Techies in FS2

GopherDave · October 30, 2015, 1:59am

Okay... love the book... Kickstarted it and am in love with the goodies... But I noticed something.

While there are a fair number of templates in the book with the "Fix-It" skill, none of them have as their focus like the old Techie template of FS1.

Mostly, I was wondering why that particular template was dropped as there are a number of movies that do indeed have tech-oriented folks as part of the hero group.

isaacpriestley · October 30, 2015, 2:05pm

Interesting. I guess maybe Robin Laws could shed some light that, but he doesn't seem inclined to get into that level of detail of discussion about FS2 these days.

isaacpriestley · October 30, 2015, 5:33pm

Thinking more about it, I'm sure some decisions were made on a strategic basis to avoid having too many archetypes and keeping them separate enough.

I know that my Spy character was grumbling the other day about how the Spy doesn't get access to ALL the Driving schticks. I don't know specifically why each decision was made about that, but I'm sure the idea was just to keep the Spy from being the greatest at EVERYthing, and leave some driving specialties for the Highway Ronin and the Driver.

Maybe Laws just felt that the techie stuff might not be as much of a focus of the action-movie-style games this version of Feng Shui is geared towards.

ScotBloke · November 3, 2015, 8:38pm

Hmm, could it be due to the general lack of Techies being the main character in action films?

I must admit, they do make good supporting characters 'M' style.

Kind regards,
ScotBloke

BlackJaw · November 3, 2015, 11:28pm

Full Metal Nutball might work for you.

easl · November 3, 2015, 11:41pm

Masked Avengers tend to be tech-oriented, and come with Fix-it 11 as well as Info: Science 15. If a player wanted to take that archetype but substitute in Bag full of Guns for Eagle Eye, I'd certainly allow it.

Another option is to take the Cyborg archetype and swap out all the schticks with gears on them (denoting a bodily change) for schticks that involve equipment instead (laser goggles, etc.)

dsprag · November 4, 2015, 5:37am

From what I can tell the FM Nutball is the replacement for the Techie in the scheme of archetypes. If you wanted to revive the Techie proper, the easiest thing would probably be a mash-up of the Driver and the Nutball. For instance:

Guns 13 / MA 11 / Def 13 / Tgh 6 / For 7 / Spd 8
Driving 12 / Fix-It 15
2 Gun Schticks, 2 Driving Schticks, plus the old Techie's unique Schtick (possibly revamped)
1 gun, 1 car; Working Stiff

You could set whatever default schticks fit the Techie, but otherwise I think it's pretty close to the original w/o infringing too much on the source FS2 archetypes' turf.

Cam_Banks · November 24, 2015, 4:54pm

The Techie, along with the Medic and the Journalist, were the bottom three least played archetypes in Feng Shui. We dropped them in favor of more iconic or interesting action movie archetypes, especially since many archetypes can already be used to portray those characters.

isaacpriestley · November 24, 2015, 5:59pm

Well put Cam. I've got an NPC who's an intrepid journalist, but if she were a PC I'd probably make her a Private Investigator, because it matches closely enough.

darklament · November 24, 2015, 6:09pm

The archetypes are so varied & open that you can take one & skin it how you like. In some caes you can just change out some of the skills to match the PC you want. I find myself, while watching action TV shows like Arrow, Supernatural, & other, figuring out what archetype each character is. This little exercise will help me explain certain archetypes to new players.

-Jefferson

isaacpriestley · November 24, 2015, 7:59pm

I just picked up the Cypher System rulebook from Monte Cook Games, and for a fun one-shot, I'm having a go at adapting my table's FS2 characters into Cypher System characters.

So the Everyday Hero becomes a Lucky brawler who Never Says Die. The Swordsman becomes a Vengeful warrior who Masters Weaponry. The Archer becomes a Sharp-Eyed explorer who Carries a Quiver. And the Spy becomes a Charming explorer who Operates Undercover.

The idea is to do a one-shot that takes our characters out of their 'continuity' and plays something familiar but different--like a Saturday morning cartoon version of their gritty action movie storylines.

BlackJaw · August 4, 2016, 9:56pm

To quote Robin Laws (the game's creator) from the comments on the kickstarter (in response to someone named Adam asking about customization):

Robin D. Laws on September 21, 2014

Adam, the thing about tinkerers is that they are self-enabling. You'll easily be able to see what schticks you want to swap out for which other ones, and how to pitch your new concept to your GM. The rules give you permission to do that, not that you need it.
In the rare group composed entirely of tinkerers, everyone can do this.
I do advise playing the new version with a straight-up archetype at first, to get a feel for its currencies compared to the old version. That way you can be sure you're not building a sub-optimal hero.

also

A subclass of gamers love to tinker up-front, but most view it as confusing homework. They're the ones who make less than optimal choices and then get disenchanted when their characters don't shine in actual play. That's what prematurely kills campaigns. FS2 deprecates the homework element in favor of maximum fun for the largest set of players.

and

Adam, FS1 challenged a lot of roleplaying preconceptions, faced resistance, and saw the weird things it was doing in many cases become standard roleplaying wisdom. FS2 does the same thing on a couple of fronts, most notably the value of customization. Long term playability comes more from having robust characters that are fun to play than from the tinkering you do before you start play. (At least for what we're doing here, fast-moving action based on cinematic tropes.)

Although it doesn't go out of the way to facilitate oddball campaign frames like the all Ex-Special Forces game, you'll find that in almost any case you can get the flavor you want by reskinning existing archetypes with new conceptual flavor.

So in FS2 you'd do that by reskinning the Killer as an ex-sniper, the Maverick Cop as the counter-insurgent face man, the Driver as the vehicles expert, etc.