[Bacchanal] Multiple ties?

[Nev the Deranged]

So, I'm futzing around with the Bacchanal dice, trying to teach myself to play so I don't look like a buffon if/when I get other folks to try it.

And I just rolled a four way tie, two wine dice, minerva, and a soldier. And I'm wondering, is there a precedence-order for resolutions, or do I get to pick the one that most appeals to me? Or am I just missing something obvious, as usual... heh.

[Paul Czege]

Hey Dave,

Yep, that's "I Want A New Drug" on page VI, "a tie between a combination of Wine and non-Wine dice."

Paul

[Nev the Deranged]

Yeah, when I reread that it was more obvious that "any combination of ties with wine dice and anything else" covered that.

I went through a mock session and actually jotted down one character's story as if I were playing, which started out pretty cool. After a while it was getting late so I just went through a few more rolls and plan to go back later and fill in the story bits, just to get a feel for how it works. It did seem like, between the three imaginary players I was rolling for, that there was a whole hell of a lot of "escalate but don't change scene" results. I guess the "escalate slowly" advice is good, but it seems like even with that it might get hard to work with after a while. But maybe it won't prove that difficult, we'll see. I suspect, though, that it might be harder for some to pull that off with an audience... on the other hand, it might be easier with other people's stuff to play off of.

Aaaanyway. I really like the basic concept of the game, it's almost like "reading the bones" and pulling a story out of them. Or letting them pull a story out of you.

[Paul Czege]

Hey Dave,

Yes, the "escalate, but don't change scene" effect is one of the game's two great creative challenges. You resolve the situation by working your glass toward a higher ratio of non-Wine to Wine dice. You can work your storytelling to provoke the gift of Minerva, which will have that effect. But the gift is no sure thing. So recognize that on your turn you can always reduce the number of Wine dice in your glass by incorporating an NPC from someone else's storyline into your scene (see "The Cup Runneth Dry" on page X). Folks hesitate to do this when they have Soldiers or the Accuser in their glass. When this is the case, Bacchanal makes you choose between possibly destroying audience interest in your character with an overly-long scene of potentially repetitious escalations, and the undesirability of increasing the chance your character has an unhappy ending. This is a design feature, not a flaw. It aims to convince that dramatic progress is more important to audience interest in a character than a happy ending.

Paul

[Nev the Deranged]

Yeah, I did find myself making use of that dymanic, seeking to get rid of wine dice just so *something* different would happen. Although sometimes I also left them in on purpose to give myself a better chance at tying and being able to bring a new character in.

I think it'll take a few plays through to really get a good feel for how long, how detailed, etc. stories should be.

I just have a tendency to want to be really certain how a game works before introducing it to other people, and with a game that's on somewhat squishy territory thematically as this one, I want to be extra careful.

Ultimately, though, it always comes down to diving in and sinking or swimming. *shrug*