QuestNoir: Verbs

This post, along with my other current Questnoir posts are combinations of two separate posts, so if there are some awkward shifting between topics in the post, that's why.

Verbs are your stats in Technoir.  Pretty straightforward.  When you try to do something, you roll the appropriate Verb's total in d6s, and then look for the highest result, and compare it to the corresponding Verb on the opponent.  In this, the Verbs represent both your offensive capability and defensive capability.  For example, trying to punch someone could be Fight vs Fight, so you roll your say, 2d6 and try to beat the opponent's 4.  A tie goes to the defender, so you can beat it by going above the number (a 5 or 6 in this instance) or by tying the defender, but having doubles in that number.  So if my 2d6 comes up 2 and 4, the defender wins.  But if they come up 4 and 4, I win, because the second 4 gives you, essentially, a .1 addition, or a tiebreaker.

Starting with the Verbs.

Technoir has 9 Verbs that serve as your attributes for the game.

Coax - Used to influence people through words and body language.  
Intimidate foes, seduce victims, and deceive marks

I like this as the catch-all Verb.  It's very good and covers the entire spectrum of "This person uses words and body language to get what they want from a person

Detect - Used to notice details and track people. Reveal culprits, stake-out
conspirators, and trace fugitives

Spot, Search, Perception.  Easy.  It can stay, maybe renamed, maybe not?  Maybe something like "Perceive"?  I'll have to check other books I have for better adjectives/potential names.

Fight - Used to attack barehanded and with melee weapons. Punch opponents, wrestle challengers, and cut rivals

Melee combat skill.  I don't know if I want to roll Shoot into this, but because Technoir keeps melee and Ranged combat as separate skills so maybe I will here?  

Hack - Used to access and manipulate other’s objects electronically. Infiltrate vehicles, reprogram guns, and exploit computers

You're getting cut so it doesn't matter.

Move - Used to get around under your own power. Run down prey, outswim pursuers, and leap from assailants.

This could function like general defense too, but not sure what else I could rename it?  Maybe reflex?  No...  Move works OK I suppose for this.

Operate - Used to control mobile machinery (and to repair it). Drive cars, pilot aircraft, and control drones.

Probably not doing anything with this one either.

Prowl - Used to sneak around and get into places you are not wanted. Slip  
past guards, hide from patrols, and misdirect stalkers.

I like Prowl.  I don't mind the slight overlap with Move, because Move feels like fast movement, while Prowl is precise, measured movements.  

Shoot - Used to attack with ranged weapons, personal or vehicle mounted.  
Fire at enemies, aim at targets, and throw at adversaries.

This is probably fine?  This lets you still keep up the agile ranged attackers.

Treat - Used to mend physical and psychological wounds. Patch up the  
wounded, comfort the distressed, and heal the sick.

I like this one. This one works well for first aid and such, especially if I add something that's for magical healing and so on, keeping this in the realm of the mundane.

• Some of these are workable, some, obviously not. What I want to do is capture the main Verbs of a fantasy adventure. The ones I want to keep are...
  
  Coax - This should cover Bluff, Intimidate, and Persuasion.
• Detect
• Fight
• Move - I like Move as your generic evasion, reflex, and harried movement type things
• Prowl - I could see this being merged into Move, but eeeeh. That might make it too good of a skill.
• Shoot - I can't decide if I want to consolidate the fighting skills into a single one, or if having two makes for decent enough differentiation.
• Treat - Renamed Mend - To serve as both first aid and repairs.

Now, here's where I think i want to get capital S Stupid with it: "Class Verbs"

These would be Verbs that are exclusive to your Training Programs at creation. In Technoir, you get 3 Training Programs, packages of Verbs that contribute to your stats, as well as give you some sample Adjectives that fit that type of person that does that job (You pick an Adjective to describe your character per-Training Program, either from the examples or another one, you'll have 3 Adjectives at the end for your Character.), and you can take each Training Program up to 2 times.

For example, the Courier gives you a +1 to Fight, Move and Prowl, and has sample adjectives of Agile, Fast, and Healthy.

I want to make the Fantasy Archetypes into Training Programs, giving you two general Adjectives, and 1 Class Adjective. Like,

- Sorcerer: Coax, Fight, and Cast
- Cleric: Treat, Detect, and Invoke.

I want to double up on "Class Verbs" so something like the Fighter and the Bard would both have Lead, for example. Invoke is my idea for a "See assistance from beyond the veil", and might also give it to Druid, if I include a Druid.

The plan is to limit a player to, at most, 2 Class Verbs, but if I reduce the General Verbs down to 6, I could go 3, but we'll see.

The biggest issue though is that I need to make sure I have a Tight amount of General Verbs, and I have enough Class Verbs to make it seem interesting, give the specific Fantasies in the Fantasy genre, and avoid overlap. Giving a Bard something like "Perform" might be fitting, for example, but how useful is it going to be if it's something you burned limited resources on, since progression is not as quick or easy.

Anyways, this is just a rough like, super early version of what I'm planning, and I wanted to put this out in case I do end up abandoning it lmao.

OK, Class Verbs.

Following this up, I have landed on 5 Class Verbs

• Cast - Conjure the magic from an esoteric source to create change in the world around you
• Delve - Navigate the dangers of the wilds and ruins, disarming traps and avoiding trouble. 
• Invoke - Channel the will of a being of great power for guidance
• Lead - Take charge of situations through direct action and focus
• Protect - Keep others safe, taking the burden upon yourself

What I think I want to do with this though is take a page out of Treat's book from Technoir: Every roll of your Class Verb is against Difficulty 4.  In Technoir, ties go to the Defender, so in this case, the Difficulty, unless you roll 2 or more 4s, which breaks the tie.  They will also have different effects when used.  

Cast - This one was interesting because I want the feeling of casting a spell to be useful, right?  I want it to feel meaningful.  Cast is mainly about channeling the energy to manipulate the world.  Sure, using it offensively is straightforward, but I wanted to make it more useful on your allies.  This is why, for now, Positive Adjectives awarded to yourself or allies are Sticky by default.  They last until the end of the Scene or until something breaks it, such as concentration, a failed roll, a mage entering the scene with vision spells, etc.  This makes them straightforward as offensive magic (inflict Adjectives on enemies), but also serves as a buff to allies in the form of things they can invoke in the scene to use a Push Die on the roll.  

Delve - This has an overlap with Move, but being a sort of unopposed type thing feels interesting.  The use case for Delve is to spot and navigate around traps, pitfalls, and find paths through difficult terrain.  This also overlaps with Detect, which I need to consider.  Delve may be useful for more of a "environmental detect" rather than "look for hidden people", but not sure yet.  I think for this, I should ask what a failure looks like.  Normally, a failure is just a Whoops you Take Consequences, but I always find consequences for Looking to be weird sometimes.  So I need to frame this as either getting lost in the weeds of your search, focusing too much on the wrong thing, or missing a trap, and expressing that mechanically.  Maybe just some GM guidance on how to describe failure works best here.

Invoke - OK, so how do I make "Invoke" different than Cast?  That is a very good question.  I think we make it take time.  Not a Long time, but something that can't be used in a fight or when time is of the essence.  You Invoke the source of your power (Primal, Celestial, Religious, Nefarious, etc), asking for guidance current course of action and instead of giving an Adjective, it gives you +1 Die on the next roll you make that's related to the course of action.  I don't want it to Advise you, I want it to be a thing where you confer with your powersource, and tell it what you want, like spell it out, and it grants the boon, on a success.  +1d without spending a Push Die is incredibly strong, so GMs should be willing to say "Hey, you don't have time to do this here, nor could you do this without something going wrong against you/the group", such as making noise and so on.  This is the one that I'm most worried about.

Lead - This is the ability to do Group Actions.  Rolling Lead against Difficulty 4 means that you are trying to take control of the situation and find the best way in, way out, or way forward.  If you succeed, you can then roll for the entire group using your skills.  You can also use Lead like an alternate Coax, instead of trying to convince people, you try to impress upon them with your force of personality.  Useful for rallying people to a cause, or rabblerousing.  This whole Verb might need to get replaced, I dunno.

Protect - OK, so this fucker made me think about how Harm is done in this game (taking Negative Adjectives) and interacting with that system.  Protect allows you to take the brunt of a negative consequence for another character.  It doesn't block it, but instead gives you the associated Negative Adjective.  Because I want players with Protect to actually use Protect, I have a couple choices.  First, I could change the Harm system to incorporate something closer to Blades in the Dark's of Harm, specifically how Harm can roll over to higher levels.  Since Technoir already has "Fleeting", "Sticky", and "Locked" Adjectives, I could use the  "Harm Slots" to say you can take 4 Fleeting, 3 Sticky, and 2 Locked negative Adjectives at a time, then give people with Protect more slots per rank in it.  Or.  Or.  I could keep the current damage system, and say "You can ignore X-1 Hurt Dice when rolling" where X is your ranks of Protect.  So if you have 2 negative Hurt dice, and 1 level in Protect, you would only roll 1 Hurt Die, which means there is 1 less die that could wipe out a high roll.

I actually REALLY like Protect as a concept.  Having that buffer incentivizes you to protect others or take riskier changes and put yourself out there.  Cast having Positive Adjectives be Sticky is giving Buffs, well, a buff, while not affecting Negative Adjectives.  

If these feel too strong, I could work in lighter effects that happen for free, and the major effects require you to discharge or give the GM one of your Push Dice, but then I might have to make them Stronger than they already are.

Anyways, for now, I'm tentatively happy with how these are turning out.