Gray Scale Power

[eruditus]

So using your fist does your Power in damage.

Is that the exponent only or is it the scale as well?

And if scale does carry over then the +2 Mark Result is pretty meaningless, no?

And if it does then that makes one's fists far deadlier than weapons that state are all only Black scale.

Could I have a little clarity on how this all works together? With emphasis on scale :) And if scale is not carried over in Power could I get an example (aside from the obvious magical sword, maybe made of mithril, etc?) of a Gray Scale weapon?

Thanks

[mikeryan]

Page 180.

First the PTGS (the damage track) goes into the Gray and White scales, and big scary things can Mortal wound values up there, so the Mark and Superb hit results do have meaning for bigger things (for mundane creatures, they're just squippy).

Second, you can use your Heroic or Supernatural Power with a Mundane weapon, but you run a good chance of breaking it. Also, damage ignores armor if the armor is of a darker Shade.

Third, you can have weapons that are Gray or White.

[luke]

In Burning Wheel, the fist of Heracles is more potent than nearly any weapon. The crushing hand of a giant destroys mortals with its merest touch.

White and Gray Power combined with the Hands of Stone trait do damage in their respective shades. This becomes less about technology/weapons and more about another state of being. Heroic and Supernatural damage lays mortals low in swaths, and true to BW, they are even very deadly to each other.


-abzu

[mikeryan]

In Burning Wheel, the fist of Heracles is more potent than nearly any weapon. The crushing hand of a giant destroys mortals with its merest touch.

White and Gray Power combined with the Hands of Stone trait do damage in their respective shades. This becomes less about technology/weapons and more about another state of being. Heroic and Supernatural damage lays mortals low in swaths, and true to BW, they are even very deadly to each other.

I'm trying to figure out if I was wrong. :?

[luke]

No Mike, you are dead on. I was posted my comments simultaneously with yours. Your ability to grasp rules/mechanics is amazing. I think you had it all in one pass the other night!


-abzu

[mikeryan]

No Mike, you are dead on. I was posted my comments simultaneously with yours. Your ability to grasp rules/mechanics is amazing. I think you had it all in one pass the other night!

Thanks. I like mechanics (I think it's better to have a mechanic to ignore for story purposes than to have to wish you had one), and your mechanics hang together pretty well.

[Kublai]

For some concrete examples:

A hero has Grey 6 Power but not the Hands of Stone Trait. His mark in unarmed combat is B8. With a black sword, it's B11, but sword shatterage is likely. With a Grey sword, that's a Grey 9 Mark!

A hero has Grey 6 Power and the Hands of Stone Trait. He does a Grey 6 mark in unarmed combat. With a black sword, that's a Grey 9 mark, but there's a damn good chance that the blade will shatter, as well. With a Grey sword, that's a Grey 9 mark, but the sword won't shatter.

Examples of Grey swords? Well, Abzu runs a pretty low-magic world, so I have never seen one in my campaign. I only know one knight who's ever had one in another campaign. He was sickeningly powerful.

[Drozdal]

Examples of Grey swords? Well, Abzu runs a pretty low-magic world, so I have never seen one in my campaign. I only know one knight who's ever had one in another campaign. He was sickeningly powerful
I prefer low magic and dark fanatsy worlds, i never liked D$D idea of + weapons - that could be purchased in almost any town. Magic is a sacred and mystical thing and you must work veeery hard to get your hands on some magical weapon.

And another thing. As Kublai said, when you have gray shade of power, you will think twice before run into fight with your run-out-of-mill sword, better just throw stones ;P

Drozdal

[eruditus]

I thought that was what I read. It was just too icky for my little brain to accept. :?

So to recap, at 2 Artha a session, 15+ sessions, thus in about 4 months of playing (assuming the player isn't given the option to go Gray in Power from the beginning) a character can easily cut through almost anything you can throw at him. And those things which can stand up to his blows most of the other characters have little to no prayer of affecting before getting eaten?

Has the game bore this out differently?

[luke]

Math makes it all seem so easy, doesn't it? I am sure my players would drool over the aforementioned scenario of earning epiphanies, but to my knowledge that's never happened.

You are forgetting the mid campaign assassination attempts that the player has to spend five or six points to survive.
Or the war council which is crucial for them to influence...with a few points of artha.
And you are forgetting the campaign ending scenario where the characters end up spending ten to twenty points of artha to overcome.

These examples are all from my recent campaign. Artha needs to be spent. It takes a very lucky, very diligent player to make to epiphany at all. It can be done, but it's a lot harder than you think.

Also, I haven't played with any munchkins who shoot right for Gray Power, but even if they did, it's no big deal. They still need the Hands of Stone trait in order to make their bodies the terrible instrument of destruction that we all fear.

-abzu

[Kublai]

So to recap, at 2 Artha a session, 15+ sessions, thus in about 4 months of playing...

:shock: :) :D :lol: OH my! Not to be rude, but you make it sound sooo easy! I've been playing for years and I have yet to get anywhere near that amount of Artha. And it's not because I have a stingy GM! It's just that Artha burns faster than tissue paper, especially at low levels. There's doubling dice, re-rolling failures and open-ending 6's... those things happen all the time. I've tried many times to save up 30 pts and found it near impossible. I even tried creating an Artha Bank, but that was broken into many times by sorcerers, giants, and nasty armies. :( If you try to not use Artha, even at the risk of death, you will often end up suffering horribly or dead.



And those things which can stand up to his blows most of the other characters have little to no prayer of affecting before getting eaten?

Even giants with Mortal Wounds in the Grey can be taken down by mere Black scale heros. Our party has done it on occassions. So what your knight's Superb shot is just a Superficial or Light Wound. Even with those, he will go down eventually! Just be sure to cut its head off after it does go down, or else it might recover in a few hours!

[nebulousmenace]

I've been working on my replacement Third Character in case you ever restart the 3-lifepath Character Contest.

Tor Thunderson, "father unknown." Grey Power, Grey Forte and a long history of getting beaten unconscious and left for dead.

He tends to use clubs, 'cause they're practically free.