[DitV] Questions arising from play...

[Jason Morningstar]

I just posted an Actual Play post about my most recent game.  Here are a few questions that were raised:

A Dog, during a conversation, casually takes his rifle out of a saddle bag and props it up in the corner, to make a point.  Is this escalation?  The player wanted to add the "stuff" dice for the gun but not escalate, which I allowed.  There was a threat, but it was implied rather than immediate.  

There's a conflict, between the Dog and the sorceress, and she's got a Demon sort of backing her up, observing on horseback, occasionally intervening.  The Dog is really fighting them both, taking shots and shouting prayers at the demon and fending off the crazed woman.  In the end "my side" takes a world of fallout, enough to kill the sorceress outright, even though she took no physical damage.  A lot of it is ceremonial, and the Dog expressly states that he wants the demon gone and the sorceress to live.  I wasn't clear on who was supposed to get the fallout or how to play it.  We sorted this out and it wasn't a big deal, but I wonder how it should have played out properly.  

What do you think?

[lumpley]

I like answering rules questions!

A Dog, during a conversation, casually takes his rifle out of a saddle bag and props it up in the corner, to make a point.  Is this escalation?  The player wanted to add the "stuff" dice for the gun but not escalate, which I allowed.  There was a threat, but it was implied rather than immediate.

Exactly right. You get its dice when you use it in a raise or see. You escalate to shooting when you point it at someone and pull the trigger. Sometimes that'll be the same raise, sometimes it won't!

In the end "my side" takes a world of fallout, enough to kill the sorceress outright, even though she took no physical damage.  A lot of it is ceremonial, and the Dog expressly states that he wants the demon gone and the sorceress to live.  I wasn't clear on who was supposed to get the fallout or how to play it.

Good question.

When a group NPC takes fallout, you're free to assign it however's right. Roll the dice and then decide - give the "killed outright" result to the demon and the "experience" result to the sorceress, if you want. Or give "killed outright" to both of them. I wouldn't even take exception if you assigned the two highest fallout dice to one person, the next two highest to the next person, the third two highest dice to a third person and on down the line.

In every case, something is going to just make sense, given the narrative of the conflict. Who particularly took the blows, and what were the blows like? Follow that.

It sounds like that's exactly what you did.

-Vincent

[Jason Morningstar]

Thanks, Vincent, that is reassuring.

I hope lots of the explanations you give in this forum to rules questions find thier way into the next edition.  They are often lucid and to the point where the rules leave some ambiguity.  Certainly escalation became much clearer to me after numerous threads on the topic, and your recent reply about relationships looking forward rather than back was sort of forehead-slapping useful to me.

[Lance D. Allen]

Question: How did the sorceress/demon take fallout enough to "kill outright" without taking physical damage?

Even the highest ceremonial fallout is d8, not enough to kill outright. Only guns, with d10 fallout have the capability to kill outright, and then only on a roll of 10 on two dice.

It *sounds* to me, though I could be wrong, that you're making the mistake of totalling up all of the fallout dice, rather than just the highest two. Is this the case?

[Jason Morningstar]

No, the demon took the form of a T.A cavalry officer and unlimbered his Colt Navy.  The fallout was spectacular because the sorceress had many, many 1's and 2's to work with, and blew a bunch to stay in the fight.  I rolled two tens among other numbers.

[Lance D. Allen]

Ah, so the demon took physical damage, rather than the sorcerer. I gotcha now.

Interesting though; This is the first case I've read that has a demon manifesting physically (or did he possess a T.A. Cavalry Officer?) Was that pre-planned, or did it just play out that way?

[Jason Morningstar]

It just seemed cool when I was creating the town - it's more of a high supernatural element, but could easily be toned down or turned into possession.  For a one-shot it worked fine.

"There's a cavalry officer on a wicked big horse in the middle of the parade ground and you've never seen him before, and nobody else even notices him.  And it's so cold you'd think there'd be a big cloud of steam from his breath, only there isn't..."