So I'm a big descent fan, I'd like to like this...but soak...

I haven't gotten very far and I'm already cringing. I just cannot understand some of the design decisions here, could they really not come up with a better name?

Meatiness Rating?

Damage Avoidance Rating?

Ability-to-take-more-punishment-than-the-average-schmuck Rating?

I prefer it over "Damage Reduction".

They also may be avoiding some terms due to not wanting to draw too heavily on one game or another, even for terminology.

Soak is a good name to me.

In Portuguese the translation is fine.

And here I thought this thread was going to be about game mechanics...

4 minutes ago, ghatt said:

And here I thought this thread was going to be about game mechanics...

Same to be honest.

I like concise. 4 letters is probably about as concise as you can get.

Soak sums it up pretty well.

What's wrong with Soak?

Thing is, you're like 5.5 years late on the whole "design decisions" thing @Bucho many of us here are all very used to the "Soak" mechanic being linked to that terminology.

17 minutes ago, awayputurwpn said:

Thing is, you're like 5.5 years late on the whole "design decisions" thing @Bucho many of us here are all very used to the "Soak" mechanic being linked to that terminology.

Try 9 years thanks to Warhammer Fantasy RPG 3ed

1 hour ago, Richardbuxton said:

Try 9 years thanks to Warhammer Fantasy RPG 3ed

15 years or more. Savage Worlds (and probably deadlands before it?) uses the term.

27 years. I mean, for those who played White Wolf’s Vampire: The Masquerade or other World of Darkness games. Not that, um, I was one of those weeeeeird people …

18 minutes ago, Simon Retold said:

27 years. I mean, for those who played White Wolf’s Vampire: The Masquerade or other World of Darkness games. Not that, um, I was one of those weeeeeird people …

Dang you beat me to it. Vampire The Masquerade was my first. I ran a Vampire game for a little over 2 years until I joined the Military. It seems I've always related soak to damage in games. My love of Vampire is most likely why the Narrative Dice System felt just right my first play through.

AC is taken...

84 years. Since I was in that ship which hit the iceberg. We used to use soak as the capacity of the hull to hold the impact.

http://www.thesaurus.com/

/thread

Quote

soak noun [ C ] ( PERSON) old-fashioned informal a person who is often drunk

So it's technically armor made of drunks

25 minutes ago, DarthDude said:

So it's technically armor made of drunks

Sounds about right.

23 hours ago, DarthDude said:

So it's technically armor made of drunks

Ah so you've been to our gaming sessions.

After perusing thesaurus.com, I'm changing my character sheets to list "Soak" as "Moisten"

3 hours ago, kaosoe said:

Ah so you've been do our gaming sessions.

Our game last week degenerated into drunken babbling and fighting over a large stuffed crocodile in order to better lay on the floor while gaming. We've decided to have a "sober" week this Friday because, well the game goes nowhere most weeks. It doesn't help that one of my players is a bartender and makes wicked good mixed drinks.

1 hour ago, Cyvaris said:

Our game last week degenerated into drunken babbling and fighting over a large stuffed crocodile in order to better lay on the floor while gaming. We've decided to have a "sober" week this Friday because, well the game goes nowhere most weeks. It doesn't help that one of my players is a bartender and makes wicked good mixed drinks.

That is the danger of adult gaming. It sounds like your group made the wise call.

On 3/1/2018 at 3:16 AM, DarthGM said:

What's wrong with Soak?

That it looks too much like a mechanism to mitigate the lethality of the game which actually does not rely on or enhance the narration.

It's clumsy but it is easy.