d4 as trouble?

[elgorade]

Why is a d4 considered to give you trouble?  Mechanically it seems less likely to help you, but certainly better than no dice.  And since you don't have to use it, it doesn't seem more likely to cause fallout for you either.  Basically, you could treat you dice (after the roll) as if they didn't have the d4s in them and still play the conflict.  Using the d4s can only help you from that point since they are just extra resources.  So I don't understand why they are concidered to be dice that will give you trouble.  (The point was made in the thread of Paul's two questions, but I wanted to bring it out explicitly.)

[Eero Tuovinen]

It's not trouble for you, it's trouble for your character, and then only potentially. It will make it more likely that you have an opportunity to get fallout. I repeat for clarity: having and rolling d4 makes it more likely that you have an opportunity to get fallout. And because fallout means character trouble, you could say that d4 means trouble for the character, even if it's voluntary for the player.

[Warren]

It's because the majority of your opponents dice are likely to be d6s (from the Attribute pools). If you draw on a d4 Traits to See a Raise made by d6s, you are more likely to take Fallout* than if you had drawn on a better (i.e. higher die sized) Trait.

I don't think of d4 traits as disadvantages, per se. I think of them (and have advised my players) such that drawing on a d4 Trait is going to make your life more complicated. Which is why guns get an extra d4 for free, I expect.

* Because an average Raise from 2d6 would (on average) need 3d4 to See, and hence causing you to Take the Blow and suffer Fallout.

[elgorade]

It's because the majority of your opponents dice are likely to be d6s (from the Attribute pools). If you draw on a d4 Traits to See a Raise made by d6s, you are more likely to take Fallout* than if you had drawn on a better (i.e. higher die sized) Trait.

I don't agree with that statement.  If you don't want to take the fallout, you don't have to use the low numbers in your "hand".  Of course, that may mean that you lose the contest, but that isn't the d4s fault.  If you hadn't rolled them, you would not have even had the choice.

It's not trouble for you, it's trouble for your character, and then only potentially. It will make it more likely that you have an opportunity to get fallout.
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Ok, I can see that.  Thanks.

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

I don't agree with that statement.  If you don't want to take the fallout, you don't have to use the low numbers in your "hand".  Of course, that may mean that you lose the contest, but that isn't the d4s fault.  If you hadn't rolled them, you would not have even had the choice.

The point is that, to get those dice, you have to add in the color that they represent. You have to say what's happening to make that trait come into play.

I had a character whose weapon of choice was a rifle. She was farsighted, so she wore glasses most of the time. But there was this awesome moment of quiet before the lead started flying where she'd take off her glasses, and then you knew there was going to be trouble.

I had another character who was built as a fallout machine. The idea was to make him a huge mass of scar. So he was all tricked out for violence, but I made sure he wound up in social situations where the violence would have been ineffective. He wound up with something like "The King of Life Hates Me: 14d4". That meant that, lots and lots of times, when something would be going on, all I'd have to work with was gobs and gobs of d4s... which lead to more fallout, cuz I'm rolling crap. But I'm rolling so much crap, that I would win the conflicts.