what happens when you run out of dice

Started by dyreno, April 12, 2008, 02:00:27 PM

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dyreno

quick question. What do you do if you've run out of dice completely. Had a PC shooting down at a gunman and him firing back. The gunman rolled great while the PC had a bad lot. The gunman forced the PC to take a Few dice in fallout before he just ran out of dice. But, the PC still had like six dice left (all ones and twos with a total of 10). I said the gunman just ran out of bullets so he ran for cover behind a bunch of barrels. My "stick in the Mud" player said that he couldn't do that cause he didn't have any dice left to do anything, that in-fact he had to take ten points in bullet fallout dice.
Which is another quick question for ya. How many dice do you take in fallout if you have nothing to block with. Example- Gunman raises with a 9 and all the PC has is a 4. Does the PC have to take 9-4=5 dice in bullet fallout? or how is it solve?

Eero Tuovinen

Look into the rules on Giving, it's all in there. You have to Give when you run out of dice, unless you escalate, instead.
Blogging at Game Design is about Structure.
Publishing Zombie Cinema and Solar System at Arkenstone Publishing.

dyreno


Moreno R.

Quote from: dyreno on April 12, 2008, 02:00:27 PM
quick question. What do you do if you've run out of dice completely. Had a PC shooting down at a gunman and him firing back. The gunman rolled great while the PC had a bad lot. The gunman forced the PC to take a Few dice in fallout before he just ran out of dice. But, the PC still had like six dice left (all ones and twos with a total of 10).

Hi Dyreno!

If in that situation you really needed another couple of dice, you could have narrated something (an object, or someone who help the NPC) and get their dice. It's not something you want to do always (conflict can become boring if everybody begin to narrate casual objects in every conflict to avoid admitting defeat), but can be very useful sometimes.

For example, you could have narrated the Gunman hiding behind something, or even reaching for a box of bullets (1d6) to recharge his gun.

Or you could escalate to words, if you didn't start with talking ("if you kill me you will never know who paid me!", for example)

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I said the gunman just ran out of bullets so he ran for cover behind a bunch of barrels

Did you took the die for the barrel?

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. My "stick in the Mud" player said that he couldn't do that cause he didn't have any dice left to do anything, that in-fact he had to take ten points in bullet fallout dice.

How did it work? From you description, it would seem (but it isn't clear) that you gave up and conceded the stakes, blocking his last shot. In this case he is wrong, you can always choose (if you want) to block the last raise by giving up the stakes, and you can narrate this as "the gunman flee hiding behind a bunch of barrels" if you want.

But you have to do this before remaining with no dice. From your description the player could raise only with very low dice, so you could have easily got enough dice narrating the barrel (and maybe an escalation to physical action - fleeing) to return to the previous case, but if you didn't, and you could not add enough dice to reach his raise, the conflict simply ends, he got the stakes, you block nothing. I really don't remember now if his last raise happen or not, because usually the few times this happened to me in a game (I usually drop out a fight as soon as I see I can't menace anything important anymore) we have always used the last raise to claim the stakes.

Even in this case, anyway, your player is wrong. If you can't reach his number you lose the conflict, but you don't get more fallout. And from where he did got that "ten points in bullet dice" value? I get the impression that you are playing with a lot of house rules...

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Which is another quick question for ya. How many dice do you take in fallout if you have nothing to block with.

Zero.  The conflict ended, there is no fallout to add.
Ciao,
Moreno.

(Excuse my errors, English is not my native language. I'm Italian.)

dyreno

thanks a million on the detailed description. I've been playing this way and it's good more are thinking on the same line. It's been a little bit of a nail pulling experience to get the game going when every five minutes i get to hear how the rules work coming from a guy who never read the rules. Thanks a million

dindenver

Dyreno,
  I think the point that your player was trying to make is that: once the opposition runs out of dice, he gets to narrate the conclusion of the fight. If he started the fight by saying, "I kill him dead" and he runs out of dice, isn't he dead?
  Conversely, if he starts the fight saying "My righteousness is born of the King of Life", then isn't the opposing character obliged to recognize that statement.
  I guess the point is, if he won the conflict, he gets a bigger say about the outcome than you, right? I mean if he lost the conflict, you would be telling him what his char is doing, right?
  The narration that "he runs for cover" seems to negate the fact that he won the conflict. Essentially, you neutralized his threat instead of acknowledging that the opposition is powerless to resist him anymore, right?
  Yeah, there is no fallout from "Giving" that character is most likely dead if they were in a gun battle. Or whatever fate that the Player wishes to bestow on them. Fallout is for winners, lol
  I mean there has to be context, two characters can't get into an argument and the winner can 't declare the other character dead. But if it was a raging gun battle and you give, you may be dead, no?
Dave M
Author of Legends of Lanasia RPG (Still in beta)
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lumpley

Well, whatever's at stake, it resolves in the winner's favor, but the winner doesn't get to just freely narrate anything. The winner doesn't have any more say than the loser does. Especially, the loser doesn't get killed for giving, unless his life was specifically at stake - named to be so, up front. If it wasn't, there's nothing the winner can do to kill the loser. Giving is always the safest move.

-Vincent