[DitV] Big Rock Fork

[jlathomas]

Yes, I had a bunch of 1s and 2s, but I think I didn't have enough to total the last See. I don't remember.

I understand the Give better now, so if we play again, I don't think I will have the same trouble--I wasn't even thinking of it at the time, which is probably telling in itself. Consequences in this game are  sort of loosey-goosey. That throws me I guess, since I am used to D&D's consequences: pain or death.

I understand the rounds now.

As far as what was at stake for me, the player, I would have to say value to the party. There is nothing I hate more than feeling useless to my party. I hate hate hate not being able to contribute something on my turn--even if it means casting a cantrip or throwing a rock! You remember how much it irritated me (in the D&D game that you ran) when a player would just stand around and not even try to cast or sling a stone or anything. It must be a personality trait of mine, but that bugs the crap out of me. Group members could die! :)

[Adam Dray]

What would you say if I told you that your value to the play group was not a tactical one, but a thematic one? Your thematic contributions to the game were more important to me than your ability to good dice and "win" the conflict. By thematic contribution, I mean your (Jen's, not Agatha's) interpretation of the situation, your judgment thereon, and your projection of those feelings onto Agatha. I wanted to see what you'd do in that situation, not how you'd do it or how well you'd roll when doing it.

[jlathomas]

No, I know what you mean. I know that I am not always going to roll beautifully or be effective. It doesn't make it any less frustrating, though, when I can't do what I want to do in the scene because the dice aren't there to support it. I need to get better at inventing different pathways on the fly.

[Mikael]

Hello Adam, Jen

I thought that all the dice a character has for various traits & relationships & items are all you have and can tap for the entire duration of the 'scene' (and by scene, I was taking that to mean everything that happened until we changed locations within the town). 

Yeah, pretty much that's it.

Sorry to be a bit thick, but this bit really confuses me, since there is nothing like "refresh between scenes" or "changing locations" in Dogs. All the stats, traits, relationships and items are all available at the start of each conflict, regardless of where used last, and you can have an immediate follow-on conflict in the exact same location.

So... What are you talking about here?

Cheers,
+ Mikael

[Adam Dray]

We're talking about being able to use your stats, traits, relationships and items again in a new conflict. That what we mean by "refresh." Though the rules don't use that word, as far as I know, essentially, you have a resource pool of things that get used up during a conflict and are "refreshed" at the end of that conflict, so they're available again for the next one. That's all.

[jlathomas]

So, I guess the question is: What really entails a complete conflict?

I can see that there can be two separate conflicts in the same location without having moved/without a much of a time lapse.

[Adam Dray]

Is this a theoretical question, or do you have a specific example in mind?

Generally, to keep the game going, it seems best to run just one conflict at a time.

[jlathomas]

Take the Absalom bedroom scene. Is it one conflict for Absalom + any other NPC involved until the player group resolves it enough that it can leave the room?

[lumpley]

If I can butt in here, with apologies, I think you're talking past each other a bit.

A conflict is defined by its stakes. You can have as many conflicts as you want in one place and between the same set of characters, as long as the stakes are all different. For instance, you might have a series of conflicts where each conflict follow from the one before it, like "what's at stake is, will she pray with me?" then "what's at stake is, will she tell me what's hurting her?" then "what's at stake is, does she kill me or let me leave?"

Your dice would "refresh" after each conflict, whether the next conflict is in the same scene or the next scene.

Does that help, Jen? (It's Jen, right?)

-Vincent

[jlathomas]

Yes and Yes :) Thanks!