Hi, I was just looking through the recent update, and I was wondering about the "Work Together" mechanic. It looks like the first two outcomes will be useless for characters who have zero or negative Trust, effectively meaning that only the third can be picked. Is this intentional, or should such characters always at least get a +1 for the first two? (After all, characters with negative Trust are already suffering a penalty for Working Together.)
Thanks!
Characters with zero/negative trust are actually the reason the third option exists, since as you've noticed, the other two don't really work. It does mean that there will probably be fewer instances of low-trust people helping each other, but the relative power of the 3rd option helps compensate.
If you find it doesn't work out that way, you can certainly try things out with a minimum bonus of +1, though this means there's not really any difference between Trust 0 and Trust +1.
I also briefly considered changing Trust to go from 0 to 4 instead (and move the 'negative trust' penalty to 0) but overall things seemed to work well as-is. The place it feels like it would sting the most is in shorter games, and for those it's probably a good idea to use the reduced cost to increase Trust from page 60.
All that said, the Trust/aid cycle isn't a tightly balanced equation where everything falls apart if it doesn't work 'exactly so' so if you'd like to give lower trust characters more options, by all means, go for it.
That makes sense, yes, but I feel it might be better to clarify in the text that this is intentional and not an oversight.
Oh, another thing I noticed was in the Advanced Prisms rules, there's no rules for how they act when they're damaged. I assume that for the Prisms that are just basic elemental prisms with an additional effect, they'll lose the +1 but keep the ability to use that element, but will they keep their additional effects? (I assume that the ones that need to be damaged to use their effects can't be damaged again, at least.) And what about the double-elemental ones? (I assume that the non-elemental ones just can't be damaged at all.)
Thanks for your reply!
Good idea on both counts! I admit I didn't entirely think through the effects of damage on some of the more complicated Prisms. I think it's probably cleanest to say "Damaged Prisms continue to give their +1 stat, but offer no additional benefits" but I will definitely want to make an update clarifying that.
Thanks for your feedback!
I've updated the main rules doc with minor notes to clarify on your points. The rules for damaged Prisms now say: "When this happens, you lose the +1 Attribute bonus and any other benefits the Prism provides, but can still use Arthic Moves as normal."
And the "Using Work Together" section notes "However, for characters with zero or negative Trust, only the third option is viable – since the first two give no bonus. This means Working
Together is powerful but expensive until the characters can forge stronger bonds."
Thank you for your feedback!
