Homebrew Stunts

[Mr. Death]

A better solution might be that the GM tailor the game to cater to more, or all, of the PCs and players involved instead of doing combat all the time.

That said, nobody's saying that no other skill besides Athletics can be used for dodging. It'd be very easy to justify that, say, a dancer is able to use Performance for dodging. Just that letting all of them do that is contrived.

Or, as mentioned, make it part of character development: The bookworm gets punched in the nose once too often, and decides to bulk up as he gains skill points via milestones. Harry did the exact same thing; if you look at his write up in Our World, his Athletics tops out at 2, Fists and Weapons at 1 each. And he kept getting his arse kicked by street thugs. So he trained with Murphy, and by the time Heorot happens, he can take on two thugs in a fist fight, no magic involved.

Characters change and improve on things as the game goes on. Everyone doesn't have to be a badass ass kicker right out of the box, and it doesn't make sense if they are.

[ways and means]

A better solution might be that the GM tailor the game to cater to more, or all, of the PCs and players involved instead of doing combat all the time.

That said, nobody's saying that no other skill besides Athletics can be used for dodging. It'd be very easy to justify that, say, a dancer is able to use Performance for dodging. Just that letting all of them do that is contrived.

Or, as mentioned, make it part of character development: The bookworm gets punched in the nose once too often, and decides to bulk up as he gains skill points via milestones. Harry did the exact same thing; if you look at his write up in Our World, his Athletics tops out at 2, Fists and Weapons at 1 each. And he kept getting his arse kicked by street thugs. So he trained with Murphy, and by the time Heorot happens, he can take on two thugs in a fist fight, no magic involved.

Characters change and improve on things as the game goes on. Everyone doesn't have to be a badass ass kicker right out of the box, and it doesn't make sense if they are.

When you have a split of 4 combat monkies to one social it is pretty clear which path the game will go down and it isn't going to be a 50/50 social physical split.

[Mr. Death]

Well, as I said, there's other ways to contribute to a fight besides wading in and trading blows. Maybe the GM can make it more that the ghouls or what have you focus on the tanks--they're the bigger threat, after all, while the bookworm finds other ways to contribute: Maneuvers, blocks, invokes, etc.

[Sanctaphrax]

I like defence trapping replacement stunts for much the same reasons as ways and means. But I think they need restrictions for two reasons:

-It makes them less powerful. (They're pretty damn strong.)
-It makes them more interesting. (They should never feel like cheap justifications or stunt taxes.)

[Mr. Death]

Alright, rewrites with Sanctaphrax's suggestions:

Deceit:
You'll Never See It Coming - Your backstabbing nature may not be good in a straight fight, so you're best at taking out your opponent before it becomes a straight fight. You may roll Deceit for one close-range attack, provided your target does not expect it's coming.

Playing Possum: - If they think you're already dead, they'll leave you be. After any failed physical defense, you may sacrifice your next turn to make a maneuver or block with Deceit to convince your attacker that you've been Taken Out. Since real blood will make it more convincing, if the failed defense results in a consequence, roll Deceit at +2.

Discipline:
I've Seen Worse - You're used to seeing gruesome scenes for one reason or another. Add +2 to Discipline rolls to keep your cool when faced with something gross or fear inducing.

Guns:
Short Controlled Bursts - You're trained in combat firing, and know how to put more bullets on target. When wielding an automatic weapon, you may add +2 to the resulting stress on a successful attack by firing in bursts.

Shooting Position - You know how to position yourself to steady your aim. Shooting from a prone position adds +2 to your Guns roll, but anyone targeting you gets a +2 to their attack roll during the exchange.

Rapport:
Skilled Interviewer - You're used to talking to people and getting them to open up. Add +1 to Rapport rolls when attempting to get information out of someone.

Scholarship:
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, rolled at +1, to make assessments and declarations regarding an enemy's fighting style after you've seen them in motion.

Stealth:
Jungle Camo - You're better at sneaking around in the great outdoors. When you're in a wooded area, add +2 to any stealth checks to remain hidden.

Weapons:
Quick Counter - You're nimble enough to turn dodging and attacking into one fluid motion, catching your opponent out of position as their strike misses its mark. After a successful Athletics dodge in melee, you gain +1 to attack with Weapons, provided you're attacking the same opponent that missed you in the first place.

Variable
Taking The Hit - You're the self-sacrificing type, and try to take the heat off of your teammates. Once a scene, if an ally fails a defense and takes a hit that would require a Moderate or higher consequence to avoid being taken out, you may sacrifice your next turn to interpose yourself rolling your own defense instead. If this defense fails, you take the stress rather than your ally.

And a couple new ones, first for Might:
Judo Master: Reversals are your specialty. If you use Might to successfully break out of a grapple, you may immediately use the result to establish your own grapple on your opponent equal in strength to the amount of shifts you generated past the initial block.

for Weapons:
I'm Taking You With Me: If their sword's in your gut, they can't use it to defend. When you suffer a Severe or Extreme consequence in Melee, you may sacrifice your next turn to take an immediate counter attack on your attacker, with their defense rolled from 0.

[Tedronai]

Shooting Position could benefit from a slight rewrite so as to not provide the bonus to attacks against others that also happen to target you (both spray and zone attacks).  Not entirely sure what the end produce should look like, though.

Judo Master is worded so as to be significantly under-powered, treating the original grapple as though it were armour against all actions rather than as a block while essentially only providing the 'need an aspect' requirement of establishing a grapple, a highly situational 2-shift effect.


I'm Taking You With Me looks problematically powerful (both incredibly powerful and incredibly situational) at first glance, though without seeing it in action I'm hesitant to pass (definitive) judgement on it.  Basically, it makes me nervous (it's easily a potential 6 shift effect against some opponents, or even more against others).
A simple +2 stress vs. anyone who inflicted a consequence on you within the last exchange might fit the flavour intent while having less room for incredible swings in combat results.

[Blackblade]

Maybe for "I'm taking you with me," they can't defend with Weapons, and if they use a different skill, they have to let go of their sword.

[Mr. Death]

I kind of like your suggestion, Blackblade, but it wouldn't have much benefit if the opponent had a high Athletics score. Hm...would "I'm Taking You With Me" work better if it happened only when you were actually Taken Out instead of after a consequence?

As for Shooting Position, I'd originally phrased it to have a penalty to defense, but changed it after Sanctaphrax's suggestion. I might change it to a -2 to any defense, since the original wording specified Athletics.

As for Judo Master, I figured it'd mainly be used as an option when you made a really good roll anyway--if your opponent bungled the roll and ended up with a 2 shift grapple, and you broke out with a Fantastic roll, similar to how you wouldn't really use Riposte if you only beat the attack roll by 1 shift, but would if it was going to be a huge attack.

[Blackblade]

If it only applied when taken out, though, it seems like the sort of stunt that would really only be used once, or maybe twice. 

How about "They can't defend with weapons, and you may tag your own consequence on the attack if they defend with a different skill."

[Tedronai]

I kind of like your suggestion, Blackblade, but it wouldn't have much benefit if the opponent had a high Athletics score. Hm...would "I'm Taking You With Me" work better if it happened only when you were actually Taken Out instead of after a consequence?

That would really only exacerbate the issue, making the benefit from the stunt more powerful (since it would then be granting an entire action that you would not normally be entitled to) while simultaneously having the stunt useful less often.

As for Shooting Position, I'd originally phrased it to have a penalty to defense, but changed it after Sanctaphrax's suggestion. I might change it to a -2 to any defense, since the original wording specified Athletics.

That would certainly address the issue of multi-target attacks.

As for Judo Master, I figured it'd mainly be used as an option when you made a really good roll anyway--if your opponent bungled the roll and ended up with a 2 shift grapple, and you broke out with a Fantastic roll, similar to how you wouldn't really use Riposte if you only beat the attack roll by 1 shift, but would if it was going to be a huge attack.

Blocks are not normally subject to reduction in effect (the way attacks are) by other blocks if the new block matches/surpasses the old.  The stunt changes this, making the resulting 'counter-grapple' less powerful.

[Sanctaphrax]

Hey, cool, I thought I was going to have to rewrite those myself.

New versions of the first 9 look good, apart from really tiny wording things.

Though I think that Quick Counter could easily work with Weapons defence without balance problems.

The last 3 are kinda problematic.

Taking The Hit might be great or awful, I don't know.

Tedronai is right about Judo Master and I'm Taking You With Me.

I wrote something like I'm Taking You With Me a while back, look here:

Give As Good As I Get: Sometimes, you have to do something crazy in order to win a fight. Once per scene, when you are attacked by someone in your zone, you may spend a Fate Point. If you do so, you defend against the attack with an effective skill of Mediocre and may not use a Block to replace your defense roll. This might sound pretty grim, but take heart; if you attack your attacker with your Fists skill during your next action, you may add three to your attack roll and increase the weapon rating of your attack by three.

I dunno if this is similar enough to make your stunt redundant, but it is pretty similar. Maybe it'll be useful.

Shooting Position doesn't bother me, it's easy enough to apply the bonus only to the parts of attacks that apply to you. It should be no harder to deal with than Hulking Size.

[Mr. Death]

Hey, cool, I thought I was going to have to rewrite those myself.

New versions of the first 9 look good, apart from really tiny wording things.

Alright, cool.

Though I think that Quick Counter could easily work with Weapons defence without balance problems.

I kind of think when it's taken it should specify one or the other, though, but that's mostly a thematic decision on my part, and the part of the player whose character uses it in my game.

Taking The Hit might be great or awful, I don't know.

Admittedly, we haven't had much opportunity to playtest it. But our next session should include a big fight scene, so I'll be able to see how it goes.

Tedronai is right about Judo Master and I'm Taking You With Me.

Hm. Alright, have Judo Master just be the Might result, then, I guess.

I wrote something like I'm Taking You With Me a while back, look here:

Give As Good As I Get: Sometimes, you have to do something crazy in order to win a fight. Once per scene, when you are attacked by someone in your zone, you may spend a Fate Point. If you do so, you defend against the attack with an effective skill of Mediocre and may not use a Block to replace your defense roll. This might sound pretty grim, but take heart; if you attack your attacker with your Fists skill during your next action, you may add three to your attack roll and increase the weapon rating of your attack by three.

I dunno if this is similar enough to make your stunt redundant, but it is pretty similar. Maybe it'll be useful.

I can see it working similarly, though there's the narrative difference. Yours is going on a suicidal charge, mine is more of a "Well, you've already stuck me, I'm not letting you get away." Though now I'm thinking it might work better as an aspect you could invoke for effect when that happens, given that, as pointed out, the situation isn't going to come up terribly often, unless you've got a Recovery power. Which, come to think of it, would make a kind of hilarious character concept in and of itself.

[Sanctaphrax]

What is the thematic reason to have Quick Counter specify which skill you can dodge with?

I'm not necessarily opposed, I just don't see the point.

[Mr. Death]

Well, the character in question was built around the concept of dodging more than defensive swordsmanship, so the idea was that he'd dodge quickly enough to very briefly flank the attacker and thus justify the bonus (think the dodge from the 2002 Shinobi game).

I figure the stunt reflects that the character's particularly proficient in one type of defense--he might use Athletics because he's more confident in his ability to get out of the way than to parry, for example, or vice versa. Even if they work out the same mechanically, it's a different narrative action.

[computerking]

Hmmm How about..
My Will is My Sword (Discipline)
Your weapon proficiency is such that your magic affects your tools as easily as it affects yourself. Gain +2 to rolls on non-attack spells cast to enhance your weapons for combat (Maneuvers, Weapon alterations, etc).

Or...
My Sword is My Will (Weapons)
You may not have all the fancy footwork, but you have worked so hard with your weapon that you can parry the very forces of reality itself. Substitute Weapons for Athletics when defending against Magic spells that allow defense with such.