[SOY] Dealing with scrubs

[Twobirds]

After reading through a lot of the SOY posts here and docs elsewhere, I had an idea that I'm not sure is the best, but might work.  It concerns punks, pushovers, cannon fodder, scrubs, whatever.  The mechanics of SOY work, as I understand, as conflict resolvers, and minimize the task resolutions.  Scrubs have stats, but are no match for the heroes.  Still, scrubs have a chance in SOY - meaning a lowly street rat(kin) can take down the hero if the dice fall just right.  Which isn't REALLY the point of scrubs.  (And I realize I am weighting my question towards combat, though I expect it would work similarly if you were, say, in the lower echelons of a cooking contest round-robin.)

Scrubs have a chance when they swarm the hero, or if the hero is facing a large number of them in sequence (a big battle, for instance).  How reasonable is it to say that scrubs cannot 'win' the conflict, but can injure the hero AS IF they had been in a Bringing Down The Pain contest, and can stick around another 'round'.  The hero can still 'win' as if he had NOT been in BDTP.  Damage accumulates according to what the scrub rolls, and it's up to the hero to ignore it or take a break.  The SG does not need to say arbitrarily "you beat up 3 rabid skunks", you just throw them at the player, who roll some dice and maybe try different tactics, until they back off or you decide the cool scene is past, and move on.  (If it was a big battle, you chop your way through some Stormtroopers, maybe get scratched up a bit, then duel with Darth Vader.)

This SEEMS like it would give scrubs a definite point, and are not a one-on-one threat to heroes.  But it does mess with the whole idea to skip task resolution, since the scrubs are not actually succeeding at their intention.  Then again, they are SGCs, so maybe it doesn't matter.

What do you think?

[Clinton R. Nixon]

How reasonable is it to say that scrubs cannot 'win' the conflict, but can injure the hero AS IF they had been in a Bringing Down The Pain contest, and can stick around another 'round'.  The hero can still 'win' as if he had NOT been in BDTP.  Damage accumulates according to what the scrub rolls, and it's up to the hero to ignore it or take a break.  The SG does not need to say arbitrarily "you beat up 3 rabid skunks", you just throw them at the player, who roll some dice and maybe try different tactics, until they back off or you decide the cool scene is past, and move on.  (If it was a big battle, you chop your way through some Stormtroopers, maybe get scratched up a bit, then duel with Darth Vader.)

Well, you can always state a conflict poses danger, and can harm the PCs if they lose. (I don't have the text at work, but that's in there.) As for "another round," I don't see how that would work at all. The winner's stated outcome happens when the dice hit the table without question.

Now, you can pose a series of conflicts:
- Does the hero make it through the bar to the street outside?
- Does the hero make it through the crowd to the gallows?
- Does the hero make it through the sheriff's men?
- Does the hero cut his friend down from the gallows?

This is fine. But if the hero doesn't make it through the bar, he just plain doesn't make it through the bar.

[Twobirds]

Well, you can always state a conflict poses danger, and can harm the PCs if they lose. (I don't have the text at work, but that's in there.) As for "another round," I don't see how that would work at all. The winner's stated outcome happens when the dice hit the table without question.

I'm working through the new version, but I had been thinking about this for a while and wanted to throw it out.

But 'the winner's stated outcome' is where I get stuck.  I expect the scrubs want to kill the hero, so if the dice roll their way, do they kill the hero?  Or am I not thinking about this correctly?

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Well, you can always state a conflict poses danger, and can harm the PCs if they lose. (I don't have the text at work, but that's in there.) As for "another round," I don't see how that would work at all. The winner's stated outcome happens when the dice hit the table without question.

I'm working through the new version, but I had been thinking about this for a while and wanted to throw it out.

But 'the winner's stated outcome' is where I get stuck.  I expect the scrubs want to kill the hero, so if the dice roll their way, do they kill the hero?  Or am I not thinking about this correctly?

"Killing the hero" is not your option as Story Guide. "Incapacitating the hero," "preventing the hero," "slowly down the hero," or even "breaking the hero's legs" are your options. The hero cannot die - that cannot be the stakes - unless the player's Brought Down the Pain. (Which, by the way, they will if you successfully roll to break their legs.)

[Twobirds]

I see.  Thanks.

I was going to ask how you'd handle charging through a dozen Stormtroopers to reach Vader, but all of your suggestions would work for Stormtrooper intentions.  (Presumably so would 'try not to miss'.)