[DITV] Negative traits and how to use them
anonynos:
So after looking at this game for awhile, I picked up a copy at this last Origins and last night got a couple of friends together and tried out char gen. We got to traits and while talking over things, I was asked how negative traits come into play and... I don't know. I'm really not sure how they get rolled. It seems that any trait, good or bad, is ultimately a bonus to you because it's extra dicve to be rolling in a conflict. And somehow that seem wrong...
"I have poor eyesight without my glasses 2d10".
Does this mean that anytime the trait comes up, you get to roll more dice? "Oh no I don't have my glasses and I need to make this shot... I get 2d10 to my roll" Or does your opponent get those dice? Or is it more that in a situation that /could/ be affected but isn't it would come up. "It's a good thing I have my glasses on, or else I'd never have seen that. I get to roll 2d10."
It's soemthign that jsut eluded me and how it should be attributed. Any advice here would be helpful.
David Artman:
This is sort of a retooling of the "what keeps dogs from power-gaming traits, making ones that are always usable in every conflict?"
Two brief answers, from two camps: nothing; or the GM (or group in general) calling bullshit. [FWIW, I'm in the second camp--your example would be BS, to me; though I kinda like the invocation by exception, your third possible interpretation, the second "Or".]
The nut of the question comes down to a simpler thing: Dogs ALWAYS can win, if they want to badly enough (possible exception being a Sorcerer-backed mob with 5d10 of Demonic Influence). The GAME is about pushing the players NOT to want to win, because of the cost. That's the gist of the "Oh, really? How about NOW?" questioning series, as I understand it.
Official reply will come--Vincent is tops for support!
dindenver:
Ano,
Basically, its the dice that determine if its a positive or negative trait, not the words.
Bad eyesight: 2d4 - does not generate the numbers needed to call and raise
Bad eyesight: 2d10 - does
Does that make sense?
There is no point where you roll dice and give it to the other player or whatever.
You are always rolling and adding the dice to your pool. good or bad.
I think the closest thing that ditv gets to disadvantages is, relationships. Where playing it is going to cost more than the dice give back.
David Artman:
Quote from: dindenver on August 27, 2008, 02:25:29 PM
Bad eyesight: 2d4 - does not generate the numbers needed to call and raise
For example: Bjorks' character in Dancing in the Dark (**sob**).
Quote
Bad eyesight: 2d10 - does
For example: Mr. Magoo
lumpley:
Anonynos, my advice is to go ahead and make a house rule that when you create d4 traits they should be negative, text-wise, and d6+ traits should be positive.
Rolling a d4 trait helps you win, yes, but it makes for weak raises and taking blows. It helps you win by letting you choose to take more damage in order to stay in the fight, essentially. Tactically speaking, you never want to avoid d4 traits - a d4 is better than no die - but they still mess things up for you.
If you watch a movie where the hero's eyeglasses get broken, you'll see exactly what I mean. His broken glasses won't keep him from winning, not at all. Instead, on the way to winning, they're going to cost him opportunities (weak raises) and expose him to harm (taking the blow).
Once you've played the game enough to be confident that the dice work like this, THEN you can play around with giving text-wise negative traits good dice, and positive traits d4s, if you want to. "I'm an excellent shot 3d4," like. It's fun and interesting, but it's not essential to the game.
-Vincent
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page