There are too many tables of what one can do with oppotunities. It it doesn't get better that these then are also have sub-categories for rings and what have you. The game needs much streamlinging in that regard. One main guideline on how Opportunities can be used, like say the raises where managable in 4th edition. So, maybe give various uses keywards instead of every technique having their own special table.

I tend to agree.

My players demanded a cheat sheet.

I started putting together a cheat sheet of all the basic opportunities and ring effects (not counting special ones from techniques) plus the references for the TN examples and some of them are essentially just repeats in a different colour anyway. You can find it here * if you want to see, but with it all in one place I've noticed inconsistancy with the descriptions of the rings, their opportunities and the stance effects. My pet peeve is Air which is listed as the stance for feints and misdirection, yet has ended up being the passive defence stance when that clearly fits water better. Conceptually at least, Air should be all about generating opportunities and exploiting vulnerabilities.

They respect the elemental pairs (you see this on technique TNs) on everything except the stances.

They also have some effects that are linked to skill success/failure repeated in the opportunity examples. This feels like an error to me.

*it's a bit of a mess, but feel free to view/add comments.

Haha I had done the almost exact same sheet I guess it’s something that would look nice on a player’s handout or GM screen.

2 hours ago, GaGrin said:

My pet peeve is Air which is listed as the stance for feints and misdirection, yet has ended up being the passive defence stance when that clearly fits water better.

I’ve also been thinking along those lines and this led me to consider the following: give a variant of the Guard action that does not require a roll but only adds +1 to the TN to be hit (and maybe can only be selected once). Just like the Maneuver Action has two versions, with and without roll. This could be then selected as an extra Water Stance action!

Besides, you would get the opportunity to turtle while incapacitated or bleeding, regardless of your Stance.

Air Stance bonus would have to be reviewed entirely too. Someone had suggested something along the lines of preventing dice from exploding on actions targeting you... I think this fits the “misdirection” theme well. If you’re more about generating opportunities, you could make it a replica of Fire Stance, but with opportunities: when you succeed on a check, the Strife symbols on your kept dice also count as extra opportunities... but this might be a bit OP if it allows to crit too easily... maybe limited to Air opportunities specifically? Oh and Stiking as Air would become insane, but at least no more +1 TN from the stance on top of it.

Strife count as opportunities. Brokenly powerful? Probably. Elegant solution? Certainly. [SEAL OF APPROVAL]

Though I do think that like Fire, you must succeed at the check to get the opportunities.

Water could potentially be about reducing/absorbing/redirecting strife-based bonuses, either instead of it's current second action or additionally. Something like being able to reduce your own strife when an opponent generates it against you on a check, or being able to take strife yourself to counter the strife on their roll. Though at the same time, you don't really want everything tied to strife. If you did all of these that would be 4/5 stances are powered by or directly linked to strife use or mitigation.

33 minutes ago, GaGrin said:

Though I do think that like Fire, you must succeed at the check to get the opportunities

Yes, that's absolutely the idea

I like the updated version of Water. It is versatile and fluid, as it should be. Giving it that extra no-check action for defensive purpose would make it complete, as long as Air gets tweaked. It is already possible to reduce your Strife in Water stance for free by taking a Calming Breath too, so there is that.