I was wondering if anyone had thoughts on the topic. Unless I'm mistaken, a Drive with a Strength of 1 is almost totally useless. (What good is a Drive @ 1, anyway?)
Having four Drives @ 2 lets you stake debt all over the place, since there are many, many ways to justify participation. But you can only divide the die by 2, and if you lose the conflict you're quite overdrawn.
The few times I've played I've taken one drive at 4, and done quite well with it.
Let's examine various possible Drive distributions:
5/1/1/1/1 - the only distribution that allows splitting the dice into six (and it allows for pretty dangerous schisms), but rarely there will be an opportunity to use this with full effectiveness. 2 points of debt can be staked safely. 4 point of debt can be "stored" in one points drives without straining the main drive, and got rid later in some not important conflict (or used for schisming).
4/2/1/1/1 - has potential of some good splits, and as above, 2 points of debt can be staked safely. 2-point drive lets the player stake safely one stored point of debt. And there are three "emergency stores".
3/3/1/1/1 - only one point of debt can be staked safely on both threes, but it's possible to build up two pretty good (although risky) potential splits and use them one after another in different conflicts. As above, three "emergency stores".
3/2/2/1/1 - potential splits are not very good and are risky, but it's possible to build up and have ready three of them.
2/2/2/2/1 - four potential weak and risky splits. I don't see big advantages of such distribution, but maybe it could work for a supporting character.
Also, there is a small advantage of flexibility in having few weaker drives as opposed to one 4+, since it's easier to find context for staking the debt accumulated on them.
42111 is my favorite.
What's the point of a Drive-Strength @ 1? It's just a place to put debt for a single use of the power, and to schism, right? There's nothing else you can do with it, unless it's overdrawn, correct?
Well, since you can't stake more debt than the drive's strength, the only thing it's really good for is schisming, even if it is overdrawn.
Quote from: James_Nostack on September 24, 2006, 09:37:20 PM
What's the point of a Drive-Strength @ 1? It's just a place to put debt for a single use of the power, and to schism, right? There's nothing else you can do with it, unless it's overdrawn, correct?
Well, you can't stake two off of it if it's overdrawn either (you can stake up to the drive's strength).
The point of a drive-strength @ 1 isn't about what you can do individually. It's about teamwork. If three people each dump in their one debt token on the same side then, hey presto!, there are now three debt tokens on that side, which allows a split.
Now I haven't often seen that arise as a consensus all at once. What I see is one of these variations:
- I stake my 1 point of debt and look meaningfully around the table. I've just made any future debt tokens on that side substantially more effective.
- Hector stakes two debt and splits. I go "Yeah! I'm with ya, big guy!" and I chip in my one debt, splitting yet further.
Does that make sense and or help?