I know with BW there’s sort of an informal guideline of an instinct allowing you to do something before a Fight starts that would normally take 1 or 2 actions – like unsheathing a weapon or something.
I wasn’t sure if there was something similar to follow with BE. I was thinking a good instinct for a veteran commander might be to always survey a battlefield with the intent of getting a free Observation right as a Firefight starts.
Is that fine or a little outside the scope of an Instinct for BE?
Instincts get a lot of love in BE. See Instincts on page 327. There’s also a good section on writing Instincts on page 119.
In the context of BE’s scene economy, they become very powerful in that they can grant you a roll without using your Building Scene or Conflict Scene.
That said, your proposed instinct needs a little more specificity, in my opinion. When does he always survey a battlefield?
“Always survey a battlefield before launching an offensive” is a great instinct. We know what it entails, we know when it comes into play (before an offensive), and it’s easy to think of some great consequences for failure (like the enemy gets a chance to discover your recon team or Intercept your signals, thereby alerting them to your attack).
And thanks for the suggestion. That is an awesome instinct. I need to flesh the rest of the character out and get in his head and see what I think. I’ll try and get him up later tonight for further comments.