Alpha Rules Questions

[Erez]

So I have a question about the light and dark primal magic.

It says that we can use a flashlight / blacklight to illuminate, but when I saw specialized skills, it said we use those by spell packets.

So are the flashlights/blacklights used only as a physrep with no abilities in of itself or would there be something else to it?

[Staff_Cory]

In the case of those specific things it would be "Opuses" (Profession related, have to be at max rank and can only get it once)

That's the original Opus mechanic. It has since turned into a feat which can be purchased but does not require you to be at max profession rank. That latter version is the version I am considering emulating. Basically, invention system which costs a ton of xp, requires staff approval, but doesn't take up a BGA.

minimize how many things crunchies have to remember, and those things inherently complicate that and can make encounters

Considering staff controls the actual mechanics of what comes of inventions/opuses this is not necessarily a problem so much as a thing we would need to be consistently careful of.

To be honest, inventions very quickly became a competition to see who could get away with fucking up game balance more in a single BGA.

Meh. "Balance" gets far more focus in these discussions than it warrants. The goal is not to make a game that is balanced. The goal is to make a game that is thematically interesting and fun to engage in. Those things do not require "balance".

[Staff_Cory]

So I have a question about the light and dark primal magic.

It says that we can use a flashlight / blacklight to illuminate, but when I saw specialized skills, it said we use those by spell packets.

So are the flashlights/blacklights used only as a physrep with no abilities in of itself or would there be something else to it?

The proficiency for Light Primals allows you to freely produce light using a flashlight. The special skills for Light Primals must be delivered via packet.

The proficiency for Dark Primals allows you to freely produce dark using a blacklight. The special skills for Dark Primals must be delivered via packet.

The flashlight light and blacklight dark may have other effects than just simply making it easier to see/revealing hidden messages when interacting with certain things found in the game world, however, the special abilities (which are purely systems based) must be delivered via packets in order to make it clear who is being struck and whether they have blocked it or not.

[Erez]

Awesome. Thank you!

[Brit]

Gribbit! Like a frog.

[Praseodymium]

With Tactics and its specialized skills, lets say that the tactician has 5 valor. This means you could use the specialized skills up to 5 times. Would you need to use tactics on 5 separate downed enemies, could you re-use the same enemy 5 times, or would you need to check the downed enemy only once to be able to use your specialized skills?
As written: After Detecting a downed enemies Special Attacks gain two “Bestow 1 Resist

to ”.

The meaning is ambiguous here because "After" is not explicitly defined. It could mean immediately after and only once, it could mean as many times as you want after, or it could mean once you have detected a downed enemy's special attacks you can forever use this ability to bestow 1 resist to the source. I think the way it is intended is that it would be used during the duration of a single battle, once per detection of a downed enemy, but as written it could lead to players taking advantage of the ambiguous definition of "Later" for maximum advantage.

[Staff_Cory]

Would you need to use tactics on 5 separate downed enemies, could you re-use the same enemy 5 times, or would you need to check the downed enemy only once to be able to use your specialized skills?

I do not intend for players using Tactics and it's specials to be required to find a different downed enemy multiple times in the same encounter in order to bestow the same type of buff. If you find one enemy with Air attacks you can pump out Air resists for the rest of the encounter so long as you have the attributes to fuel it.

As a general rule of thumb, pretty much everything that doesn't explicitly state otherwise is "until your next rest" based. Each rest sets you back to your basic state and things that occur to you in between (including things like buffs or gaining tactics info) are reset. If that is not clear I will add it to my list of things to alter for the next rulebook release.

[Zara]

Picking up where this left off since I’m taking a hard look @tactics for E1.

Would you clarify the language on “bestow” within Be Prepared and Exploit Vulnerability?

How long do the wards and piercing wounds last once they’ve been discovered?

How long, after I’ve tactics an enemy, do I have to distribute the 5 abilities? It seemed from the language above that it is over the entire battle, is that correct?

Assuming I have the grace to tactics multiple enemies within one combat, can a single target/ally have more than one ward or piercing wound bestowed from me?

As a tacticitian, can I bank multiple wards and or piercing wounds, should I tactics multiple enemies before distributing the buffs.

Apologies, answers to these may lead to further questions < 3