Paper Story v1.6 Errata Log

So as expected, there's a couple of bugs in 1.6. Rather than putting out any more patches and trying to cover myself, I'm keeping a running log of things I need to cover. After the dust settles a bit I'd like to implement these, but obviously there's a bit more than I thought, so the hotfixes aren't cutting it. Better to do it all in one batch.

Which I should've done in the first place, but here we are.

Anyway, consider this a repository for anything that isn't answered in the book proper.  Some of these are down to preference, some of these are out-and-out error. Either way you can find it here and think about it for your table.

If you have any (small-ish) suggestions just let me know! I'm not looking to do anything major like new items or species, but if there's something that doesn't read quite right or feels a little off, that's exactly what I want to iron out.

Fixes

• General Text and Formatting
  • References to "Evade" (e.g. Boo skill specialisations) should be updated to "Dodge".
• Techniques
  • The Hustle trait should be tagged [Secondary - Athletics/Cheer/Magic].
• Species
  • "mimimum" typo on Swooper/Yux to be corrected (this is extremely important).
  • Koopa Bro's example technique Psyche Up has a minor formatting issue, and should say "...for 4 turns" on all results.
  • Puffs' example technique Zip Zap should benefit from their species' Bully specialisation (+Stun), instead of the generic (+Status).
  • Stars should have Handless.
• Subspecies
  • References to "the highest Power" in subspecies explanation should be removed, since Power can now be modified directly.
  • Spiny-'s Contact trait should leave targets Dazed (1) instead of stunning them, like other Contact traits.
  • Dank- should be listed as a "Species with Heart".
• Skills in Detail
  • Swapping in battle is only an action for the initiating character; this just needs a clarification.
    
  • Spontaneous Spells don't rely on Tech Defaults, even Optional or Required ones, and aren't impacted by Tutor. This just needs to be clarified.
• Personal Traits
  • Great results with Mimicry should require a visual aid for both "large and unusual creatures" or "ordinary creatures with copies of their equipment".
• Gear
  • Ultra Gear should add "Personal Traits" for Coins, not simply "Traits" - same as other Gear.
• Badges
  • Badges which grant modifiers to techniques (e.g. Power Smash) should specify explicitly that the effect can't be used multiple times on the same technique, without stacking other copies of that Badge.
• Other Rules
  • Close Call under the Partner System has a typo where it adds +1d6 to Dodge checks twice, which naturally should just be a single +1d6.

Tweaks

• Techniques
  • Tech Defaults can only save FP once, in any capacity,  across the entirety of a Technique. This applies even to random slots in traits like Roulette, which would otherwise calculate FP separately.
  • 0 Power attacks (with appropriate successes) should have the floor of 1 damage applied at all times (including multi-target attacks, Sequential, Repeat, and so on).
  • Cooldown should count from the turn actions became possible (i.e. after Exhausting penalties end).
  • Dismiss effects using Heal should only be able to reduce negative Statuses (e.g. Lingering, Stun). Likewise, using Bully/Trickery shouldn't be able to reduce negative Statuses (but could be used to reduce positive Statuses like Boost, or Power-Ups, or Terrains too I guess).
    
  • Random traits (Roulette, etc.) should have a limit on negative traits similar to the player's Techniques (e.g. a level 5 character's technique can benefit from 5 negative traits, and each Roulette slot on that technique could itself benefit from 5 negative traits).
  • Potential to expand Split's function to include [Target] traits; mainly to have effects that can be split to an ally being locked to the user with Self.
• Subspecies
• Dreamy-'s Weakness (Fear) should double in level and duration, similar to their Weakness (Sleep).
• Metal- should remove existing Weakness (Fire) traits.
• Personal Traits
• Mimicry should include options for "large and unusual creatures with copies of their equipment", both with and without visual aid. May be best to just make going without visual aid a Grade of Success penalty and adjust the available options accordingly.
• Skills in Detail
  • The section on "Guard - Reducing Damage" can be split into "Guard - Reactive Guarding" and "Guard - Active Defending". Nothing mechanical needs to change here, it just needs to be clarified.
    

Loose Considerations (you may or may not want to do this at your table, I haven't decided yet)

• Techniques
  • Minion scales weirdly at the moment, since you don't really need to assign Grades of Success to their attacks if you're not assigning Unwieldy. And if you do Unwieldy/Strong you don't really need to add Power, either. Not sure what the best solution is, but I imagine it's something a lot simpler.
  • Overrun should probably be worth 3 FP instead of 2, making it even with All.
  • Random traits (e.g. Roulette) may need to ease up the cost of individual traits; it's probably safe to reduce this penalty to only negative traits, and at most, +1 FP per pair of negatives.
  • Sequential should probably have its damage reverted to equal the user's Power, but should cost just 1 FP; otherwise it's completely outclassed by Overrun.
  • Tutor may benefit from either becoming a 1 FP trait, or subsuming the FP cost of the traits it tutor.
• Skills in Detail
  • Spontaneous Techniques with Magic should start at 1 Power, regardless of the user's Power, and have the option to scale based on successes. In general this whole area should be adjusted so that you're buying up traits and Power. Maybe lose the hard cap on traits based on dice, and make that into a hard cap on successes? And remove negative traits from the equation altogether. That way status effects are still restricted
• New Content
  • A way to temporarily assign Personal Traits (e.g. Fly) through Techniques.
  • A way to stagger out secondary Technique effects (e.g. healing) over time without delaying the entire Technique; think Gradual Syrup.
  • Covering Tattles with Knowhow checks, codifying how much information you can glean and how reliable it is