Thus Spake Zarataylor/ImportanceOfRepair

izzylobo - 02/26/2004 19:00:50

Repair and Hearthstone requirements really are that extreme.

Keep in mind that, in order to use, maintain, and repair a suit of Dragon armor, on your own, without modifiers, you need the following at character creation -

Artifact or Arsenal 4 (the armor, although this also gets you some other widgets in some cases) (costs 3 Background, and 2 Bonus points)

Resources 4 (to buy the equipment necessary to repair and maintain the armor) (Costs 3 Background, and 2 Bonus points)

Manse: 2 (Costs 2 Background points)

The following skills -\\ Occult: 4\\ Lore: 5\\ Craft (First Age Weapons): 4\\ (Costs 9 skill, and 8 bonus points)

For a total of 9 skill points, 8 Background points, and 12 Bonus points - depending on backgroundThus_Spake_Zarataylor/Exalted type, a character may get some relief on some of these costs. But in pretty much every case, it's a pretty serious hit on a character's initial choices - you're spending most of your Bonus points, a good chunk of your Background points, and nearly half (of your choosable points, in the case of Dynasts and Lookshy types) of your skill points - and that's all before buying the skills (Stealth, Melee, Archery, Brawling or Martial Arts) that will actually enable you to be *good* with that mechanical monstrosity. While most of those choices have other benefits as well, that's the case with pretty much any choice in Exalted - nothing is monobloc, not even Charm picks.

A character who choses to ignore one or more of these skills has to make up for it somewhere else - *someone* in either his Brotherhood or his immediate group of followers needs to spend those 9 skill points and 8 bonus points - and if they decide to split those skills up, they need to buy extra toolkits (and carry them around - see below). This places the character in the position of having someone who can hold the maintenance of his equipment over his head, potentially - do this, or your armor becomes rusted scrap - or can get kidnapped, killed, or otherwise discomfit the player/character.

A character who purchases the armor using Arsenal might be able to get around the Resources costs - but is saddled with the fact that he doesn't *own* the suit, and has to worry about the group who *does* own it deciding he doesn't deserve it anymore*, failing to come through with the logistical support when he needs it, or some other problem.

On top of this, the character is forever more saddled with logistical issues that the guy wearing the Jade Articulated Plate or Superheavy plate just is never going to have, ever. He's got a wagon full of repair equipment to carry around. He has to worry about getting spare parts for his suit - which may entail another cart full of spares - and any clever guerilla fighter will tell you that to kill the teeth, you bite the tail - destroy the enemy supply train and support logistics, and you destroy their ability to fight.

His armor isn't something that he can wear all the time - every second in the suit is a second closer to another hour of maintenance, and another set of expensive spares - which means he needs to spend money on mundane armor (or dots on artifact gear), and will not be able to use the armor reactively most of the time - if the group is ambushed, he's probably stuck in the gear he has on, because by the time he suits up, it's all over (This isn't Tony Stark and the Briefcase of Instant Avenger - it takes time to put on Dragon Armor, same as any suit of armor).

Yeah, he gets some grace time - he's got around 450 hours, if he wants to push, but not exceed, and leave himself some grace time. But he's running a risk when he goes into arrears at all, because if he has to separate from his supply train, if he gets involved in a long series of battles with no chance to do maintenance, if he otherwise is forced to go beyond those 500 hours - he's already started beating up his gear, and that gets into die rolls to repair, etc.)**

Basically, the guy with the Dragon Armor got himself a really cool toy with some neat powers - and spent most of his points on it. He also got logistical headaches, restricted usage patterns,

The guy who bought the Jade Articulated Plate bought himself a pretty damn tough suit of armor - and, with the points he saved, could also buy himself a small legion of followers, buy up a bunch of skills, an extra dot of Essence, or a lot of other things that simply aren't an option for the guy with the Dragon Armor. He also gets to skip out on all the headaches - he can wear the armor whenever he wants, he doesn't need anything except the clothes on his back and a mighty Powerbow, he doesn't have any cares in the world except getting out of the sun when it's really hot.

For Storytellers (or players) who don't want to deal with these headaches - F-A versions of the armor are Level 5, and lack these problems. Yes, that's still better than a suit of Super-Heavy Plate - but there is a line at which you have to say "if this were priced accurately, this stuff would be NThus_Spake_Zarataylor/A, available only by GM fiat, because nearly all of the known suits are firmly in the hands of the Great Houses, the Realm Military, the Seventh Legion, or the Lookshy Gentes - and they hand them out as they see fit. Since that isn't cool, they are Level (4 with problems, 5 without), still need Storyteller approval (as any and every item on a character's sheet does, really), and you get to deal with the problems inherent in owning such a suit."

*(I would not, unless really savagely provoked by the *character's* actions, be tempted to do this - but a character who repeated abuses the trust he has been given will find himself regretting it, just like with followers or any other background that has some social basis).

**(I'm not sure that you actively need to hide the exact level of "how close am I to going over?" from the player - players tend to forget logistical stuff all on their own. But, if you want to, you certainly *can*)

Scott Taylor