Dying in Dogs

[museleading]

I'm reading the chapter on Resolution in Action (pg 89-90 in the new version) and I was hoping someone could explain something to me.

For instance, I have a possessed person hit you in the head with an axe, what's at stake is does he murder you.  I put forward a fat Raise and you don't have the dice to See… so you have to Give.  You're dying of an axe in the head. Ouch. Your companion rushes to your side.  So now we roll forward into this conflict where what's at stake is: are you dead? I roll 4d8 + Demonic Influence, just as thought you'd taken 4d8 Fallout.

What I don't understand is the stakes.  In the first conflict, the stakes were 'does he murder you'.  The player Gave, so why is there a second conflict with the same stakes?  Shouldn't the character be murdered now?

[lumpley]

That's just how it is. You can pretend that the stakes of the first conflict were "does he leave you for dead," if that helps. That's what they really are, mechanically, whenever a PC's life is at stake.

Notice that this is NOT automatically the case for NPCs.

We've discussed this at some length here; anybody care to link to a good thread or three?

-Vincent

[museleading]

It's cool, I've hunted around and found a bunch of things on dying, IIEE & stakes/goals.  The only issue I had was the way it worked in the rulebook and what was discussed here seemed different.

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

Where's the 4d8 come from? The player gave, so they didn't take any fallout.

[museleading]

It's not fallout dice.

There is a special resolution for when the stakes involve PCs dying. 

I think what Vincent is trying to say is that when a PC is dying from fallout, a second conflict is raised with the GM rolling all the PC's fallout dice & Demonic Influence.

That isn't the case with the axe example.  The possibilty of the PC dying is part of the stakes.  They resolve as "Yes, the NPC is trying to kill you".  A second conflict is launched around the actual dying part in a similar way that dying from fallout launches a second conflict.

The GM rolls Demonic Influence and 4dsomething. If the previous conflict left the PC dying through being:

pushed or fallen - 4d6
hit with a weapon - 4d8
shot - 4d10

The book example is an axe (weapon), so the example calls for 4d8.  The 4d8 (when dying is the stakes) is used in place  of fallout dice (when dying as a consequence from fallout).

Hope I've cleared this one up.