An already great game keeps getting better and better with v4! I really like the new vice overindulgence. Makes sense in the fiction. Changing the assist mechanic from +1 bonus die to shifting up the position is really great. So, your friends cannot boost your chance of success but might make it easier for you if things won’t work out.
Just one little detail: on the character sheets, for special armor, I don’t like that the connection line is going up.
I’m big, big fan of the new vice/stress rules as well. The jury is still out on the changes to ‘assist’ (I have one player who is going to be a sad panda, because he feels really stressed whenever he picks up dice in this game.) but I’m also excited for the updated Engagement roll stuff.
I’m confused by the new vice rule. You roll your worst attribute. What if that’s zero? The implication of the text seems to be that indulge your vice more easily with a low attribute, but mechanically it doesn’t work that way.
Is it supposed to be clearing (6 – highest) stress or something?
Daniel Helman
Re: “What if it’s zero?” — it works the same way as anything else when you have zero dice: You roll two and take the lowest.
As for the flavor, I think the point is that if you are weak, you are bad at channeling your vice in a USEFUL way. You get sloshing drunk, but when you wake up in the morning, you are still miserable.
Yep, you roll zero dice as usual, as Mike says.
You clear a number of stress equal to the result of your roll.
A question about the new Vice rules. I see that in the downtime rules it’s explained that you can make a good use of a friend to get an additional die.
– Is it true even for this new mechanic?
– What about a player that want to sped a Coin to raise the result “quality” with this Vice roll? I think it’s impossible to use that Coin for this roll, ’cause it doesn’t follow the standard Action fail/mixed/success/critical steps.
– Can the player spend a Coin to make a second/third Vice action, so rolling the dice again, to recover more stress?
PS I appreciate the Armors automatic replenishment. Then, about the medium/severe harm: you still need a useful friend/ally, create a clock, and roll for fill it before you recover. So, how many dice are you going to roll?
If you have an expert, I think its quality. But if you haven’t? Just a single “fortune” roll? Or maybe Crew Tier number of dice, plus the extra 1d, ’cause you are using a friend?
Other clarification: what if the character has no stress at all, when it comes to the downtime? He still need to devote an action for the Vice, to avoiding to take the automatic 1+trauma stress? However if this is the case, he’s going to automatically overindulge. Am I correct? Or, on the contrary, you can skip the Vice part, if you have no stress at all?
Andrea Parducci
That’s a really good question! o.o
And yeah, I’m curious to hear the word on recovering from harm too, because a relatively beginning character who takes Moderate Harm is practically crippled, and even a 4 segment clock takes a long time to fill when you’re only rolling one die each time…
If you have no stress, you either overindulge or avoid your vice and take stress.
For treatment, you have it right. You roll for the person doing the treatment, so that’s Quality or a PC action.
Starting characters have it rough when they’re injured. You might have to suck it up and burn some rep to take more downtime and get well. Some players are weirdly allergic to paying for extra downtime, and this can make things seem harder than they really are.
John Harper “or a PC action”: this is interesting, and could boost a lot the chances to recover, especially if you can roll the extra 1d Dor a NPC friend giving an hand. What kind of action should I call for? I can’t find nothing useful in the standard skills.
Also, about my first post, do you have some advice / official take?
Andrea Parducci All the downtime rules apply to Vice.
– If you get help from a friend, take +1d.
– If you spend Coin to bump up your result, a 1-3 becomes a 4 or 5. A 4 or 5 becomes a 6.
– You can spend coin or rep to take more downtime actions, which can be Vice if you want.
“- If you spend Coin to bump up your result, a 1-3 becomes a 4 or 5. A 4 or 5 becomes a 6.”
Well, Vice is now a “soak” roll (like the resistance rolls), so you don’t have 1-3, 4-6, 6 and Crit results. This is why I was asking for the interaction with the “Coin after roll” rule.
Yes, but you do still have numbers on the dice.
If your highest die shows the number 1, 2, or 3, you can spend a coin to change it to a 4 or 5.
If your highest die is a 4 or 5, you can spend a coin to make it a 6.
Oh, well. True!
And, what about the skill/skills to use when PCs are tending the “wounds” of other PCs, in downtime Recover action? I can’t find good ones. Maybe consort, study, or the defensive Insight… Dunno.
There aren’t any good ones, unless you have a Leech with Physicker.
You can improvise with an action like Study — “I study the wound and try to stitch it up properly” (and probably roll a desperate action).
Otherwise, getting a doctor is the thing to do.