Trifler and Brilliance condition.

[Eria'D angelo]

After reading the Trifler pursuit, my players and I got the impression that Trifler has almost no way to reset the Brilliance condition. And getting +1 Brilliance at the beginning of each session only complicates things by forcing you to either constantly throw doctor skill or counterspell skill. Which ultimately leads to two possibilities. 

1 - You actively use Suffusion, forcing you to discard cards on an industrial scale or use counterspell\doc skills after each dramatic encounter just to live. At the same time your Brilliance cannot be lower than 4.

2 - Pursuit is designed to be suicidal and PC is bound to slide into unplayable NPC sooner or later.

I'm interested to know your opinion as I'm missing something. For Possessed has the option of not dying of Haunted condition.

[Ebb]

Hello, I realize that this reply is quite late, I hope it can still be helpful to you (= 

I am inclined to believe (with I'd say at least an iota of personal experience) that it is very thematically appropriate for a Pursuit centered around chemical addiction to have the character eternally riding a knifes edge between maniacal bliss and the certainty of utter despair. To me it seems they've done a mostly excellent job, in terms of both the theme and the mechanics... With one or maybe two exceptions, the short version of which is:

The Trigger "The Looming Dark" (from the Talent "Light In The Dark") is worded such that it will only ever be possible to declare the "Depletion" Trigger (from the Talent "Dealing Darkness") if the character has the rare ability to declare two Triggers on a single Close Combat attack, one solution for which would be to just add an extra Mask to the former. Alternatively, one could shuffle the order of the available Talents on the Advancement Table, such that any player can only access one of the two Triggers, like so:

Step 3: Light In The Dark or Dealing Darkness

Step 4: Come To Me or The Light Inside

The other potential problem is that according to the original description of the Brilliance Condition (Under Quarantine pg.153)

"...Whenever the Brilliance Condition is removed or lowered from an infected character, that character takes an amount of damage equal to the value of the Brilliance Condition removed (the value that the Brilliance Condition was altered by)..."

This mechanic was not included anywhere in the From Shadows reprint of the Brilliance Condition's effects. It isn't made clear if the From Shadows version has intentionally omitted it as part of a revision to the previous system, or if this is intended to still be a part of the interaction between the Talents of the Trifler Pursuit and the Brilliance Condition (I am currently inclined to the later).

With all that having been said, there are additional options for dealing with the Brilliance Condition that you did not mention. Firstly the "Shimmerlungs" Tactical Action (from the Trifler Talent "The Light Inside"). Secondly the Monk Pursuit (pg.79-81) has access to the Enlightened Condition, which is a dangerously powerful effect, such that I have currently house-ruled it so that it can only lower (never increase) the value of the characters other Conditions. In either case, it can be used to help control the Brilliance Condition. I like to imagine that the poetic irony of the nomenclature (Enlightened vs Brilliance) is intentional =P

I should mention that with the way the Trifler Pursuit is worded, the various effects (such as the "Shrug Off" General Talent) that would out-rite remove the Condition, do not work; "...it's value can never be reduced to less than +4, and the Condition can never be removed."

Finally, there are the Destiny Step Manifested Talents. If the Monk Pursuit is not thematically appropriate for your Fated, you could use a Manifested Talent to create a mechanically similar effect that is better suited to your character concept. Alternatively, if you are still quite understandably concerned about losing the character that you've invested so much into, you could create a Manifested Talent that (at a heavy cost) prevents the character from ever becoming a Depleted. For example:  

If this character would become a Depleted, instead immediately reduce the value of her Brilliance Condition to +4, then permanently lower one of her Aspects by 1.

or, for a more lenient option:

If this character would become a Depleted, instead immediately reduce the value of her Brilliance Condition to +12. At the end of this session, during the Epilogue, this character does not gain any Experience Points.

At any rate, sorry for the wall of text. I hope that any of this will be useful.

[Eria'D angelo]

On 6/28/2023 at 4:17 AM, Ebb said:

Hello, I realize that this reply is quite late, I hope it can still be helpful to you (= 

I am inclined to believe (with I'd say at least an iota of personal experience) that it is very thematically appropriate for a Pursuit centered around chemical addiction to have the character eternally riding a knifes edge between maniacal bliss and the certainty of utter despair. To me it seems they've done a mostly excellent job, in terms of both the theme and the mechanics... With one or maybe two exceptions, the short version of which is:

The Trigger "The Looming Dark" (from the Talent "Light In The Dark") is worded such that it will only ever be possible to declare the "Depletion" Trigger (from the Talent "Dealing Darkness") if the character has the rare ability to declare two Triggers on a single Close Combat attack, one solution for which would be to just add an extra Mask to the former. Alternatively, one could shuffle the order of the available Talents on the Advancement Table, such that any player can only access one of the two Triggers, like so:

Step 3: Light In The Dark or Dealing Darkness

Step 4: Come To Me or The Light Inside

The other potential problem is that according to the original description of the Brilliance Condition (Under Quarantine pg.153)

"...Whenever the Brilliance Condition is removed or lowered from an infected character, that character takes an amount of damage equal to the value of the Brilliance Condition removed (the value that the Brilliance Condition was altered by)..."

This mechanic was not included anywhere in the From Shadows reprint of the Brilliance Condition's effects. It isn't made clear if the From Shadows version has intentionally omitted it as part of a revision to the previous system, or if this is intended to still be a part of the interaction between the Talents of the Trifler Pursuit and the Brilliance Condition (I am currently inclined to the later).

With all that having been said, there are additional options for dealing with the Brilliance Condition that you did not mention. Firstly the "Shimmerlungs" Tactical Action (from the Trifler Talent "The Light Inside"). Secondly the Monk Pursuit (pg.79-81) has access to the Enlightened Condition, which is a dangerously powerful effect, such that I have currently house-ruled it so that it can only lower (never increase) the value of the characters other Conditions. In either case, it can be used to help control the Brilliance Condition. I like to imagine that the poetic irony of the nomenclature (Enlightened vs Brilliance) is intentional =P

I should mention that with the way the Trifler Pursuit is worded, the various effects (such as the "Shrug Off" General Talent) that would out-rite remove the Condition, do not work; "...it's value can never be reduced to less than +4, and the Condition can never be removed."

Finally, there are the Destiny Step Manifested Talents. If the Monk Pursuit is not thematically appropriate for your Fated, you could use a Manifested Talent to create a mechanically similar effect that is better suited to your character concept. Alternatively, if you are still quite understandably concerned about losing the character that you've invested so much into, you could create a Manifested Talent that (at a heavy cost) prevents the character from ever becoming a Depleted. For example:  

If this character would become a Depleted, instead immediately reduce the value of her Brilliance Condition to +4, then permanently lower one of her Aspects by 1.

or, for a more lenient option:

If this character would become a Depleted, instead immediately reduce the value of her Brilliance Condition to +12. At the end of this session, during the Epilogue, this character does not gain any Experience Points.

At any rate, sorry for the wall of text. I hope that any of this will be useful.

Thank you for the detailed answer, it was interesting for me to read your point of view, it really turned out to be useful and allowed me to look at it from the other side. Thanks again, I need to discuss this with my players.

[8wGremlin]

Also look at some talents like 'Shrug off' you can get rid of the condition, but you immediately get it back at 4

 

[Ebb]

On 6/28/2023 at 11:17 AM, Ebb said:

I should mention that with the way the Trifler Pursuit is worded, the various effects (such as the "Shrug Off" General Talent) that would out-rite remove the Condition, do not work; "...it's value can never be reduced to less than +4, and the Condition can never be removed."

...(Brilliance Saturation).