Into the Steam Amalgam Question

[pgholland]

One of our players has the Animator pursuit, and has raised a question about the Amalgam:

 

Stats-wise we can't see why it's Df is only 3, does it lose 1 for Ht or some such?

 

Also, if you increase its Evade Skill does its Df go up? Or do you need to Select the Df increase? It seems to make sense as that option is there but its not completely clear.

[Mason]

19 hours ago, pgholland said:

One of our players has the Animator pursuit, and has raised a question about the Amalgam:

Stats-wise we can't see why it's Df is only 3, does it lose 1 for Ht or some such?

It looks like a typo. Go with Defense 4 and Initiative 2 as per the normal rules for such things.

 

19 hours ago, pgholland said:

Also, if you increase its Evade Skill does its Df go up? Or do you need to Select the Df increase? It seems to make sense as that option is there but its not completely clear.

Yes, increasing its Evade skill will increase its Defense as normal.

[pgholland]

Really? this means that our player can have 8 def (so 15 when not commanded)- it will be tougher to hit than most of the Fated!

[Mason]

15 hours ago, pgholland said:

Really? this means that our player can have 8 def (so 15 when not commanded)- it will be tougher to hit than most of the Fated!

Possibly!  That increase to defense comes at the cost of a lack of offense, however... and it's the capstone Talent for the Animator pursuit, so it's supposed to have a bit of a kick.

Though if the big hunk of machinery parts is just standing there staring off into space, I would recommend that your bad guys shoot around it.

[pgholland]

It's not bad at offence either- with a huge chunk of points to spend, it gets commanded once, gets to have cards flipped for it, and then would presumably continue. Unless what you're saying is the rules (which are sadly lacking in that whole area) are missing the fact that things you command ONLY act when you use a (1) Command action? That seems quite unlikely.

[Mason]

22 minutes ago, pgholland said:

It's not bad at offence either- with a huge chunk of points to spend, it gets commanded once, gets to have cards flipped for it, and then would presumably continue. Unless what you're saying is the rules (which are sadly lacking in that whole area) are missing the fact that things you command ONLY act when you use a (1) Command action? That seems quite unlikely.

Yes, subordinate characters only act when you take the (1) Order Action.

Per pg. 203 of the Fated Almanac:

"(1) Order: The character gives a command to a single subordinate character under his control (such as a zombie, elemental, or construct minion). The ordered character takes its turn after this character completes his turn. The ordered character's turn is controlled by this character. If the ordering character is Fated, the ordered character flips challenges as if it were a Fated character, but it may not Cheat Fate."

Some Pursuits have Talents that reduce the cost of the (1) Order Action or allow a character to command multiple subordinates - the Animator can command all of her Cobbled with a single (1) Order Action, for instance - but if a character doesn't take the (1) Order Action to command a subordinate character, then the subordinate character doesn't get an turn that round.

[pgholland]

So you order a subordinate to attack but it only does so when you give it the order. Wow, the animator just got really useless having to waste half their action search turn to make the cobbled do what it was already ordered to do.

 

Though it is one of the many areas in the rules that weren't really fleshed out properly and make no sense. You have an animal or anything else with rudimentary intelligence under your control, you give it an order, but it only follows that order when you continuously order it rather than simply carrying out the order you gave it previously.

[Mason]

13 hours ago, pgholland said:

So you order a subordinate to attack but it only does so when you give it the order. Wow, the animator just got really useless having to waste half their action search turn to make the cobbled do what it was already ordered to do.

 

Though it is one of the many areas in the rules that weren't really fleshed out properly and make no sense. You have an animal or anything else with rudimentary intelligence under your control, you give it an order, but it only follows that order when you continuously order it rather than simply carrying out the order you gave it previously.

It's essentially a balancing mechanic against summoners.

 

One of the things that swings combat more than anything else in Through the Breach is extra AP, and summoning generates a lot of extra AP. If the Animator uses 1 AP to Order one Cobbled that gets 2 AP on its turn, then the character ends up coming out ahead by one AP.  With three Cobbled, the Animator is using 1 AP to generate a total of 6 AP, which is pretty impressive. If her Cobbled have Melee Expert, then it pushes things even further in her benefit.

Whether that Order takes the form of shouting at your constructs, directing them with a gesture, or just taking up part of your attention to make certain that they're doing what they should be doing is up to the player to fluff out.

 

Now, can you play your game with only needing to give a single (1) Order to a subordinate character, after which time it keeps doing whatever it was doing? Absolutely. It skews the game in favor of summoner characters, however, so keep that in mind.

[Grimcleaver]

I'd just lump that in the same as a character who has a pet bear or a brother who's a gunslinger or a wastrel who whips up a bunch of goons at the local saloon and sends the mob out with him to go fight. I like Through the Breach best when it's concerned about telling the story and not sweating balance issues so much. Yeah sometimes folks bring other guys to a fight--sometimes they're summoned out of the aether, sometimes they're stitched together out of bodies, sometimes they're friends and allies. I just consider that an aspect of the world not something to sweat enough to counter with some balancing mechanic.

Then again our group is very narrative. Your milage may vary.