Occams Razor

I was sitting down with the Long Hidden Friend doing some math, when I attempted to math out a Parry and a Resist (separately of course).

Neither actually has a delivery method since they're defenses. If any other crafting book has Avoid I suppose it should fall into this category as well but my question is this:

Since these effects lack delivery methods, is the production point cost value '0,' '1' anyways, or does the item "grant defense [blank etc]" thereby needing a delivery method?

...I'm surprised no one has noticed this for about a year.
My inclination is Grant Defense ___, but I'll check with the others and get the system adjusted appropriately.

So, I was actually making the assumption that items were not grants save for the grant 1 protection and grant 1 armor, hence why those two are specified as such. I was instead treating them as "imbues" that are passed around, not unlike magic items in games like Mirror, Mirror and Madrigal that had abilities of their own that you can spend separate from the grant system. Since items can be passed around, it makes them a bit strange to consider as grants since we have to keep the tag on us rather than expend uses then get rid of the tag. I would argue that making them grants makes them allot less useful if you have to spend "uses" of an item that sticks it to a single person rather than being able to hand a protective Resist off to someone going on a dangerous module. Not to mention the way stacking limits of Grants would interact with multiple items. Though I will admit this doesn't really address the delivery method problem. :p

Also, as a note since it came up this session, Parry and Resist are effectively the same thing in the current Accelerant Rules. In the crafting book, Resist is limited to the effects that you can craft, while parry is a general smart defense yet they cost the same. This means that, if you had a Parry crafted item, you can "parry" the BMV paralyze effects that were being used during session to simulate speed or a scene change. I mentioned something like this previously in the Crafting Beta, but, considering that this would potentially allow us to bypass a role-play effect, I felt I should bring it up again.

I thought Parry was a smart defense used against melee attacks and effects, denoting a speedy block with your weapon, therefore I don't think you can actually parry a bmv.

In the most recent core rules, they changed that.

I had also assumed that Parry was only usable against melee effects. as for the idea of passing the item off, I do believe it was clarified sometime ago that the overall uses per weekend of each item is something determined per tag, as opposed to per person.

I realize that particular implication is absent in this conversation, but I felt the need to say so just in case.

on the main topic, though, if Parry is indeed universal now, perhaps limit it to calls by weapon?

Exactly.

The current rules leave it up to the individual skill to determine what is applicable. Just as "resist" is defined as "Resist Horror" or "Resist Fear," Parry needs to be defined as "melee strike" or "limb strike" to act the way you were thinking. However, the crafted Parries don't specify that.

In most areas, it is agreed the spirit of "Parry" is the avoidance of a melee strike which would normally cleave into you. Since we are not at the stage of personal Holographic projectors, we all tend to gravitate towards the idea if the blow hits your arms, and with some latitude the legs, you managed to deflect a otherwise devastating blow.

That said I have rarely seen a Parry negate a BMV as these often denote changes in environs rather than a direct attack. I also take it as a given that a clean hit to the torso also avoids a Parry defense. I lean towards the idea that items that grant "Parry" award the standard defense rather than an Superior Version that trumps most calls in game.

The idea is that it's not superior. It's the same as, say, Avoid. Avoid, Parry, and Resist all generally mean the same thing (in core rules) that individual games can then choose to specify or modify. Same with Guard, Shield, and Elude as the dumb defenses. The took away one being better than the other and streamlined them.