A few questions about Resistance, apologies if they’ve already been answered.
Can a player push themselves or receive assistance when making a resistance roll? I can imagine them accepting the 2 stress in order to reduce their chances of rolling a 1-3 on a single die test. Is this allowed? Rather, would you allow this in your game, and why?
The rules state that a resistance is always successful, and it’s only the stress that varies. Does this apply to pre-emptive resistances? This would mean that, for example, a roll to resist being disarmed by a master swordsman before making your skirmish roll (as on page 11) is always successful. This seems overpowered to me – there should still be some chance to be disarmed. Thoughts from more experienced BITD GMs?
Resistance is one of the few roles which DON’t have the usual 1-3/4-5/6 mechanic. You roll and you get 6-result stress. Often, you don’t want the 6 to avoid overindulge.
Therefor I don’t see a push for this roll (paying stress to get rid of stress). So, no, not in my game. Push is only for action rolls.
There is a teamwork move with allows another PC to resist for you.
Regarding Overpowered: If a consquence is avoided or just reduced is up to the GM / the fiction + dialog with the players. Your flexible here to make it as hard as you like or go softer. AND: It’s up to the player to resist or not. Maybe the story is much cooler disarmed but in a better position to use a weird/improvised weapon instead.
What you need is players who focus not on winning the game but on telling a cool story and all will work out.
I think I remember John Harper saying that it would technically be allowed to push on resistance rolls, but that it makes no sense at all.
And yes, resistance rolls ARE really powerful; that’s what gives the players an edge against all odds in a dangerous world… as long as the stress track of the character is not full!
And it’s the reason the GM doesn’t need to pull punches 🙂
See it as a chance to describe consequences as dangerous and deadly as the fiction demands. As long as the player has stress to spend, you don’t risk an anti-climatic character death.
Just be careful not to overdo confrontations with automatic resistance rolls… Players might loose too much stress too fast, and then they might get cautious and boring.
Don’t forget there’s a protection team work manoeuvre where a teammate takes the consequence and can resist it instead, so if you’re short on dice and high on stress, someone else might be able and willing to help.