[TSoY] Harm and success

[Iskander]

So, Prince Abdul ibn Rahman al'Katab, heir to the Sultanate of the Striped Isles, is this eight-foot tiger guy, and he's in Hell, where he's unwittingly challenged the late Soul of the Crane in the North, Khan of the plainspeople to a duel of swordsmanship. The whole deal is to get the guy to bear witness for the hanuman monk that killed the Khan in the court of the Judge of the Book of Life and Death, and Yama is involved, too, and it's all a bit complicated, but right now it comes down to a conflict between the Prince and the Khan.

The Khan's won himself some bonus dice for the Swordplay test, on account of him being so much better with Animal Ken (the tiger-folk Prince's mount isn't too happy about being ridden by a guy who basically thinks of the horse as lunch, and the Khan was practically born in the saddle), he didn't really need the bonus dice, being a Master and all, but anyway, he's got a sabre that's going to do +2 Harm in mounted combat. However, the Prince has got a couple of sweet gift dice, the Secret of Enhanced Swordplay, is Adept at Swordplay, and has this phat Sword of Nine Rings, which is +2 Harm when used to disarm.

The Khan gets two successes on the dice, which put him at a legendary success for his intent to unhorse the big cat.
The Prince gets three successes (go Secrets!) on the dice, which put him at a legendary success for his intent to disarm the Khan.

Here's the question, at last: do we both add our Harm, because we both succeeded, or does success in this case mean victory, which we didn't get because we tied?

Me'n'Thor (who is the GM, I'm the tiger guy), decided that since both of us had successes, and neither outcome precluded the other, we both succeeded, and added our Harm to get ULTIMATE SUCCESS. It was a clash of underworldly titans... so we shared a cup of fermented horse milk in celebration and the Khan didn't eat the tiger (or his lemur lady friend). I was totally happy with the outcome, and didn't want to Bring Down Ye Pain.

- Alexander

P.S. This game is fun.

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Alexander,

Ties are the place for the GM to make some choices. In this particular case, you could go with either no harm - they clash and hold - or both get harmed - they meet on each other's blade. It's totally the GM's choice there. It seems like you guys made the right one, definitely.

- Clinton

[Iskander]

Oh! Interesting. Neither of us actually took harm, that didn't occur to me (Thor?).

[Thor Olavsrud]

Oh! Interesting. Neither of us actually took harm, that didn't occur to me (Thor?).

It was a simple contest, not Bringing Down the Pain, and I didn't really see the need for any Harm out of it. You successfully disarmed him and he successfully unhorsed you.

sounds like we played it correctly!