Scoundrel weapon theme improvements
Greetings! Here's my suggestion to clarify Scoundrel's theme and expand the ways people approach the class, based on what weapons the Scoundrel equips. If you're curious, read on!
The problem. Scoundrel's theme is messy and lacks focus. Many Scoundrel players envision something different in substantial ways from the abilities and weapons we have now. The PIECE, in particular, is a thematic hodgepodge that contradicts itself and muddies the thematic waters. Some people are uncomfortable with Scoundrel's IED themes because it reminds them of terrorist acts and things that are a little too real.
The proposed solution. Scoundrel becomes thematically flexible by having multiple versions of its weapons, each with a set of description elements and ability lines to go with each weapon version but which are identical mechanically. The theme for each weapon version would be different to help Scoundrels pick their flavor a la carte from themes that allow for a variety of players to pick Scoundrel as the class for them (with the common element being the Scoundrel's just a person making the most of what's available in a world of space sorcerers, giant robots, and so on).
A community-driven effort. If you've been around the Starmourn Discord's Scoundrel channel for any amount of time, I'm sure you've read something about trying to figure out how the PIECE works or asking why we have to have certain, contentious elements of the class. I am 100% sure player volunteers would leap at the opportunity to develop the many ability lines that would be needed to pull this off.
To elaborate, here are my suggestions for weapon versions and the ability themes that can go with them.
PIECEs
Revolvers. This is the gunslinger we have now, but with a lot more clarity on how the gun works.
Semi-auto pistol. This is a fairly middle-of-the-road shooter, somewhat vanilla in terms of standout features.
Full-auto pistol or small submachine gun. This Scoundrel fires a bunch of very low caliber rounds, matching the effect of other PIECE platforms by virtue not of excellent aim, but rather by virtue of spray and pray (rapidfire becomes firing even more bullets).
Pistol-caliber rifle. This is the would-be sharpshooter Scoundrel, choosing shots carefully and preferring to be a little more serious about the whole business of putting bullets downrange.
Light, short barrel shotgun. Scoundrels that want to use scatterguns are very intense and direct (I can't help but think of some action movies -- Bruce Willis seems like the guy who'd use a shotgun in this case).
Knuckledusters
Knuckles (what we have now). This is the unrestrained, violent scoundrel we know and love (mostly).
Knife (Vibroknife, baby lightsaber, a little bitty blowtorch). This is a more methodical, more professional, but still brutal scoundrel (pummel becomes stab stab stab, for instance).
Beating sticks of various sorts (wrench, crowbar, cudgel, blackjack). This is a scoundrel that understands improvisation and prefers a direct approach to solving problems (find a stick and smack the problem with it), but without the high degree of unrestraint found in the knuckles scoundrel.
Toolkits
Preliminary note. The thematic question of how Scoundrel makes bombs should be clarified. Reworking the IEDs is a ton of work behind the scenes because of how IEDs are items, though that would be ideal. Instead, I suggest changing the bandolier to be some kind of high-tech bomb generating device. What would change below, then, would be how the scoundrel delivers bombs.
Bomb-bag/box (like the toolkit we have now, but without the confusion of being an engineer's weapon). This is the terrorist scoundrel we currently have, with a bit of change to its theme to be more unrestrained and a little crazier (forcefeed's current ability line being especially instructive) (also, I'm imagining a big of classic Green Goblin, here).
Wrist-mounted grenade launcher. This is a higher tech scoundrel that may be a soldier, an inventor, or a spy, where the scoundrel does not handle the grenades at all but uses specialized delivery mechanisms (e.g., tripwire becomes a Bouncing Betty kind of mine that the Scoundrel launches).
Portable, single shot grenade launcher (single shot breach action or whatnot, like a flaregun). This is another example of a simple approach to solving the problem, but the user may handle the explosives by hand in some cases.
Mobility items.
Jetpack. Yep.
Jet boots. Self-explanatory, too.
As for outlier abilities, those, too would be themed according to certain weapons. Guile, in particular, has a lot of those outlier abilities. The most contentious ability in this category is none other thaaaaaaaaaaan....
POCKETSAND! Some suggestions I have are strobe flasher, repurposed medical neuralizer, and pocketsand for knife, stick, and knuckles, respectively.
In conclusion, let's fix scoundrel together~~~~~~
Ahem.
The problem. Scoundrel's theme is messy and lacks focus. Many Scoundrel players envision something different in substantial ways from the abilities and weapons we have now. The PIECE, in particular, is a thematic hodgepodge that contradicts itself and muddies the thematic waters. Some people are uncomfortable with Scoundrel's IED themes because it reminds them of terrorist acts and things that are a little too real.
The proposed solution. Scoundrel becomes thematically flexible by having multiple versions of its weapons, each with a set of description elements and ability lines to go with each weapon version but which are identical mechanically. The theme for each weapon version would be different to help Scoundrels pick their flavor a la carte from themes that allow for a variety of players to pick Scoundrel as the class for them (with the common element being the Scoundrel's just a person making the most of what's available in a world of space sorcerers, giant robots, and so on).
A community-driven effort. If you've been around the Starmourn Discord's Scoundrel channel for any amount of time, I'm sure you've read something about trying to figure out how the PIECE works or asking why we have to have certain, contentious elements of the class. I am 100% sure player volunteers would leap at the opportunity to develop the many ability lines that would be needed to pull this off.
To elaborate, here are my suggestions for weapon versions and the ability themes that can go with them.
PIECEs
Revolvers. This is the gunslinger we have now, but with a lot more clarity on how the gun works.
Semi-auto pistol. This is a fairly middle-of-the-road shooter, somewhat vanilla in terms of standout features.
Full-auto pistol or small submachine gun. This Scoundrel fires a bunch of very low caliber rounds, matching the effect of other PIECE platforms by virtue not of excellent aim, but rather by virtue of spray and pray (rapidfire becomes firing even more bullets).
Pistol-caliber rifle. This is the would-be sharpshooter Scoundrel, choosing shots carefully and preferring to be a little more serious about the whole business of putting bullets downrange.
Light, short barrel shotgun. Scoundrels that want to use scatterguns are very intense and direct (I can't help but think of some action movies -- Bruce Willis seems like the guy who'd use a shotgun in this case).
Knuckledusters
Knuckles (what we have now). This is the unrestrained, violent scoundrel we know and love (mostly).
Knife (Vibroknife, baby lightsaber, a little bitty blowtorch). This is a more methodical, more professional, but still brutal scoundrel (pummel becomes stab stab stab, for instance).
Beating sticks of various sorts (wrench, crowbar, cudgel, blackjack). This is a scoundrel that understands improvisation and prefers a direct approach to solving problems (find a stick and smack the problem with it), but without the high degree of unrestraint found in the knuckles scoundrel.
Toolkits
Preliminary note. The thematic question of how Scoundrel makes bombs should be clarified. Reworking the IEDs is a ton of work behind the scenes because of how IEDs are items, though that would be ideal. Instead, I suggest changing the bandolier to be some kind of high-tech bomb generating device. What would change below, then, would be how the scoundrel delivers bombs.
Bomb-bag/box (like the toolkit we have now, but without the confusion of being an engineer's weapon). This is the terrorist scoundrel we currently have, with a bit of change to its theme to be more unrestrained and a little crazier (forcefeed's current ability line being especially instructive) (also, I'm imagining a big of classic Green Goblin, here).
Wrist-mounted grenade launcher. This is a higher tech scoundrel that may be a soldier, an inventor, or a spy, where the scoundrel does not handle the grenades at all but uses specialized delivery mechanisms (e.g., tripwire becomes a Bouncing Betty kind of mine that the Scoundrel launches).
Portable, single shot grenade launcher (single shot breach action or whatnot, like a flaregun). This is another example of a simple approach to solving the problem, but the user may handle the explosives by hand in some cases.
Mobility items.
Jetpack. Yep.
Jet boots. Self-explanatory, too.
As for outlier abilities, those, too would be themed according to certain weapons. Guile, in particular, has a lot of those outlier abilities. The most contentious ability in this category is none other thaaaaaaaaaaan....
POCKETSAND! Some suggestions I have are strobe flasher, repurposed medical neuralizer, and pocketsand for knife, stick, and knuckles, respectively.
In conclusion, let's fix scoundrel together~~~~~~
Ahem.
1
Comments
How i envision this:
New scoundrels start off with the current scoundrel combat messages. At first they can only customize their weapons (as normal), but once they've invested in the prof enough (attained class mastery maybe) they can start customizing their skill messages and they are now allowed to completely redesign their weapon(s) with some restrictions. Have to have one (1) ranged weapon, one (1) melee weapon, and one (1) utility item. The changes are also still subject to approval so that we don't get a bunch of dollar store jedi, nanoseer/fury hybrids or something that is scoundrel in name only. Just a safety measure, other than that go ham.
Can even go so far as to sell customizations by copying them into a datashard, this is the "bypass" for low skill level scoundrels that want to get something a little more spicy for combat, but don't have the requirements met for doing the customizations themselves.