12-14-2017, 10:40 AM | #31 |
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
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Re: Weapon Bond & Signature Gear
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12-14-2017, 10:49 AM | #32 | |
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Re: Weapon Bond & Signature Gear
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Not the guarantee that you'll get another fancy weapon, equally expensive, but one that fits your character in the same way and it part of his legend, in the same way. A good example is Bernard Cornwell's character Richard Sharpe, who famously carries a British Pattern 1796 Heavy Cavalry Sword, which is not standard equipment for an infantry officer. Not a Fine sword, not Balanced (anything but, really) and not an especially expensive sword, but, nevertheless, his sword. In the novel Sharpe's Sword, that sword is broken in a battle where Sharpe is almost killed. While Sharpe hovers between life and death under the best medical care that is possible at the time (not very good), his best friend, Sergeant Harper, feeling powerless and frustrated, obtains another sword of the same pattern. Using a previously unmentioned facility with basic ironmonger's tools, Sergeant Harper shortens the blade and adjusts the guard to make it more comfortable to carry on foot. In his sentimental, superstitious way, Harper hopes that having his sword waiting for him will help Sharpe come back. Whether it does or not, Sharpe lives. And when he awakens, a sword with the exact same game stats as the one he broke is waiting for him. And while it is not the same sword as the one he was given by a dying Rifle officer in the retreat from Corunna and had carried through several years of war, Sharpe can tell some of the sentiment that lies behind Harper's gift of the blade. And that means he values the new sword as much or more than he did his old one. Which, in turn, means that when he finally captures the Very Fine, Balanced saber which broke his old sword, he throws it in a river, preferring his sword. To me, that seems a pretty clear case of a sword with Weapon Bond and Signature Gear being destroyed and the GM providing an in-game rationale for having the PC receive another sword which has a similar sentimental value instead, including just 'fitting' the character in some mysterious way which makes it preferable to an objectively superior weapon.
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12-14-2017, 11:30 AM | #33 |
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Northeast Kansas
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Re: Weapon Bond & Signature Gear
In my mind, and in my games, Signature Gear and Weapon Bond are two sides of the same coin. I think they're both a huge character benefit for cost, and they need to be reflected in RP. If my swashbucklers (for whom signature gear and weapon bond are an option, not a requirement) want to change swords every time they find a magical sword better than their current one, they shouldn't take those advantages. And I won't allow them to constantly retake those points for every improved sword they find (although I doubt they'd want to).
That said, if I break their signature gear sword, of course it should be replaced with one that fits just like the old one. |
12-14-2017, 12:28 PM | #34 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Weapon Bond & Signature Gear
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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12-14-2017, 12:32 PM | #35 |
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
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Re: Weapon Bond & Signature Gear
It is just a point. If you somehow lose a weapon that you have both advantages with, then you don't keep Weapon Bond, but you can just spend another point (and a week in town and $40 at the Barbarian Encampment/Temple/Warrior's Guild/Dojo/Archery Range/Fencing Salle) to get another one.
I don't see any point in setting barriers to this one trait when you can train impossible things like Discriminatory Smell or Serendipity easily. The rules don't support any such barriers either unless you are getting it as Extraordinary Training. Last edited by sir_pudding; 12-14-2017 at 02:06 PM. |
12-14-2017, 12:44 PM | #36 |
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Luxembourg
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Re: Weapon Bond & Signature Gear
If it happened (never did) in my games, the weapon bond would be gone. It is tied to one weapon
, the weapon is gone, end. That said, if the weapon was lost in a way that mean it would get replaced due to Signature Gear protection, the player would have the opportunity to purchase weapon bond for the new weapon as soon as he have a free point, no further justification needed. It is Signature Gear, the weapon is his. |
12-14-2017, 01:43 PM | #37 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Weapon Bond & Signature Gear
Quote:
__________________
Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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12-14-2017, 02:56 PM | #38 | |
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Re: Weapon Bond & Signature Gear
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Sgt. Patrick Harper did have a viewpoint chapter as he selected and modified Sharpe's new sword. One of only a handful of POV scenes for him, in some 30 books or, covering almost 30 years. My point was, however, that Signature Gear buys that kind of narrative time investment. If you lose it, you can get it back. If the setting makes that impossible or impractical, you should get a replacement which fills the same dramatic role. Which, in the case of a mundane sword with Weapon Bond, is a sword that suits the character so well he prefers it over more expensive, more effective swords.
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Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela! |
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12-14-2017, 03:34 PM | #39 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Weapon Bond & Signature Gear
Quote:
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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12-14-2017, 04:00 PM | #40 | ||
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: Weapon Bond & Signature Gear
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Anyway, I think Signature Gear is designed to incentivize using your special piece of equipment: you're not going to leave your grandfather's nunchucks at home when going to the City of Thieves, because Signature Gear means you're not going to lose it to an unlucky Per roll against somebody's Pickpocket. And I think that's the opposite of trying to protect yourself from losing your Signature Gear.
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