17 thoughts on “The Aware or The Veteran for a tough occult-wise street detective?”

  1. I think part of it is also about how much alone time the character is going to have. The Aware is a much better character for solo scenes. The Veteran’s moves are more keyed off of what the other players are doing.

  2. Depends on which aspects of the character you want to emphasize in play mechanically. Going for the detective bit? The Aware. Emphasizing the tough part? The Veteran. At least that’s how I see it. You could be Sam Spade (Veteran) or Sherlock Holmes (Aware).

  3. OK, so this question interests me. There is a lot of overlap in these two character classes. The Aware has Hard Boiled, but the Veteran has Too Old for This Shit!, which are very similar, so Hard Boiled isn’t a reason to pick Aware over Veteran for a private investigator. Now, Aware has Snoop, which could be great for a PI. It also allows you to cash in debts for help, be better at guns, or roll with mind for some things. Fine, but the Veteran has a workspace, can get help from NPCs, get what you need for a clever plan, roll with Mind for or against someone who owes you, or use your awesome workspace to acquire more debts and advancements.  A PI like, say, Marty Hart or Veronica Mars, has access to a workspace– a lab with surveillance equipment, computers with databases, possibly minions and/or bugs. Seems to me like there’s more advantages to being a Veteran than Aware. The one qualm is this idea of “creating something.” What does a PI create? 

  4. Interesting question, ShaoLin Kitten In looking over the two, it’s kind of a toss-up.  Snoop is actually really cool, but it’s pretty focused.  Workspace is potentially much broader, but you’ve got to choose your three options wisely.  For an ex-retired cop/PI, if we have a little flexibility and can interpret “library of old books” as “set of old case files” (e.g., as we see Hart get access to in True Detective), then that may be the way to go, depending on the player’s intent.

  5. Also, I can see two PIs teaming up as partners, one Aware and one Veteran, which strikes me as a really powerful combo.  They build on each other’s strengths very well.

  6. I agree with your assessment, Andrew.

    Many of the workspace options suggest material creations (machines, plants, Frankenstein’s monster, etc ). So the remaining question is, what does the Veteran PI “create” in his workspace? Does she create solutions?  Answers? Or is that stretching the word “create” too far?

  7. Great question, ShaoLin Kitten I can see some folks thinking that stretches the idea too far, but I actually really like the possibilities it opens up.  Personally, I think I prefer “solutions” rather than “answers” because “solutions” implies the creation of a plan for how to go about getting an answer or achieving the goal rather than just arriving at the answer directly, but maybe that’s just me.

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