The "twinky" battlebabe

Hey folks,

I'm about to start a game on Skype set in a brothel after the world suffered a treepocalypse. My sense of the group's gaming experience is that it largely consists of White Wolf games, though there's a great deal of experience with other games, including some indie games.

One of the players said this:

Battlebabes are at +4, while everyone else is +3,  except Drivers and someone else who are +2.  Stuff like that irritates me.

My response was that I think that Battlebabes are of the hyperfocus type, and Drivers (et al.) are more of the generalist type. My sense is that this is right, but how do I respond to it?

This may not square with others experiences but the stats are definitely not equal. It is most difficult, I think to use Cool. You can generally go out and DO something hard, or weird, or sharp, or hot, but cool kind of comes to you. Battlebabe has a high stat but is least able to just go use it. Of course it helps when they can use it to go aggro and this probably depends a lot on MC play style. (How often they call for acting under fire)

Sharp is the most valuable stat in my book, makes all the others better.

Rob, I think that's a fair call. You could double-check with Vincent, but you're basically in the ballpark.

Also, whiny-whiner should just pick a different splat and get over it. The splats are not exactly equal. Some characters are better at different things. Status quo is not the thing. Deal.

She's definitely not whining, this is just something that seems unfair to her. I'm pretty sure it's not unfair, though, so I just have to find language to make that clear.

The playbooks are actually quite balanced, stat-wise.  The battlebabe essentially starts the game with an invisible "move" that gives her +1 cool, at the cost of only choosing two other moves.  The driver has lower stats because of the bonuses he gains when behind the wheel, making him great when driving but a bit weaker when just putzing around.  The different stat totals of both these playbooks are very intentional and balanced.

No, battlebabes are at +3 too. They just always take +1cool as a move. It's that way so that other playbooks can't take +1cool as an advance.

There's a thread about the battlebabe that explains how she does and does not 'balance.'

To be clear, Vx's AW is about colour-first, not balance or mechanics first. Life in AW just ain't fair.

[xposted]

As Nathan said, the Battlebabe stats add up to +4 because they have the +1cool included in them. Notice they only get 2 moves?

The Driver's stats add up to only +2 because they get a car and No Shit Driver, which makes their stats much higher when they're in a car.

There are a couple stats lines that add up to one less, I think they are where the Driver and the Operator get Hard+1.

I think this is the Battlebabe thread that was referred to earlier.

Oh, sure. It's easy!

I balanced the playbooks across stats, moves & crap all together, not across each individually. The battlebabe has better stats because she has worse moves. The hardholder has terrible moves because she has excellent crap. The driver has worse stats because her combination of moves and crap would put her ahead if she didn't.

In the battlebabe's case in particular, it's not that her moves are worse individually, it's that they're basically all keyed to her non-high stats. The gunlugger gets to do all her moves with hard, for instance, where the battlebabe does her moves with hot, weird, sharp, and a Hx/cool split. The battlebabe gets that extra +1 to her stats to make up for it.

If your irritated player has a Shadowrun background: it's a priority system, that's all. The battlebabe's the only playbook built with 1st-priority stats, and the driver's the only playbook built with 3rd-priority stats.

If she's concerned that some stat lines in the other playbooks add up to +2 while most add up to +3, I can answer that too: the ones that add up to +2 are the ones with a second +2 stat in them. A second +2 stat "costs" +3 instead of just +2.

Terrific, thorough answer. Thanks, Vincent.

On a side note: actually the last line of stats of the operator sums up to +2 with only Cool+2; is that intentional too, or just an oversight?

That's a plain error. I think there might be a second one somewhere, but I don't remember where.

Correct it or not as you see fit. It won't hurt play to leave it alone.

Dammit, Rob, I wanted to read about the hairless fancy-boy battlebabe you were playing.

Post some AP when it's rolling?

-JC

Will do. Character creation is tonight.

And consider also that everyone has access to the move that gives +1cool through advancement (Get a move from another playbook).