We rolled up a handful of characters, skirmishes were underwhelming because no one survived one hit from the lion with the war gear weapon. Deadliness 3 doesn't end up meaning much when you can hit for 9-12 damage and incapacitate most characters in one swing. I've got more combinations to run but morale wasn't terribly high at that point.

9 hours ago, rcuhljr said:

We rolled up a handful of characters, skirmishes were underwhelming because no one survived one hit from the lion with the war gear weapon. Deadliness 3 doesn't end up meaning much when you can hit for 9-12 damage and incapacitate most characters in one swing. I've got more combinations to run but morale wasn't terribly high at that point.

If it's character vs character, try doing duels instead.

Yes, a well-wielded otsuchi can incapacitate most foes in one good hit.

Where it falls over is where it can't connect (high TN centre-ed air duellists) pulling auto-critical abilities like finishing blows (which is where high deadliness matters instead)

Also, there are plenty of situations where caryibg a wargear weapon is not permitted -that being the point of the trait.

As one of the people who rolled up characters that night, I have to say that I was really disappointed.

Duels are something to try out too, but we were just trying to benchmark the system...and I really don't care for systems where one fairly normal hit basically means someone sits out for a combat.

I recognize it's Wargear, and that it won't be permitted everywhere, but when it is, it feels like fights just won't be pleasant, at least from where I was sitting.

16 hours ago, brotherhoodblade said:

As one of the people who rolled up characters that night, I have to say that I was really disappointed.

Duels are something to try out too, but we were just trying to benchmark the system...and I really don't care for systems where one fairly normal hit basically means someone sits out for a combat.

I recognize it's Wargear, and that it won't be permitted everywhere, but when it is, it feels like fights just won't be pleasant, at least from where I was sitting.

It....won't be, I guess. Combat is very deadly once wargear gets involved (it's pretty deadly without it!). If you've only got your base gear, then yes, you're going to have a problem because if someone's got, say, travelling clothes (protection 2) and a mid-to-low resiliance (most Bushi schools offer at least one Earth increase, so let's say 6), then yes, it's still possible to be incapacitated by an otsuchi hit with no bonus successes.

But if you're on a battlefield, you really should have grabbed at least Ashigaru armour (It's not like it's rare or expensive) and the starter adventure has enough XP to make yourself at least resiliance 8.

Taking a couple of hits to incapacitate instead of one isn't that much better, but it is better. The otsuchi is also somewhat draining to use; don't forget you can play strife-related games much more effectively against anyone with Wargear because they'll be giving themselves strife at an increased rate, and outbursts in duels (or challenges) are lethal; the best technique to deal with hammer-time boy is to challenge him, centre (to stop him hitting you) and beat him to a finishing blow.

The bushi in question had resilience 10, an akodo out of character gen effectively gets 1 free bonus success every attack. A fresh out of character gen will get 3 successes 80% of the time, or can get 4 almost half the time. That's 11-12 damage so a 10 resilience bushi in traveling clothes or an 8 resilience one in lacquered armor out in one hit.

2 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

The otsuchi is also somewhat draining to use; don't forget you can play strife-related games much more effectively against anyone with Wargear because they'll be giving themselves strife at an increased rate, and outbursts in duels (or challenges) are lethal; the best technique to deal with hammer-time boy is to challenge him, centre (to stop him hitting you) and beat him to a finishing blow.

Wargear doesn't give you more strife, it gives your enemies more strife. "Whenever a character suffers 1 or more strife due to the actions of someone wearing one or more Wargear items, they suffer that amount of plus 1 instead."

The loss of glory for declining a clash is relatively negligible, but even for a glory hound the clash only lasts one round. If you're in air stance and center they can provoke you reliably with a void and smash you the following round through center stance.

4 minutes ago, rcuhljr said:

Wargear doesn't give you more strife, it gives your enemies more strife. "Whenever a character suffers 1 or more strife due to the actions of someone wearing one or more Wargear items, they suffer that amount of plus 1 instead."

You are 'a character' and strife picked up from perfoming actions is "strife due to the actions of someone wearing one or more wargear items". I don't see any reason to grant an exception (if it was 'another character' then fair enough).

Wargear is heavy, uncomfortable, and 'battlefield' gear meaning someone very much has their 'game face' on when using it in anger; I know samurai live 'three feet from death' but there's a difference between a philosophical position and the reality of swinging a glaive around in the middle of a major battle.

We're going to have to agree to disagree on that front until the authors weigh in, but that's terribly written if that's what they intended, just abysmal.