Aargh! Lost my book! My first game is tonight!

[Hudson Shock]

The title says it all.

Okay, the basic rules are easy enough - I even wrote a summary of them a few weeks ago.

The only thing I don't remember are what to do if there's a tie during Complications.  Can anybody help me out in the next couple of hours?

[Eero Tuovinen]

The only thing I don't remember are what to do if there's a tie during Complications.  Can anybody help me out in the next couple of hours?

The side with a bigger sum in the successful dice gets an edge die, and the dice are rolled again. That is if I remember, I don't have the book here.

[Hudson Shock]

Thanks!

[hix]

And the number you roll on the Edge dice gets added to your Coins from the Complications, even if the Edge dice wasn't one of the successes or you lost the Complication.

There are some good play aids at the Universalis home page to use as a reminder of the rules too. I found them good to print and hand out to all the players.

[Valamir]

Steve is right as the rules exist now.

Eero's simpler version above is actually going to be the new official rule when I do the next printing.  (i.e. just add the die and reroll without the special bit about adding the number)

[hix]

Interesting, Ralph. Care to share your thoughts on the reason for the change?

[Valamir]

Mainly that it adds very little, it takes more words to describe than its worth, and when the guy who wrote it never remembers to use it properly you know its just too fiddly.

Without that rule you eliminate special cases, eliminate the need for a different color die, and eliminate all differences between the d10 and d6 resolution mechanics.

That seems to outweigh any benefits I can see in the pro column.

[Mike Holmes]

And it's what his co-designer suggested first. :-)

Had to rub it in. Got to do so in a demo at GenCon, too. :-)

The Con side is that the die half of the time is meaningless. Given that the die is supposed to make things feel like they're escallating, it's theoretically anti-climactic for all the dice to come up failures.

What I had also originally suggested (and I can't remember if it's in there or not) is that the player who gets the edge die should narrate getting some situational advantage to represent it. Not something that resolves anything, but actually escallates things in a dramatic sense. That way, you still get the tension increase, complications can have some extra build up, mechanically, and if a reversal does occur, it seems pretty dramatic.

That said, I always forget that, too. :-)

Mike

[Hudson Shock]

The game went great, although short.  We'll be returning to it soon, though.  Turns out there were no ties after all, but thanks to everybody for the help.

Now, where the hell is my damn book?