Hello all

I was looking for some advice in order to settle a discussion I have been having with another player in my game.

It all comes down to the wording of the base ability.

Once per game when in a "chosen" urban setting.

We are at a disagreement at the context of "chosen". He believes that the signature ability requires you to choose one particular setting and you cannot change from that. E.G. Only being able to use the ability with Theed and nowhere else.

I am under the impression that the player may choose any one city per session to use the ability with, if you leave said city for any reason you do not gain any benefits in any other cities.

Many thanks

3 hours ago, danman170692 said:

Hello all

I was looking for some advice in order to settle a discussion I have been having with another player in my game.

It all comes down to the wording of the base ability.

Once per game when in a "chosen" urban setting.

We are at a disagreement at the context of "chosen". He believes that the signature ability requires you to choose one particular setting and you cannot change from that. E.G. Only being able to use the ability with Theed and nowhere else.

I am under the impression that the player may choose any one city per session to use the ability with, if you leave said city for any reason you do not gain any benefits in any other cities.

Many thanks

No. Have him read the full text on the abilty, not just the bullet text in the flow chart. When you activate the ability, spend the Destiny Point cost and make your knowledge check, you choose a city (usually the one that you’re currently in, or are traveling too), that city becomes your chosen city for the remainder of the session. When the next session starts, you can choose a different city to gain the benefits of the ability. So your interpretation is the correct one.

On 2/2/2019 at 5:00 PM, Tramp Graphics said:

No. Have him read the full text on the abilty, not just the bullet text in the flow chart.

That should be the rule for any disagreement involving signature abilities, talents or force powers. The text in the flow charts are there purely as an aide memoire to remind you what the ability does.

I know there may be issues with cost and availability, but when I was playing the game I found the specialisation decks really helpful for exactly this reason.

Unfortunately he has already read the full text and is still under the impression that he is correct. Although I find it hard to believe that they would develop a signature ability so limited that it is practically useless with his stance on it.

I might have to get him to read this forum post and that may convince him if other players are agreeing with me.

The base ability states just "once per game in an urban setting" (Which is reasonably balanced compared to other signature abilities, but a little narratively odd - A bit like sleeper agent)

But the full description has fluff about "where the Sentinel lives", and rules reference "chosen urban setting".

If I had to guess, they changed how it worked during design/playtesting.

Given the conflicts, I'd defer to the only authority that matters. Your GM. (And my advice to them, is unless 90% of your campaign is in one city, make it apply to any - but specify a minimum time exploring the city).

This would be a great question for a dev

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/contact/rules/

I too don't think it's meant to be a specific city and should apply to any city the character selects.

However, I also see this as one of those abilities that needs GM tempering. Like with Seek the GM and Players have to frame it and play up to it, and not just allow it to be an "I win button."

So like the players are looking for a missing woman who is in hiding as an adventure goal. Using the ability to know exactly where she is would probably be broken. After all, she's in hiding, she's specifically not going to be where she typically would be. But allowing them to get a valuable clue based on knowing where the woman typically goes or would normally be... that's ok.

7 hours ago, Darzil said:

The base ability states just "once per game in an urban setting" (Which is reasonably balanced compared to other signature abilities, but a little narratively odd - A bit like sleeper agent)

But the full description has fluff about "where the Sentinel lives", and rules reference "chosen urban setting".

If I had to guess, they changed how it worked during design/playtesting.

Given the conflicts, I'd defer to the only authority that matters. Your GM. (And my advice to them, is unless 90% of your campaign is in one city, make it apply to any - but specify a minimum time exploring the city).

The "Once per game" refers to how many times you can actually roll your knowledge check to activate My City in the first place. This basically prevents a player from hopping from city to city, rolling over and over during the same session.

9 hours ago, Darzil said:

The base ability states just "once per game in an urban setting" (Which is reasonably balanced compared to other signature abilities, but a little narratively odd - A bit like sleeper agent)

But the full description has fluff about "where the Sentinel lives", and rules reference "chosen urban setting".

If I had to guess, they changed how it worked during design/playtesting.

Given the conflicts, I'd defer to the only authority that matters. Your GM. (And my advice to them, is unless 90% of your campaign is in one city, make it apply to any - but specify a minimum time exploring the city).

It doesn't specify anything specific about where the Sentinel lives other than just it being a habitat... but it does talk about "the chosen urban setting."

But it doesn't say anything about when or how you choose.

To an extent I suspect this is supposed to be a GM decides thing.

In a typical Star Wars "3-planet" story I can see this as being something you choose when activating. So if you choose Theed off the bat, you can't apply it to Mos Espa later in the same session.

In a more local campaign I can also see the "pick a city" requirement. Having Batman know all the ins and outs of Metropolis and which gangster hangs out where would be strange... But in this case it would be pretty well established in the campaign by this point...

I did take Varlie's advice and contact FFG

Here was their response:

Quote

The ability does assume that you select a single urban location that you know very well; it does not change from session to session. At your GM’s discretion, you may transfer the ability to a new location if your game shifts to a different city, but your character may need to spend some time in the city learning about it (or at least not be able to travel to a new location and use the ability right away).

That is quite unfortunate, I will contact my GM to see what options we can work with if I want to pick this up.

That does seem very limiting for a Signature Ability when you consider Star Wars adventures hardly ever stay in one city unless you running something specifically locked down on one planet.