Grab Bag of Questions

Burning Empires General Questions
1

The only theme these questions have in common is that they all arose from our session tonight.

  1. I’m Lord-Pilot Monster with a 2D Anvil affiliation and a 2D reputation within the Anvil as “badass general” with a 2iC commanding the Anvil forces. I want to assemble some fireteams. Is the correct procedure: test Circles, with the Ob determined by the exponent of the troops I want? Like, say, Circles test Ob 4 to get a bunch of exponent 6 troops?

  2. Let’s say we’ve got Martin Luther Kerrn and Lord-Pilot Bigshot. L-P Bigshot’s a count, 3D Anvil affiliation, 3D reputation within the Anvil, and he’s also an Anvil Lord. Actually, he’s a count with Your Eminence, and Lord-Pilot Monster is his bannerman. MLKerrn is, you know. He’s certainly not a warrior, that’s for sure.

2a) When the Lords-Pilot brings the heat in a Firefight, I thought (based on this thread) that it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for the Anvil Lord’s sworn bannerman to take charge and direct things and generally try to pull rank that he doesn’t have, so I figured that Lord-Pilot Bigshot should be the one making officer rolls with Lord-Pilot Monster’s help, not vice versa. Is that a sound conclusion?

2b) Tonight, MLKerrn wanted to use a conflict scene to start a Firefight for the Lords-Pilot to wreck some shit with. I thought that seemed against the spirit of the scene budgets: a scene should “belong” to the character it features, so he shouldn’t be able to start a Firefight that they take over and destroy things in without him being featured strongly somehow. Right? Well, the players said “Wait, then why does Lord-Pilot Bigshot have to take over/pull rank in a Firefight with Lord-Pilot Monster, but it’s not OK to do it this way?” My explanations maybe weren’t well-articulated, and I’m still having trouble figuring it out myself. What’s the answer here?

  1. So, Gambit has no counter? Really? It doesn’t let Flak or Conserve test, and it’s independent of Go to Ground, so GtG doesn’t test either? Holy shit.

Thanks in advance,

-B

2

2A) Is Bigshot an NPC and Monster a PC? If so , come up with an excuse for Bigshot not to take the field and place his troops under Monster’s command for the battle. It’s not fun for the GM to roll dice against himself.

2B) Not an official response but take a look at this thread.

3B) Gambit is verses against Conserve and Gambit.

3

2A) All three are PCs.

2B) Yeah, that thread helps. Thanks.

  1. But doesn’t Gambit say it destroys Conserve and Flak, and they don’t test?

-B

4

2A) Another possibility is for each to command separate units and script individually.

  1. Gambit ignores Flak and Go to Ground. The text on 420 specifically says conserve will work.
5

Doesn’t your 2D anvil affiliation get you exponent 4 troops without having to pay the Circles modifier? Or even basic Exp 4 troops for free?

6

I am specifically avoiding more than two fireteams until we get a couple Firefights under our belt.

Luke, I thought those guidelines were only for Anvil/Hammer Lord traits, since that’s where they’re under. Or is that scale mentioned in the Character Burner or Circles chapters and I don’t remember it?

-B

7

It looks like the character with the 2D affiliation is not an Anvil Lord, but he used the gang or crew rules. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought the troops for free at will was an exclusive benefit from the Anvil, Hammer, and Forge Lord traits.

Edit: Cross posted with Odie.

Looking at the gang or crew rules again, it seems the intent of that application of affiliations/relationships is for you to have guys at your disposal. Given the amount you need to invest, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to treat this similar to the XXXX Lord traits.

Edit 2: Odie, I hear you on keeping the firefight simple.

8

Oh right. Sorry, I thought he was an Anvil Lord.