A few questions regarding Stunts

[gojj]

1. If you add a new trapping to a skill, how much (if at all) can it encroach on the territory of trappings of other skills?

Example: One of the first characters I made was a ninja and at first I wanted to add a trapping to Burglary called Ninjitsu; it would essentially be my go-to-trapping for all of my ninja-y stuff I wanted to do. But I decided against it because I thought it would encroach too much on Stealth (sneaking around), Weapons (attacking from shadows), Deceit (making disguises), and Craftsmanship (making small incendiary devices).

2. Is the Listening stunt a rule or more of an exception to the rule? It is the only stunt in the book that gives more than a two shift bonus at the expense of lowering another skill temporarily.

Example: Say I wanted to make the stereotypical blind martial arts master. I want to give him a stunt representing the fact that his other senses are heightened due to his lack of sight, something like: Heightened Senses: The lack of sight has made your other senses much sharper. +3 to Alertness rolls (Avoiding Surprise and Passive Awareness) when sight is not necessary, if sight is necessary then Alertness is automatically Terrible. Finer points aside is it possible to increase the shifts a stunt gives if a probable penalty is added?

[Haru]

1. Usually a stunt can move 1 trapping from 1 skill to another skill. Ninjas should be all-rounders, so needing more than 1 skill is a good thing. A stunt to move let him do the craftsmanship stuff with deceit might be worth taking, because craftsmanship is the only skill of those you mentioned, that isn't really ninjay.

2. If you think a stunt should give a bonus in one situation while giving a penalty in another, You are probably looking for an aspect, not a stunt. You will get a lot of compels on a "blind" aspect, and you can spent them on the same aspect in different situations with the argument that your other senses are heightened.

How about this:
Blind master: You gain +3 instead of +2 for invoking aspects in physical combat that are related to your senses other than sight.

[gojj]

1. Usually a stunt can move 1 trapping from 1 skill to another skill.

However the book states that an entirely new trapping can be added (YS 147), and I am wondering that if a new trapping is added how much can it impede on existing trappings? The example from the book suggests adding an Herbalist trapping to Survival, allowing the character to make declarations concerning plants and use them for minor first aid. The latter part slightly encroaches on Scholarship's Medical Attention trapping.

2. If you think a stunt should give a bonus in one situation while giving a penalty in another, You are probably looking for an aspect, not a stunt. You will get a lot of compels on a "blind" aspect, and you can spent them on the same aspect in different situations with the argument that your other senses are heightened.

How about this:
Blind master: You gain +3 instead of +2 for invoking aspects in physical combat that are related to your senses other than sight.

My apologies for giving a bad example as your solution is an easy fix but does not answer my question. If you do add a penalty to a stunt, can it give more than two shifts of effect? I know that the more specific the application the more shifts a stunt grants, but I'm talking about fairly broad circumstances where a stunt would normally give a +2. Again, I'm looking at the Listening stunt (YS 153) as reference.

[Haru]

However the book states that an entirely new trapping can be added (YS 147), and I am wondering that if a new trapping is added how much can it impede on existing trappings? The example from the book suggests adding an Herbalist trapping to Survival, allowing the character to make declarations concerning plants and use them for minor first aid. The latter part slightly encroaches on Scholarship's Medical Attention trapping.

The problem with a "catch all" trapping is, that you can concentrate completely on boosting one while ignoring pretty much every other skill. My interpretation on the example in the book is this: If you want to know if a character wants to know something, in this case plants, you would roll scholarship (more precisely, the Answers trapping). A clever player could say "Hey, there's this herb, that can help with wound healing, we are in the middle of the woods, sure I can find some of it around here." and then roll scholarship for a declaration. Now the stunt lets you use your survival skill as a knowledge skill for plants (that is the Answer trapping moved for a limited set of circumstances), so the same reasoning still applies. Still the stunt itself does not come with a built in first aid. It might be used for it, but it is a GM ruling.
I admit the wording on that example might be a bit off.

Now how does that help you with your ninja problem? Bottom line is, trappings are still limited at what they can do. Bundling up 5 or 6 skills in the trapping of 1 skill should not be an option.

My apologies for giving a bad example as your solution is an easy fix but does not answer my question. If you do add a penalty to a stunt, can it give more than two shifts of effect? I know that the more specific the application the more shifts a stunt grants, but I'm talking about fairly broad circumstances where a stunt would normally give a +2. Again, I'm looking at the Listening stunt (YS 153) as reference.

I think the listening stunt works like this:
First of, it is a straight out +2 to listening rolls. BUT at the same time it places the aspect "listening intently", which is compelled to drop your alertness to terrible until you stop. The resulting fate point is spent on the same aspect, giving you another +2 on your listening skill.

Fix (OW146) has a similar stunt: "swing to the fences". An attack stunt can usually only add +1 to the attack, this stunt grants an additional +1. For that, the attacker gets compelled to take -2 on every dodge until his next turn.

Analysing the stunts like this might seem a bit convoluted, but I hope you get what I am trying to say. A bonus for a compel, the standard fate currency flow. The bonus should double the usual bonus of the stunt, but never grant more than +2. And the compel should be an actual disadvantage, of course.

I would still not create a blind fighting stunt based on this. To be honest, I don't really like the stunts above either, I would solve this directly by using aspects, declarations and maneuvers.

[TheMouse]

Example: One of the first characters I made was a ninja and at first I wanted to add a trapping to Burglary called Ninjitsu; it would essentially be my go-to-trapping for all of my ninja-y stuff I wanted to do. But I decided against it because I thought it would encroach too much on Stealth (sneaking around), Weapons (attacking from shadows), Deceit (making disguises), and Craftsmanship (making small incendiary devices).

You've just added four trappings. Stunts each add one. You don't get to add mega-trappings that do everything.

[Belial666]

Last but not least, a stunt is something a mortal should be capable of doing via training, skill or innate talent, NOT something supernatural.

So you could add a trapping giving a +2 to defense rolls with athletics underspecific circumstances. But you cannot add a trapping that moves dodge defense into Endurance because no matter how tough a mortal is, they can't shrug off bullets by being tough.

[InFerrumVeritas]

Example: One of the first characters I made was a ninja and at first I wanted to add a trapping to Burglary called Ninjitsu; it would essentially be my go-to-trapping for all of my ninja-y stuff I wanted to do. But I decided against it because I thought it would encroach too much on Stealth (sneaking around), Weapons (attacking from shadows), Deceit (making disguises), and Craftsmanship (making small incendiary devices).

This could be done as four stunts.  One for moving the stealth trapping, one for moving the weapons trapping, one for moving the deceit trapping, and one for moving the craftsmanship trapping.  I would also have them only be applicable in certain situations: Weapons would be only for attacks made while hidden, Stealth would be only in a specific circumstance (like hiding in a building that you've already cased), etc.

[ARedthorn]

You still end up with Burglary being a mega-skill, but by the time you've bothered spending 4 refresh on it, I'd expect it to be.

Still- it strikes me that a ninja would be better represented by diverse training, rather than a single skill that does everything- don't worry so much about having so many trappings bundled on a neat name- build a character who can do all that without needing it. One or two trapping stunts, and one or two skill improvement stunts ought to do it (I could easily see giving them a stunt that causes stealth to always modify weaponry, for example).

Haru: I love you for that breakdown of Listening- it makes it make sense in a way I can explain easily to the rest of my group.

[Haru]

Glad I can be of service.

It's funny, at first I had massive problems grasping the concept of aspects, but now I see and use them everywhere and for everything.

[gojj]

Thank you all for your help. And just to clarify, when I said I wanted to add a trapping for the ninja, I meant that when I made him (awhile ago) I had wanted to add that stunt, not that I am wanting to add it now. I know it does not follow the rules of stunts, I was just unsure how adding entirely new trappings (not transplanting trappings from one skill to another) worked and was using that as an example.