[InSpectres] Am I doing this right?

[TonyLB]

We ran three missions of InSpectres last night, and had a lot of fun with it.  We investigated the haunting of television station WHGL by the ghost of Annabelle the clown (a misguided and controversial hippy kids entertainer who got thrown off the air over such cheerful kids songs as "It's your body, do what you want with it!")  Then we had a classic gig finding grave-robbers (from outer space, as it turns out) which job we landed through the grave-digger friend of our Zombie wierd agent.  It was old-home week for the Zombie.  One of our normals got himself knocked up by an alien 'female' during this time, and so our third mission at the Monster Truck Rally turned out to have a lot of influence of alien breeding conspiracies, along with the standard Monster Trucks that turned into gigantic man-eating robots.  As I said, fun was had by all.

And yet, there was still confusion over the rules, and that made it difficult to just relax and enjoy.  So for those who have played much more, I could really use a quick confidence boost and/or correction of my mis-steps (whatever is appropriate to the circumstance).

Bank dice for Vacation

My intuition was that spending a Bank Die to counter stress penalties (i.e. Vacation) should not require that die to be rolled.  But my intuition runs smack dab against the text on page 27, which says "If you are spending Bank dice between missions (say, for Vacation or for restoring a weird agent's Cool dice), roll the dice first, then consult the Chart, then carry on as normal."  So, how is that text to be interpreted?[list=1][*]For each point of Vacation you should individually roll a die.  When you get a one, your bank is wiped clean and therefore nobody can get any more Vacation?
[*]You figure out all of the Vacation you want to give, then roll all those dice at once.  If you get any ones your bank is wiped clean, but then any fives and sixes put dice back into your bank.
[*]You figure out all of the Vacation you want to give, then roll all those dice at once.  If you get any fives or sixes they are put back into your bank, but then if you have any ones your bank is wiped clean.
[*]Something else....[/list:o]Cool and Stress

Our intuitive observation was that once you hit 2 Cool, you're done being scared about stress... even against four and five stress-die rolls.  I was surprised by this, so I worked up the numbers as best my half-remembered probability skills allow:

Code Select Expand

Chance of gaining cool, by Stress Dice
Cool  1           2           3           4           5
0     16.6%       2.7%        0.4%        0.07%       0.01%
1     -           30.5%       9.4%        1.8%        0.36%
2     -           -           49.3%       17.2%       4.4%
3     -           -           -           61.6%       28.3%


Chance of ignoring stress, by Stress Dice
Cool  1           2           3           4           5
0     33.3%       11.1%       3.7%        1.2%        0.41%
1     100%        55.5%       25.9%       11.1%       4.5%
2     100%        100%        70.3%       38.2%       19.3%
3     100%        100%        100%        80.2%       45.6%


Change of getting no lasting penalties, by Stress Dice
Cool  1           2           3           4           5
0     50%         25%         12.5%       6.25%       3.1%
1     100%        75%         50%         31.25%      18.8%
2     100%        100%        87.5%       62.5%       43.7%
3     100%        100%        100%        93.7%       65.7%
Now this is all provisional on our having correctly interpreted the rules about Cool:  That you simply remove the N lowest dice, and then find the lowest die of the dice that remain.  So if you had Cool 2, and rolled 1, 3, 4, 5 then you would remove the 1 and 3, and take the 4 (for a 1-die penalty on your next roll).  Is that correct?  And if it is correct, is Stress supposed to remain a powerful tool once franchise agents start accumulating Cool, or does some other pacing mechanism take over?

[Jared A. Sorensen]

Part I. Vacation and Bank Dice
Option 2.

Part II. Cool
I think your numbers are off. If you roll 2 dice and ignore the lowest, the other die still has a 50% chance of giving you stress.

In my games, I've never had a problem with agents being too cool. If someone does get too cool, I just a) don't put him in situations where he can get more and/or b) I throw lots of horrific shit at him, for fun. Because there's nothing funnier than watching some schmoe in sunglasses at night walk into a wall.

[TonyLB]

I think your numbers are off. If you roll 2 dice and ignore the lowest, the other die still has a 50% chance of giving you stress.

I don't think that's true.  It sounds plausible... after all, any independent roll should give a 50/50 chance of being between 1 and 3.  If you were saying "Roll a blue and a red die, then take the blue one away," I'd be right there with you.  That wouldn't change the distribution of probability on the red die.

But the left-over die after you take away the lowest is not independent:  It is influenced by the simple fact that it is not the one you took away.  If it were sufficiently low, it wouldn't be the one that was left:  it would be the one you took away.  So, imagine two-sided dice:  coins labelled "1" on one side and "2" on the other.  You flip two, and remove the lowest.  Possible outcomes:

1 / 1  :  Result -- 1
1 / 2  :  Result -- 2
2 / 1  :  Result -- 2
2 / 2  :  Result -- 2

Three out of four (75%) of those results are 2.  Make sense?

[Jared A. Sorensen]

Three out of four (75%) of those results are 2.  Make sense?

Well, sure...now that you explain it. Man! Math!