Having run 7th Sea 2nd Edition now for a while, there are a few things I still struggle with as a GM...
One of those is "Player Created Opportunities"
While I certainly understand the concept at a high level (One character is doing something so that another character can take advantage and benefit). However, I'm really struggling with the mechanics of this in practice.
The one book example is that a character uses a Raise to kick a gun to another hero who is otherwise unarmed. Now that character can spend a Raise and pick up the gun and have access to shooting it. So a net of 2 Raises was spent. What I wonder is, why couldn't the character unarmed have spent a single Raise to lure the guard closer, grab them through the bars and disarm them, getting the same gun with 1 Raise?
Mostly, I've been treating the "Create an opportunity" similarly to FFG's Star Wars "Turn the tide of combat" (but in a minor way). For instance, doing something that would deduct a Raise from a Villain's pool. I'd like to hear how other players and GM's are using this "Create an opportunity" in practice as perhaps I'm missing something about it and why it takes 2 Heroes to use Raises when it seems like one Hero could do the 'thing' anyways.
One other option I was thinking was that the player "creating the opportunity" just gives their Raise to another Hero to use who may be in a better position to use it. Not sure how that would work in practice though.
Your lure guard idea sounds like two raises, one to lure and one to subdue.
Usually, the player created opportunity is to set up the player most adept at whatever is being done. So you get a gun to the pistolier who already fired his weapon and has raises left. And the important point is that the players are thinking something is a good idea and this is the mechanic to make it happen. It doesn't matter to us as GMs if it is efficient or even logical.
Also, creating an opportunity does not force player one into changing approaches. If he picks up the pistol and shoots, it may well cost him extra raises and delay the use. The player picking it up gets to use the item without worrying about that if they had nothing else to do anyhow.
I would love to see a more extensive list of player created opportunities. But as it is, I wouldn't be too quick to define them mechanically. After all, they could be almost anything. I had one player create an opportunity where his hero drew the attention of a merchant in need of "special" services to another hero. That really doesn't fit any of the molds you've offered. I'd just wing it and see what makes sense in the moment.
Thanks for the replies. Where I'm struggling is assigning some 'benefit' to the use of a player created opportunity. I want my players to feel like they can 'create opportunities' for other players. However, it costs 1 Raise to create the opportunity and by the rules costs 1 Raise to take advantage of the opportunity. Therefore, it costs a net of 2 Raises from players for this, so it better be worthwhile, or else there's no reason to do it.
So when my player spends a Raise and says "I want my Hero A to use his keen eye to notice there's a weakspot in the planks of the pier and shout that knowledge out to Hero B" and then Hero B spends a Raise to take advantage of that opportunity and get the creature to walk on the weak planks, what game effect does that have? If it's just an additional "Wound" to the creature, that's 2 Raises to deal a Wound. at the time, I basically let them spend those 2 Raises to remove a Raise from the creature. I'm not sure if that's a good ratio of spending for the players, so I was hoping others had similar ideas.
While I still love the game, I'm finding it more cumbersome to do Action Sequences than I previously thought or had. Maybe it's because I had only 'lightly prepared' for the previous game so didn't have a list of 10+ opportunities and consequences.
John
My general shorthand for player-created Opportunities is this:
1 created Opportunity = 3 Raises of benefit.
The math there works out; Player A creates an opportunity, Player B takes that opportunity, and so collectively they have spent 2 Raises. To encourage players to create Opportunities, I give them an "extra" Raise worth of benefit on top of the 2 they've spent.
For example -- a couple adventures ago, my Heroes were fighting off assassins who had burst into the Bucket O'Blood to kill Queen Bonaventura. One of my four Heroes was fighting back-to-back with Queen Bonny, another had pursued an assassin Villain out the window, and the third and fourth (a brother and sister) were working their way through the brutes.
Brother and Sister could have each been carving through Brutes, 1 Raise for 1 Brute, but instead Brother grabbed a piece of anchor rope and wound it through three Brutes' legs, and then Sister grabbed the other end to pick it up and sweep all three down. Sure, for 2 Raises they took out 3 Brutes, but I use player-created Opportunities to reward people for more interesting actions than just 'I stab a Brute'.
I LIKE it!
That's great! I love how your players think :)
with the weak boards, you can have them deal extra damage from falling through, remove them completely from the fight if enough gives way, immobilize them as they get stuck, force them to burn actions getting out, trigger a new opportunity as the other end of that loose board flings something in the air.
The trick is to play fast and loose with them. Follow the most entertaining or awesome result when you can. But frequently players are doing these to give another player an option they don't currently have and that alone can be worth the cost to the players.
I love it when players come up with Opportunities. I found it's fun to present them as moments of teamwork or things falling into place as two Heroes work in unison to accomplish something.