Staking rules question

[Kai_lord]

Let's say Captain Hero has a justice drive of 3.

There is a conflict: Capture Doctor Villain! on which Cap. has staked two justice debt, and he has rolled up his side to 12. Doctor Villain (the fiend!) has managed to get a total of 13 on his side. Can our hero stake an additional point of justice debt, or can you only stake on a conflict once, as well as only using one drive per conflict?

On a related note, if you have already staked debt, but are not at your limit, can you stake more debt to split off your own side? And if so, and you win the new side, do you get back double the debt you staked on the losing side? And once you have three sides, how does dice matching work during resolution?

[TonyLB]

Let's say Captain Hero has a justice drive of 3.

There is a conflict: Capture Doctor Villain! on which Cap. has staked two justice debt, and he has rolled up his side to 12. Doctor Villain (the fiend!) has managed to get a total of 13 on his side. Can our hero stake an additional point of justice debt, or can you only stake on a conflict once, as well as only using one drive per conflict?

You can stake any number of times, so long as you respect the limit that a given side may have debt from only one of your drives, and no more than the drive value.  So in this example, Captain Hero is allowed and encouraged to stake the third justice debt.

On a related note, if you have already staked debt, but are not at your limit, can you stake more debt to split off your own side?

You can split at any time that you have debt on a side ... so if you've already staked debt then it's not necessary to stake more in order to split off your own side.  You can stake more, then split off your own side, but you can also just say (on your turn) "Splitting off my own side with the debt I already have invested."

And if so, and you win the new side, do you get back double the debt you staked on the losing side?

If you are staked on two sides (whether because you split or because you were just morally vested in two contradictory desires, then yes you get back double the debt on the losing side, even if you win and resolve the conflict.

And once you have three sides, how does dice matching work during resolution?

Profitably, in general.  Say each side has three dice.  You may match the three pairs of losing dice against each other (giving out inspirations to the higher-dice side) and then take your three unmatched dice as straight inspirations.

Does that help?

[Kai_lord]

Yes, your anwsers are very helpful! Just a few more nits to pick. (As I've always said - if you want to be sure you understand something, write a program to do it.)

OK. So you (the character) can have more than one drive staked on a Conflict - just not more than one drive staked on a side, then? Or is the you referring to the player, who has two characters in a conflict?

Also, the rules imply that you must Stake a new debt to split off:

But by Staking a single point of Debt a character may choose to create an entirely new side.

And that you can't create a side with a point of debt already used for a die:

They split a die from the side their leaving, and leave one of the resulting dice (usually the smallest) on that side.

So, can you split off a side with a "occupied" point of debt?