to tip the scales in ways other players can't.

[ways and means]

I have seen quite a know quite a few PC in DFRP who speced for stuff like performance and artistry who felt entirely superfluous in any combat scene, as physical combat seems the most common type of combat in most of the DF games I have played this has been quite a big deal for them spending half their time twiddling there thumbs waiting for combat to end. The only time this has added to a game was when it caused a designated DID (damsel in distress) which got played for the laughs the rest of the time it was a drag.