Scene Entrance

[Ben Lehman]

So, say that Bob is over there, in some other scene across town, and he is suddenly doing something really cool that totally applies to my character and I want to be in the scene involved right now.  How do we resolve it?

The two classic resolutions to this are:

Fiat by Sim:  The GM decides "how long" it takes me to get there, based on the size of the town and my transportation, and fiats my arrival into the scene.

Fiat by Nar:  The GM decides whether or not he wants me in the scene, for dramatic purposes, and lets me enter when he feels it is "appropriate."

This is how it will be resolved without a system.  It is my belief that neither of these are appropriate to Dogs, and I propose two solutions:

1) Willy-Nilly Entrance:  If you think you should be in a scene, and you aren't in some other scene right now, enter.  This is fine, but could conceivably cause problems.

2) Entrance Tests.  The basis of this is that how much you should be allowed to enter a scene depends on how much the contents of that scene matter to you, as a character.

2a)  If you want to enter a scene, roll all your applicable dice.  If you can see all outstanding bets, you can enter the scene (but take fallout?)

2b)  Roll all relationships, and only relationships, that apply to the scene.  If you can ever see the bet of someone who would be opposed to you in the scene (i.e. no low-balling bets to get backup to come in) with these dice, you can enter the scene, and then roll all applicable dice.  I like this for two reasons.  First, it means that your ability to enter someone else's scene depends directly on how dramatically appropriate it is to you and your character.  Second, it allows for a "cavalry effect" of late-scene entrance which 2a disallows.

Thoughts?  Is this a mountain out of a molehill?

yrs--
--Ben

[lumpley]

So far when I've played it's been 1) Willy-Nilly Entrance, by casual negotiation and consensus.  I'm cool with that.  Players mostly want the game to go well and aren't going to sabotage it with their scene entrances.

You can also make "does your character get there in time?" what's at stake in a conflict very, very easily.

-Vincent