Writer/producer for Dreamfeel. Worked on If Found. Likes books, games, anime, communism
for those of you aren't aware: before beam saber's current implementation of its quirks system, its mechs used to have a FUEL gauge that was essentially a 1-for-1 analogue to pilot stress — it cost two fuel to push a mech and 6 - your highest roll fuel to resist consequences in one. this was a solid idea, but it was later replaced with the more characterful quirk system, wherein your mech has four quirks which translate 1-for-2 to stress; 1 quirk to push and a flat resistance cost based on the severity of the consequence. quirks are things like light-footed, military workhorse, or strange power source, and whenever you burn a quirk on a push, you have to say how the quirk applies to that push. it's a good system! that said, the numerical asymmetry has always bothered me here; you have 9 stress but only 8 equivalent in quirks, and resisting is ALWAYS costly in a mech in a way that feels like it doesn't capture those classic gundam moments where the protagonist goes full autism mode and dissects a squad in a matter of seconds. sometimes you roll a ton of sixes and manage to operate like no one else can.
so how do we bring the numbers back but preserve the character of quirks? the answer is fuel-powered quirks, which function like so:
the idea here is fairly simple — quirks are now powered by fuel. at full fuel, you have access to all four quirks, which change your position and effect the same way that gear does, granting you bonus effect or improved position when relevant. but as you start burning fuel to enhance maneuvers, you start losing power towards these augmented systems, and they begin to fail. once the above mech has expended 2 fuel, its limited phase dash starts to lose power. after 4 fuel, the self-sharpening nanites of its razor plating retreat into the mech's innards, and the edges start to blunt. after six fuel, the secondary AI no longer has enough power to run, and once you break the 9-fuel barrier, a core element of the mech (in this case, the power source, but it could be anything) fails, and the machine shuts down or goes dire or whatever it is mechs do when they run out of fuel to spend.
so in this image, for example, our pilot has lost the use of limited phase dash and razor plating, and their secondary AI is on the fritz but not quite burnt out yet.
if you have thoughts about this, i'd love to hear em! i think it's a real fun idea to play with.
I got some silver needle white tea when I was in the states and. It's good.