[Capes] On being overdrawn

[Neil the Wimp]

Can I just check that I understand what happens when a character is overdrawn?

If a character is overdrawn, they have to roll down dice.  Once per overdrawn drive, the character's player identifies all the conflict sides the character is allied with, and picks the largest die from that set.  He rolls that die and, if it shows a smaller value than it was, sets the die to that value; otherwise, the die is returned to its original value.

Is that correct?

If so, I have two questions. 

First, if a character has two overdrawn drives, can they roll down the same die twice?  For instance, assume the highest die on their side of a conflict they're allied to is a six.  Taking their first overdrawn drive, they reroll that die and get a five.  If that die is still the highest eligible die, is that same die rolled down again for the second overdrawn drive?

Second, take a look at t the appearance of Captain Liberty at the top of p. 58 in the examples.  Alex spends a story token and Cap appears.  At this stage, Cap hasn't rolled any dice and so isn't allied to any side of any conflict.  So why does Alex, the player, need to roll down any dice due to Cap being overdrawn?  He rolls down a die that the other character he controls is allied to.  In other words, Cap's overdraft 'leaks' across to all the characters controlled by the same player.  Is that right, or is the example on p. 58 wrong?

Should finally get to play this on Tuesday.  I'm looking forward to it!

Neil.

[Eric Sedlacek]

First, if a character has two overdrawn drives, can they roll down the same die twice?  For instance, assume the highest die on their side of a conflict they're allied to is a six.  Taking their first overdrawn drive, they reroll that die and get a five.  If that die is still the highest eligible die, is that same die rolled down again for the second overdrawn drive?

This is definitely a yes.  The same die can end up being rolled down multiple times, and this does occasionally come up.  It is also quite common for an indebted character to roll no dice down because he or she has not rolled on any of the remaining conflicts, especially in a fast-moving scene where conflicts are resolving within a page or two.

Second, take a look at t the appearance of Captain Liberty at the top of p. 58 in the examples.  Alex spends a story token and Cap appears.  At this stage, Cap hasn't rolled any dice and so isn't allied to any side of any conflict.  So why does Alex, the player, need to roll down any dice due to Cap being overdrawn?  He rolls down a die that the other character he controls is allied to.  In other words, Cap's overdraft 'leaks' across to all the characters controlled by the same player.  Is that right, or is the example on p. 58 wrong?

Hmmm.  I don't have the book in front of me, so I can't reference the example at this moment, but this does strike me as an error.  This "leaking" makes no sense especially when you consider that your two characters could easily end up on  opposite sides of a conflict.

This is a very astute observation on your part.

Should finally get to play this on Tuesday.  I'm looking forward to it!

Have fun!  And please do report back with your experiences.

One item of unsolicited advice: keep the early scenes where you are still learning the rules relatively simple.  It takes most people a little time to internalize the flow of play.