Back to Basics: Relationship of Commitment to Initial Intent and Defections
Erik Weissengruber:
I had a good run of Sorcerer games. But I still do not have the relationship of the mechanics down; this, despite Christopher Kubasic's notes on playing Sorcerer.
Bear with me as I go back to basics.
Alphonzo rolls 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 trying to face punch Bernardo.
Bernardo rolls 6, 6, 6, 5 intending to steal the Blue Monkey diamond from Calvin
Calvin rolls 6, 6, 5, 4 as part of a Full Defense Action
Xemu, Alphonzo's demon, rolls 5,5, 5 to zap Bernardo with a Special Damage of filth spores.
Alphonzo commits to his action. His roll gives him initiatinve and a satisfying 4 victories. He doesn't change anything.
Bernardo sees the punch coming and would rather stay on his feet. So he decides to defect and go for defence. He keeps his dice on the table, but gets to roll a full stat in his defence, say 3 dice for his Stamina in a dodge.
Desipte his full Defense, Calvin loses to Bernardo. Bernardo didn't acquire a Full Victory, so let's say he gets his hands on the Blue Monkey, but hasn't grabed it fully.
Now it comes around to Xemu. Bernardo's first roll was not half bad. It easily beats Xemu. And we kept the dice on the table for other reference purposes. But as Bernardo panicked and wne for a desperate defence, isn't he in a corner now? Doesn't he just get the pitiful 1 die minimum roll for acting after he has acted? Or does he get the use of his full Stamina?
jburneko:
Erik, you're making things harder by trying to use the rolls as both attacks and defenses. Don't do that. You compare these rolls against each other for ordering ONLY. So it looks like this.
Alphonso goes first. So Bernardo has a choice. He can keep his action and roll one die or discard is action and roll full dice to defend. (I'll use your example choices). It looks like he wants to defend. So his dice on the table go away. They are no longer relevant. He rolls (a fresh roll) his full defense and he either does or doesn't get punched by Alphonso.
Since Bernardo gave up his action we now move directly to Calvin. His declared action is now irrelevant since Bernardo canceled his action and no other upcoming actions target him. So he stands there hugging his Blue Monkey.
Xemu now attacks Bernardo. Bernado now defends again with his full dice (a fresh roll).
Ron Edwards:
Hi,
Jesse's fully correct with one possible exception at the very end. If it so happened that Bernardo had been struck by Alphonso, then Bernardo's roll to defend against Xemu would be penalized according to whatever damage he took. Jesse is completely correct that the baseline for that roll would be Bernardo's full dice.
Oh, and a minor narration point. Considering that Calvin's full-defense action was not overcome by any roll, it's worth pointing out that he competently hugs his Blue Monkey, complete with whatever movement and details of action were implied by his player's initial description of what he was doing.
Personally, I think he hunkered down in a kind of protective hugging crouch, perhaps even closing his eyes ... and so the narration of his action on his turn is kind of funny, as he looks up and takes a moment to realize that he and his Monkey are fine.
Erik, try it with real dice and tell us what happens.
Best, Ron
Erik Weissengruber:
Sorry, the Actual Play examples are a few weeks back and I didn't note any numbers down.
Erik Weissengruber:
Quote from: jburneko on April 24, 2012, 05:43:29 PM
Xemu now attacks Bernardo. Bernado now defends again with his full dice (a fresh roll).
I get it!
If Bernardo were in full defense mode, he would have 2 more dice to add to his relevant 1st. Roll.
He was not, however. So Bernardo abandons his initial intention and is doing multiple defenses, but those defenses are not as good as they could have been.
The one who is committing to full defense has the same flexibility to do multiple defenses AND does so with a two-dice bonus. My first impression was that choosing to go full defense was sub-optimal: gaining two dice but losing any ability to push your agenda is a bad deal. But the fictional circumstances might be such that abstaining for a round might be a smart move (to have someone reveal intentions, reveal a hidden power, bring a demon into the open).
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page