Alternative Setbacks

[StripelessTiger]

I came up with my own list of Setbacks since the ones provided are so similar to existing Disadvantages, and many of them were the same outcome.

Lucky/Unlucky either altered the penalty up or down one.
Tragic Love/Violence add a Trauma.
Wound/Illness reduce Stamina.
Poor/Alone nullify money or family.
Adversary/Rumor have something in your PCs past troubling him.

I decided to actually focus on making these permanent effects from the Disadvantages and expanding the list to encompass more than it did.

New Setbacks (Alternative)

• 1) Unlucky - roll die again, but add an additional point to numerical values, or choose Unlucky disadvantage.
  2) Dead Man - you shouldn't be alive, permanently reduce Survival points by 1.
  3) Aftermath:
  • Wound - Health reduced by 1 and free choice, or Ugly.
  • Illness - Stamina reduced by 1 and free choice, or Weak.
  4) Addiction - you became permanently addicted to something in your youth, -1 Stamina.
  5) Scarred - Mental Resistance reduced by 1.
  6) Troubled Past:
  • Adversary - equivalent to Enemy disadvantage. If twice, bump up severity.
  • Rumor/Secret - determine how this affects your character's social standing.
  • Phobia - gain the Phobia disadvantage.
  7) Cursed - someone has placed a curse on you. Determine its effects and frequency.
  8) Tragedy:
  • Violence - Add two Trauma Points.
  • Lost Love - Add a Trauma Point, -1 to Relation.
  • Alone - Add a Trauma Point, prevents Ally advantage.
  9) Poor - equivalent to Poor disadvantage. If twice, you have no savings either.
  10) Lucky - escape the penalty from another Setback, or gain the Lucky Advantage.

These feel more flexible to a background and able to allow players who have no idea what they want to do kind of determine that on the fly.

When I refer to Enemy and Poor as stacking, this is how I would interpret the Disadvantage too. So both the Setback and Disadvantage could stack, both could come from one or the other twice.

The reason I figure this works is because Ally is variable rank, as is Financial Ease, why not these as well.

Of course, this is just a guideline for any House rules you want to invoke. I personally think it adds more flavor, since flavor text is important. These could end up being more rigid for some, but I think it enforces personality onto the character, especially for those not used to playing that way.

For example, a player could roleplay a Limp, or you could just have him have a Wound with -1 to Speed. Up to you if you want these to be dice roll based as well.

[Iris]

I must say, you made here and nteresting analysis and proposal !

Just a detail :

Alone - Add a Trauma Point, prevents Ally advantage.

I saw PCs who took "alone" and "ally" because they were adopted in a monastery (for example) after their family was killed. As adoption is quite common, I would rather add 2 trauma point and not prevent Ally advantage

[StripelessTiger]

I must say, you made here and nteresting analysis and proposal !

Just a detail :

Alone - Add a Trauma Point, prevents Ally advantage.

I saw PCs who took "alone" and "ally" because they were adopted in a monastery (for example) after their family was killed. As adoption is quite common, I would rather add 2 trauma point and not prevent Ally advantage

Hmmmm, you know, I could have sworn that Alone actually stated that you could not have Ally in the book, but now that I go back and look, I cannot find it! Odd. I wonder if it was on another page, or if i just imagined it. Well, don't let my new setbacks list prevent you from doing something that makes sense. My list is more mechanic-based than roleplaying.

I had a few instances of "why does he just get Enemy and I lose 1 Stamina?" and felt this list sort of balanced it out. It detours people from chancing making older characters when the penalties are steep, whereas min-maxers will try to inch their way at the beginning for 3 extra domain points if the trade-off can potentially be something innocuous.

Some Game Leaders don't like to kill characters or make good on certain promises, like a fearsome foe that can show up and make your life hell (steal your money, ruin your good name, try to kill you in your sleep, etc.). I could make Enemy just as deadly as -1 Stamina, but for newcomers it can really feel like a stab when they have a detriment that hurts them at every turn when other Setbacks might not come into play for many sessions.

[Clovis]

Setbacks are, in good part, what you make of them. Some of them are more troublesome than others, but after all, such is the nature of chance! Ultimately, keep in mind that if a Setback is too inconvenient for the player or for the leader, the player can be authorized to reroll and hopefully get something they will be more comfortable with. After all, abiding by the rules is one thing, but the be-all and end-all rule should be for everyone to have fun!