Let strengths and weaknesses be separate from the cards that you play
Not a suggestion so much as a thought. I'm not convinced it would make the game better:
I'm really loving the redesign. My only problem with the game that we're playing at the moment is that I have x strength and weakness cards, but those qualities don't disappear from my character when I run out of cards.
It would be nice to simply have those cards noted in my character archive (particular strengths, particular weaknesses) and have a hand full of generic strength / weakness cards, that I could then play (using those strengths / weaknesses) at various times.
The downside would be that it wouldn't force me to use a limited number of one strength or weakness, which does help vary the plot. Anyway, just a thought.
Dave Bloustien
shared this idea
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Graf
commented
This sounds a lot like Fate points in Fate.
From experience I can say that the challenge is you have "bad ass mage" characteristic (Card?) and you can just pump all your points into doing stuff with that without using your other traits.
The 'card' mechanic links the point to a trait. So you get one use of your "bad ass mage" and then you have to make use of "lovable weirdo". If you just have 2 points and two characteristic then the suboptimal (but potentially more interesting) trait tends to recede into the background.
It's not a "right or wrong" thing. One mid-point option would be to allow someone to occasionally change a strength into another strength.
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David Guenther
commented
I was going to suggest this. I am positive this would be a major improvement. If narrators wish to make cards more specific to a situation than just a general strength or weakness for their style of gameplay, it makes it difficult for the players to use all three in a row in the opening of the game. Additionally, it makes it hard for players to be able to get to the things they need later in the game.
Here are some examples:
Let's say you're making a story where all of the characters are wizards. It'd make sense for several of the strength cards to be different kinds of magic. But, unfortunately, if you wanted to make different spells which the players can 'learn' (I.E. Illumination, fireball, detect magic, heal, speak to ghosts) then every player has to start by picking one spell, and they have to use ONLY that spell (plus one wild spell) three times before they're allowed to pick another one.
Once they've done this process a few times then it becomes fine. Every time they refresh, they can pick a variety of spells from the things they've learned. But even further into the story, when the player has learned five, eight, maybe ten or twelve different spells, they need to 'cycle out' all the things that they have in order to use a spell, even if they have already learned that spell.
This could apply to anything, not just magic. Strength cards should be able to be attributes, magic, robotic addons, special abilities, or anything.
My suggested solution is to have three 'generic' strength and weakness cards, which, like Dave said, can be turned into whatever 'strength' or 'weakness' cards you have 'unlocked' in the story. And whenever you cycle all of them out, you can 'unlock' a new one. And of course, playing all of your sub-plot or goal cards would also allow you to unlock a new card.
Some of the things I've described could be used as asset cards, it's true. But doesn't it make more sense for a character to 'learn' more strengths as they continue playing, instead of just having three specific things they have to use to continue? Doesn't that make it more varied? This new system would not made the old version unusable either, It's really just an expansion. A narrator could set any number of starting strength/weakness cards upon character creation depending on how specific they want their traits to be in their game.