Table III.2-17: Additional Vehicle Actions on page 229 mentions a defense zone, but I can't find any other reference to it in vehicles. Is this a holdover from Star Wars?
What's a Defense Zone?
Exactly. In Star Wars there is the concept of “angling deflector shields” as quoted from the movies. So to represent that a ship has Shields that are mechanically represented by Defence. Silhouette 4 and under have 2 zones, Silhouette 5+ have 4 zones. Points of defence could be moved between zones to ensure your foe has the hardest time hitting you, so a typical space fighter may have 2/1 fore/aft shields that could be adjusted to be 3/0 if you wanted (remember the defender chooses the zone they are hit in)
For Genesys that simply makes no sense at all, Defense will mean something different in almost every setting, and most of them cannot be modified during play. So ffg did the right thing and ditched the entire system
7 hours ago, Richardbuxton said:For Genesys that simply makes no sense at all, Defense will mean something different in almost every setting, and most of them cannot be modified during play. So ffg did the right thing and ditched the entire system
So should the Overwhelm Defenses Talent be removed from the Expanded Talents? Or can it be retooled?
Having used the Expanded Talent list, I feel that many of the Star Wars talents don’t translate well at all. I refuse to use them in my games.
3 hours ago, GM Hooly said:Having used the Expanded Talent list, I feel that many of the Star Wars talents don’t translate well at all. I refuse to use them in my games.
Sure, but the default assumption of the Expanded Talent list is that they should be used. So, if they are meant to be used, then they should comport with the Genesys rules, yes?
I use them as a starting point for curating my own list (I don't allow all Core Book talents, either), but that doesn't speak to the intent of the document.
The fact is that the talents are a direct import with little to no playtesting. Having used them extensively, many don’t work in GeneSys and break the game. Remember that some of these talents require purchase of additional trees and then due to their positioning, even more XP. SW talents and GeneSys talents don’t always mix.
I view, and always have, GTE as a source for talents, not a list you simply use whole hog. There’s plenty of talents in the Core book that don’t fit many settings, and GTE is the same. Instead it’s best if the gm takes only the ones they need, or simply asks the players to seek approval when they want to use one.
Now as for Overwhelm Defences it would probably be better rewritten. Two Advantage is probably too cheap for a reduction of Genesys defence until the end of the encounter, so either a turn limit needs to be put on it or the Advantage cost need to be increased:
Spend AAA to reduce the Defence of a target by 1.
In an ideal world every talent in GTE would have suggestions on what settings to use them in, everything would have keywords to help in finding talents related to a particular skill or encounter type, it would be play tested more, and there would be less ranked talents. But no one has enough time for that unfortunately.
6 hours ago, Richardbuxton said:In an ideal world every talent in GTE would have suggestions on what settings to use them in, everything would have keywords to help in finding talents related to a particular skill or encounter type, it would be play tested more, and there would be less ranked talents. But no one has enough time for that unfortunately.
Then definitely a case of buyer beware.
1 minute ago, GM Hooly said:Then definitely a case of buyer beware.
Precisely
Here was a post on the topic from the FAQ.
https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/264720-faq/?do=findComment&comment=3375368
11 hours ago, GM Hooly said:Then definitely a case of buyer beware.
Yes... but the sources are noted, so its not like you were being decieved. Nor did you actually buy anything... so the turn of phrase is less than apt.
Using the GTE is a little like using 3rd Edition D&D material in a Pathfinder campaign. Sure they look compatible on the surface, but the truth is in most cases they really aren't. As GMs we're responsible for the impact had by the house-rules we implement.
Personally, its nice having all those out-of-date talents to draw inspiration from, but I would never give a player free-reign to just pick whatever they wanted from the list either. That's asking for trouble. As is I mostly use it as a reference document for GCRB and RoT talents (since it is so nice having them all in one document).
Thanks.