Last week I explained how Rush, Restoration, Boost and Limit Powers became their own categories and then went over the three Rush Powers. This week I'm going to cover Restoration Powers.
So! During the BCG Retrospective I explained why and how Restoration Upgrades ended up being weak in comparison to Active Defenses. To fix that issue, Restoration Powers were deliberately created to make them competitive defensive options, being stronger than most Powers but only being usable through underpowered Upgrades. I think it is a clever solution - not actually changing any old rules, but making up new stuff that fixes most of its problems.
I’ll Patch You Up
First things first: This should be a Setup Power. Making it a Reaction is just plain confusing, since it is not like you can use Jury Rig as a Reaction to anything. With that bit of criticism out of the way, this Power is great. Turns out that doubling the amount of healing you can do with Jury Rig was all it needed to go from underpowered to borderline overpowered. It makes healer builds viable by its lonesome, granting them the burst healing they previously lacked. Fortunately, it's still tied to your Restorations (consuming double the usual amount) and, more importantly, your Genre Points. Those factors keep it in check and let us have a kickass Power that feels great to use.
My Last Stand
One problem I ran into when making this Power is that buffing Regenerative through Genre Powers isn't all that useful when you can already use other Powers to heal without using Regenerative first. This meant that I had to be aggressive with the benefits that My Last Stand granted, in order to make the MP and Energy cost worth your while. The result is a Power that reads almost strictly better than I'll Patch You Up. It doubles your healing and gives you an antimaim and stops attribute halving debuffs and you can use it multiple times per battle! In hindsight, I was probably a little too generous, but I've yet to hear from anyone complaining that this Power broke the game for them, so I'm calling it a win.
Who the Hell do you Think I am?
The last of the three was designed at the same time as the G-Charger exclusively as an option for combiners. G-Charger and Reload both have a sidebar right below them explicitly stating that they're too limited for normal units. It represents a power boost that also heals the unit, saving it from certain death while granting it enough extra juice to use its strongest weapon and turn a battle. It is the kind of thing you see combiners like Gurren Lagann and Getter Robo do all the time. It is not amazing but I'd say it gets the job done. More on that when we talk about the G-Charger itself.
Healing abilities work best when they're a big effect with a big cost, making them feel like a decisive tide-turning moment in the battle. I'm not a fan of weak, spammy heals in TRPGs, as I think they draw things out too much and risk turning combat into an attrition slugfest that only ever ends because someone rolls a bunch of critical hits in a row. In a game like BCG, it would mean battles end when Tension gets high enough to overpower all defenses and healing.
These Powers do just that and, as a bonus, they lift up some of the game's weaker abilities to make them competitive. From my perspective, it doesn't get much better than that.
Next: Boost Powers.
Gimmick Out.
I played a pure support mech in our 2nd campaign. I never used I'll Patch You Up, but I think having an unarmed mech with power conversion helped me have enough energy to heal a decent amount when necessary.
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