As I go through the list of equipment and gear in the Genesys CRB, as well as the Star Wars equipment (I don’t have RoT yet) I notice there is a lot of variance in whether a benefit on an item removes a setback vs. when it adds boost vs. when it adds advantage (which is rather rare). Similarly, adding setback vs. adding threat. Some items even upgrade the difficulty of a check, like the Ghillie suit from Genesys.

Does anyone have any nice system for when to do which? From reading the rule book several times, to me the difficulty of a task is set - your equipment shouldn’t change that (though the fallout on page 29 does allow for it, it seems extremely rare). Adding/removing boost and setback is what circumstances and equipment do (is what I thought), but then you have some of the example attachments, and the Superior quality, which directly add threat and advantage.

I’m just wondering what factors (if there are any consistent ones) to take into consideration when giving new equipment interesting abilities. Should this cool glowing magic sword add boost to your perception checks, remove a setback due to darkness, add automatic success or advantage to Perception checks? That’s just one random example. Maybe it even upgrades the difficulty of magic checks against you?

Does anyone have a system/checklist they use when deciding?

When I'm creating gear, I consider what effect the gear has on the task it's meant for. There are three ways gear can alter your results:

1) make the task possible (right tools for the job - no boost/setback)

2) make the task easier (remove setback)

3) improve task performance (add boost)

In the example of the glowing sword, the task is to see stuff (i.e. Perception, possibly Vigilance). Darkness makes that task harder (setback dice). Illumination from the sword makes the task easier (removes setback). So I would say the sword removes setback.

If the sword not only provided illumination, but also sharpened your senses, then it might not only remove setback, but also add a boost die... however, I personally would use a different item for actually boosting senses, since I don't like for a single item to both make a task easier and also boost performance.

So you would never create an item characteristic that just straight up adds threat, advantage, or successes, or upgrades the difficulty of checks against you?

I am not working with item creation so far, but let me see...

Automatic success means that the item is trustworthy to complete some task, or that the item increase considerably the success (or the magnitude of it) rate doing something. The task is the purpose of that item. You know how that should work properly and doing the same action as you would do with a regular version (without the bonus), you shouldn't have achieve the same final effect. Examples: high quality itens, herbs of healing, etc. The performance depends on your skill, and the object, if has a superior quality, would improve the final result .

Automatic advantage/triumph means that the item is trustworthy to complete some task as well, but here we are talking about what advantages can do for the user. It's important to note that success and advantages provide different kind of "success", if you got my point. As the book says, advantage indicates the opportunity for a positive consequence or side effect, regardless of wheter your character fails ou succeeds at the task they attempt . This could be something to do the task faster or far better the expect, like side effects that you can't control. It's hard to think about this cause advantages and triumphs could be used to do several things, so it's up to the user how to use it doing something. But in gereal, think about side effects you can't predict, like a critical effect - no one can predict when this would happen, but some itens can help this occur more times. The final result can't be controlled by you, but the item has conditions to improve the side effects or desirable side effects.

Boost dice represent benefits gained through luck, chance. They reflect your character's possession of some sort of benefit or advantage. In my opinion, this can help the user, but it's not certain. Whenever a character uses a piece of gear to aid in a task that the character could still normally perform without the equipment, you and the GM can agree to add a boost to the dice pool. The item can help you but it's more deppendent of your performance. The performance depends partially over your skill, but you can't predict the final results.

Remove setback should happen when you are using something that relieves/ignore a problem caused by something you can't control like: darkness, prejudice, high level of attention by someone against you, ugliness, climate/environment, pain, physical limitation, memory, noises, etc. In other way, there is something there that you can't control turning the task harder and this item can help you to work around the problem. Examples: torch/lantern, fine cloak, signet, winter cloathing, night vision goggles, disguised equipments, something to remove noise, anything that help you look better, etc. You have no influence on the situation, but the object in question yes, reducing external threats and complications for you.

Thank you @Bellyon for the detailed breakdown. It’s helped.

On 5/28/2018 at 4:13 AM, dipicacyx said:

So you would never create an item characteristic that just straight up adds threat, advantage, or successes, or upgrades the difficulty of checks against you?

This could happen, but with itens of a really badly quality or instability. Itens that are damaged already do some penalties, like one setback or increase one difficulty. Something very very experimental and unstable could be more risky to use... I can't think a regular item, that we suppose to be useful, provide the negative symbols for nothing.