Scope of Primary Suit

[CBroz1]

For now, Primary Suit matters for recovery during rests. Reincorporate discard 2, get +1? When?

[LockerM]

Yes I would like to re-add Primary Suit Modifiers initially and then add back in the 2:1 mechanic at later levels. I think the initial scope of Primary Suit should be the following right from Level 1 to have players immediately reinforce the idea that Suits matter in Deck of Adventures:

1. Drawing from your Primary Suit grants you a bonus of your Primary Suit Modifier (+1)
2. On a Rest, when drawing a Rest Card you may add +1 FP or HP to your Character if the card drawn is from your Primary Suit

I think the "Burn"/"Bury"/etc. mechanics can wait until level 2 so the only exposure to primary suits at level 1 are the Primary Suit Modifier. We can also allow a player to "Burn" 2 cards for a +1 at level 2, and then raise the cap to allow "Burn" 4 cards for a +2 at a later level, like 3 or 4. Potentially allow 6 cards for a +2 at another level milestone as well (Maybe levels 2, 5, 8 - not sure just yet).

Additional future uses of Primary Suit could impact any of the following whether via Power or at specific levels:

• Drawing a Target Card of your Suit
• During an Epic Event (or we just keep it as Primary Suit Modifier if its directly about making checks against a TC)

[CBroz1]

I'm not totally sold on this, because I think we're gonna have a little trouble dialing in DRs to feel right (and writing the instructions for GMs to do so), and this throws a wrench in that 1/4 of the time

1. Drawing from your Primary Suit grants you a bonus of your Primary Suit Modifier (+1)

For reference: old version with discard mechanic, from before the circular DR/TC design. I'm good with adding this at lvl 2, and have a slow growth of the cap. What happens if someone has a +4 mod and then an additional +3 b/c of discarding? If we cap skills at 6, and then have features that push past, we've gone beyond theoretical max

[LockerM]

Regarding Primary Suit Mechanic

Below comment addresses your point on the Primary Suit Modifier, will add a separate comment on discard mechanic since these are very big and important issues to resolve and refine before Beta.

I agree with you on the Primary Suit Modifier, I think adding that in and letting it get past a +1 (which we'd eventually have to do) messes with the fact that we're now working on a +6 skill cap. A +1 that ramps up in service of 'progression' might be unfavorable in the long run.

I think working off of the Suited Miss and Suited Hit mechanics are more effective than leaning into Primary Suit for a raw +1 bonus to a check or draw. I'm OK leaving that out, though it does make me wonder what the overall purpose of choosing a Primary Suit/Primary Element will be and if it will feel impactful enough to a player that they have a Suit/Element they feel an affinity towards beyond just the flavor of their actions. Maybe there are Element-specific Powers we create as well that only allow people with that Primary Suit/Element to take? Additional Passive Powers that are enabled for each Primary Suit? I'm not sure overall, but that is potentially representative of a deeper component for us to dive into here of whether we retain Primary Suit at all or give it more of a rework.

My revised proposal for level 1 is your primary suit affects the following components, and we can scale these up over time on certain level ups in addition to the discard mechanic:

• Rest Cards: When drawing a Rest Card, if the card matches your Primary Suit you may recover an additional +1 FP or HP
• Target Cards: When drawing a Target Card, if the card matches your Primary Suit you may draw with the Upper Hand for your first action of combat

[LockerM]

Regarding the Discard Mechanic

I think we should look to refine the discard mechanic based on the major levers/variables available to us in the most recent version of the Game with the new Circular DR/TC system. I would propose we revise this to no longer affect the raw +1/+2 or -1/-2 initially proposed in the previous system, and here's a brief explanation why.

Regarding Raw +1 incremental bonuses to Skill Checks

Overall I think we can scrap anything major that has a scaling effect regarding the raw +1, +2, etc. modifier to checks, instead opting to use Upper Hand as a mechanic. I'm working on combat balance from the GM side right now and we would run into too many issues with things scaling all the way to +4/+5/+6 too early. An enemy with a +4 to hit will hit an AR 3 target 100% of the time, which is very OP unless we layer in Suited Hit mechanics as well. Since most players will be at AR 3 to start and then AR 2 at higher levels (besides Defender and high Agility Characters at AR 1), allowing an enemy to get to a +4 is going to be too overpowered unless we're opting to make them auto-hit as a part of the encounter. Upper Hand (N) mechanic might be what we want to lean into for higher levels rather than letting too many mechanics impact a raw +1,+2,+3,+4,+5,+6 over time other than the Skill Modifier itself.

Discard Mechanic

We can bring the discard 2 to gain something mechanic back in at level 2 and allow this to be driven by the Primary Suit feature. I would propose this can be used a number of times per Quick Rest depending on level. My initial thoughts are the following:

Each Dealer has access to a Primary Suit Power corresponding to their Primary Suit. These Powers can be used a certain number of times per Quick Rest, depending on level.

• Diamonds ♦️ : Conjuring (?) Dealers have explosive damage but they run out of gas really fast. They can choose to burn 2 cards to make their next Check at Upper Hand (1).
• Clubs ♣️ : Defense Dealers have a strong foundation and can take the big hits. They can choose to bury 2 cards to force all creatures within 2 spaces to make their next Check to attack targets besides the Defense Dealer at Lower Hand (1).
• Hearts ♥️ : Life Dealers are fluid and flexible to adapt the situation. If they are within 6 spaces of an ally, they may toss 2 cards to grant their ally Upper Hand (1) on their next action.
• Spades ♠️ : Offense Dealers deploy all sorts of mechanisms for drawing the eye of enemies away from their allies. They can scrap 2 cards and cause an enemy to make Checks at Lower Hand (1) until the start of the Offense Dealer's next turn.

The max number of cards discarded and the corresponding benefit scales with level. At level 2, the bonus is (1) for discarding 2 cards, at level 5, the bonus is (2) for discarding 4 cards, and at level 8 the bonus is (3) for discarding 6 cards. You can choose to discard any increment of 2 cards for a corresponding benefit as long as it is under the max for your level.

[CBroz1]

• yes target card on rest - What's the +N on primary suit
• max AP on a rest by default
• discard mechanic
  • separate from primary suit
  • clubs - in 2 spaces, lower if not target me
  • add table of N