Shticks

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Shticks are bought with EPs. In general, shticks enable you to break/change/alter the basic mechanics in some beneficial way, as well as enabling all of the perks a character might have setting him apart from other characters. A simple shtick could give you an extra die to roll in a particular situation. Or your character might have a shtick in wealth giving him several gold whenever needed. Any character can write connections and contacts into their history, but the character with a shtick in them will receive mechanical benefits that others will not.

Contents

Shtick Cost

A shtick's cost (after character creation) is determined by the formula:

EP Cost = Power * Frequency * Source * Concept

Power

A rating from 1 to 10 based on GM estimation of power.

Frequency

A rating from 1 to 6 based on the following chart. Note frequency cost can be decreased one level if the shtick has a frequency limiting limitation. (e.g. Costs a Yin to Use[1], Not during the day, Only when under half hit-points, etc.)

  • 1 Usable once per book.
  • 2 Usable once per run.
  • 3 Usable once per scene/combat.
  • 4 Usable once per turn in combat time; once per 10 minutes out of combat time.
  • 5 Usable once per action in combat time; once per minute out of combat time.
  • 6 Always on.

Note: When dice are involved, "once" usually means "on one roll".

Source

1 if someone/something teaches it to you. 2 if self-taught. 3 if crazy (e.g. Shticks in something no NPC has conceived of, or "How the heck did you teach yourself that?")

  • Each character may define how they have learned their initial shticks, whether that is learning them from a local teacher, or poring over the Tomes of Wisdom in the library, or eating stolen peaches from the Peach Tree of the Prince's Concubine, or whatever. If this includes multiple sources, only one source should be still available in game. The GMs will tell you what the NPCs/books/peaches/whatever can/will teach you after character creation. (Though we'll take suggestions.) Characters can go back and learn from this same source during the game, but the source can't be something that you can access from anywhere. These initial sources of knowledge aren't likely to have high level shticks available. Better sources will have to be found in game.
  • For shticks such as "favors from the king", or "family connections", etc. where nothing is actually learned, use source 2 if your character has a sufficient in-game reason to acquire the shtick, or source 3 if not. The opportunity to buy such shticks may occasionally be offered to characters at source 1, such as rewards from NPCs for successful services, or boons upon completion of quests, etc.
  • Since we're allowing buying up frequency, we'll also allow learning a shtick at a lower frequency than the teacher has it.

Concept

  • 1 if in your Major Concept
  • 1.5 if it is in your Minor concept.
  • 3 otherwise ("Outside shtick").

Duration

A shtick's frequency determines how many uses you get of it. What a "use" is generally depends on the shtick and circumstances. If you buy one use of "make my suitcase fly", you can make your suitcase float and follow you around for a while as your use (for up to a scene, say[2]). If you want your suitcase to fly itself in front of attacks and protect you, the first such leap is a use.

  • For people thinking about buffs: A shtick's frequency generates uses. For +2 Power you can grant those uses to someone else. For +4 Power, you can grant those uses to everyone in a related group.

Shtick Levels

Each shtick also has a Level which restricts which shticks you can buy. The level of a shtick is defined as [Power * Frequency] / 6 (round up).

First level shticks: P*F of 1-6
Second level shticks: P*F of 7-12
Third level shticks: P*F of 13-18
...

For Concept shticks (both Major and Minor), you can only buy an Nth shtick of level X if you have N+1 shticks of level X-1. (You may always buy level 1 Concept shticks).

For outside shticks, you can only buy an Nth outside shtick if you have a Concept shtick of level N+1. There is no limit on the level of outside shticks, except for their expense (and general GM oversight).

Basically, your concept shticks are arranged in a pyramid, and your outside shticks are arranged in a vertical stack which is shorter than the pyramid.

Stacking

You can buy two shticks that do the same thing; they stack transparently (subject to other dice limitations[3]). So, you can have two shticks for "Nerve Strike" which let you add +1 die to your attack, once per combat; this would let you add +2 dice once during the combat, or +1 die twice in the combat. (Multipliers do not stack, and qualitative changes ("Reputation", "See in the dark") do not stack.)

  1. Stat points spent to power schticks reduce that stat. They are recovered at the end of a run or puttering period.
  2. If you really want to have a suitcase which always flies, get it at Frequency 6, do not try to get it at the "once a scene" frequency and turn it on every scene.
  3. See Dice Rolling