Fallout for improvised helpers?

[Levi Kornelsen]

I had a kind of running gunfight in my game last night, and ran it a little differently.  I'm aware that this doesn't fit the rules as written quite right, but it did work.

I played 'the demonic influence', calling it's cult together to stop the Dogs.  The cultists, I used as improvised items, introducing their dice as they arrived on the scene.  Now, this ran just great - and then it came to fallout.  Now, the dogs had been firing into the cult as part of the narration - in the end, I had 11d10 to assign as fallout.  So, I rolled it, took the top two dice and put those on one cultist.  Then, the next two highest, next cultist, and so on. 

The results were satisfying - A dead cultist, several injured ones, and two injured dogs (one serious, one not) - and the narration was great.

In town, for the big showdown, I thought 'well, it worked great last time', and did the same, playing the cult leader, and using the cultists in the same way again.  Again, when we hit fallout, I had to figure out what to do.  So, I rolled it all, gave the leader the top two (a 19), and pushed the rest around in pairs. 

Again, the results felt about right.  Plenty of hurt, and the person the Dogs were aiming for most down and bleeding.

Any good reason not to do this more often?

[lumpley]

Levi: There is no reason not to do this whenever you want. In fact, it sounds smart and cool.

Now, what follows is how it fits into the existing rules. This is geeky and nit-picky; in fact, I don't recommend that anyone read it at all.

The rule is: as GM, you can kill and injure NPCs a) as what's at stake in a conflict, b) as a result of the fallout they take, c) as part of a raise or a see, or d) outside of conflict however you like (but being accomodating if the players want (a) instead).

What you're doing, Levi, is (d), and for "however you like" you're choosing "according to this scheme I've made up involving the (technically unused) leftover fallout dice." You're making a house rule to provide structure in a place where the rules say "do whatever you want." Which, go for it - "do whatever you want" certainly includes making house rules to provide structure.

See? Geeky and nit-picky.

-Vincent

[Levi Kornelsen]

Excellent.

Thanks!

[TheHappyAnarchist]

I like it.  Makes it easier to assign a nice level of fallout without having to pull the little helpers injuries and deaths entirely out of your but.

Though I would probable just use levels for unimportant ones.

Like cultist dude dead, next guy up seriously injured and dying, same next, next guy permanently injured, and the last three are nursing wounds but mostly have their pride hurt.  Or what have you.

[Levi Kornelsen]

Like cultist dude dead, next guy up seriously injured and dying, same next, next guy permanently injured, and the last three are nursing wounds but mostly have their pride hurt.  Or what have you.

At least these two times, I thought to myself "Hey, I've already got a nice little fallout stack right here.  I could make stuff up to suit, or we could just roll those and go with it."  Given that the whole group was kind of on this "Hey, we've got all these dice, and these great mechanics.  Let's play with 'em!" kind of kick at the end of the game, and having fun with it, it seemed just right.

Thinking on it, I wouldn't use it all the time - sometimes, I'd assign things more overly in the interests of where the players want to go.   

But when we're in the dice-throwing mood...    yeah, I'll keep it for those moments.

[Julian]

Another way to handle it might be to treat the group as a single entity, give it its fallout dice, and then figure out what that means. (i.e - a dead cult is done, and not coming back. Its leaders are dead or repented. Its rank and file are running, cowering, or hurt. A seriously injured cult has at least one leader still active, though either in a bad way, or with few followers left.)

[TheHappyAnarchist]

Or the dead cult only has it's leader, on the run and looking to start the cult up again.

Hmm.  I like both ideas, and will probably use whichever one I feel is more appropriate.

Is the NPC themselves the threat?  Or is the cult itself the enemy.  I could see a recurring cult that has members starting to infilitrate various towns.

Not so much a plot line as something that the protaganists come up against repeatedly and have to find a way to restrict somehow.

[Levi Kornelsen]

I like both ideas, and will probably use whichever one I feel is more appropriate.

I'm starting to think the same thing.  Having a variety of ways to handle things is good.