Story Tokens and Inspirations

[Keiko]

A few questions

Story Tokens and Inspirations are granted to players, correct?

Can Inspirations be used to effect Dice that are otherwise too high for the character's Abilities?

For example, if I have an Inspiration of 3 and the highest Ability my character has is 4 while the Conflict I want to affect is 5 can I use that inspiration to lower it?

[Stefan / 1of3]

Story Tokens and Inspirations are granted to players, correct?

Correct.

Can Inspirations be used to effect Dice that are otherwise too high for the character's Abilities?

Yes, they can.

[Keiko]

Story Tokens and Inspirations are granted to players, correct?

Correct.

Can Inspirations be used to effect Dice that are otherwise too high for the character's Abilities?

Yes, they can.

Thanks!

[Joel P. Shempert]

Uh, no they can't. Sorry.

Page 25: "By spending an Inspiration a player may raise any one die to the value of the Inspiration."

Peace,
-Joel

[Keiko]

So rolling a 6 is makes a conflict pretty much a done deal since no Abilities can be higher than 5?

My group is a bit hazy on what mechanics are "In game" (relate to the characters and their goals, personalities, etc) and which are "out of game" (relate to the player's desires and metagame concerns)

Is this close?

Claiming is Out of Game, Character Motivation doesn't have to be taken into account when Claiming

Staking is tied to Character motivations

Actions and becoming Allied is tied to character motivation

Second Question

Could someone explain the procedure for Resolving Conflicts (awarding Story tokens, Debt and inspiration, who narrates what) in Baby Steps™ We want to be sure we have it right.

[TonyLB]

Claiming is Out of Game, Character Motivation doesn't have to be taken into account when Claiming

Correct.

Staking is tied to Character motivations

Correct.

Actions and becoming Allied is tied to character motivation

Not ... not necessarily  Actions and becoming allied is tied to the results of character action ... which may well be counter to character intention.  It's totally possible for a character to, with the best of intentions, make things worse.

Goal:  Dirk Diligent convinces the police chief that they should be allies

Dirk:  Look Chief, I've simply got resources in the criminal underworld that the police need.  I just want to help.  (Uses "Sincere" to roll a die from 2 to 4)
Dirk's sidekick Hammy:  Yeah ... like, you're not allowed to beat the truth out of people, and we do that all the time! (Uses "Say the exact wrong thing" to roll the die from 4 to 1).

Second Question

Could someone explain the procedure for Resolving Conflicts (awarding Story tokens, Debt and inspiration, who narrates what) in Baby Steps™ We want to be sure we have it right.

At the end of a page, if there is a claim on the winning side of a conflict then it resolves. 

(1) The person who placed that claim ("the claimant") narrates how it resolves. 
(2) Each player on the winning side distributes the debt they staked to people who were (at one point or another) allied with one of the losing sides.
(3) Each player on the losing side takes back twice the debt they staked on the same drive they staked it from
(4) The claimant matches dice between opposing sides.
(5) For each pair (or lone, unpairable die) the claimant writes up an inspiration equal to the difference between the value of the two dice (so a 5 matched with a 3 makes a 2 inspiration ... an unmatched 6 makes a 6 inspiration, etc.)
(6) The claimant takes all the inspirations where the high die in the pair is from the winning side
(7) The claimant distributes all other inspirations to someone on the side the high die comes from

Small enough steps, or should I break it down further?

[Keiko]

Wow, that's great but just to make sure we have this right. What Inspirations would this set up generate?

Supporting                                2 [Susie's Player]

Opposing                                 1  [Aeon's Player]

[Third side created by dice splitting]   3  [Shiv's Player]

Assuming this was the arrangement when time came to Resolve this conflict? Can Shiv's player choose which dice he wants to pair up or this there some pre arranged order?

[Joel P. Shempert]

So rolling a 6 is makes a conflict pretty much a done deal since no Abilities can be higher than 5?

Don't forget that you can stake and split to get smaller dice, which yo can then roll up higher.

[Keiko]

So rolling a 6 is makes a conflict pretty much a done deal since no Abilities can be higher than 5?

Don't forget that you can stake and split to get smaller dice, which yo can then roll up higher.

Could a player opposed to that side stake debt, split the dice and try to roll one of them down?

[Keiko]

Oh and is it the highest die or the highest value on a conflict that determines what rating and Ability needs to affect it?

[Joel P. Shempert]

Whey you use an ability, you roll one die on the conflict. So you still can't roll a die that's a six. But which side of a conflict is ahead is determined by the sum of all the dice on that side.

So if you've got a six on your side, with a six on the other. You can stake 2 debt and create a 3 and a 3, then roll up one of the dice. Say you get a 5-now you're ahead 8-6! And the only way your opponent can beat you is to stake debt of his own.
Does that clear things up?

Peace,
-Joel

[Keiko]

Whey you use an ability, you roll one die on the conflict. So you still can't roll a die that's a six. But which side of a conflict is ahead is determined by the sum of all the dice on that side.

So if you've got a six on your side, with a six on the other. You can stake 2 debt and create a 3 and a 3, then roll up one of the dice. Say you get a 5-now you're ahead 8-6! And the only way your opponent can beat you is to stake debt of his own.
Does that clear things up?

Peace,
-Joel

As I understand you must use an Ability that is equal too or higher than highest die currently on the Conflict. So if one side is a 6 the Conflict is almost impossible to affect because Abilities have a maximum rating of 5.

So I wondering if a Player could stake Debt to split a 6 into two 3s then use an Ability rated at 3 or higher to attempt roll down one of the threes even further?

For example

The Conflict is rated

For              6

Against       1

My character's highest ability is 5 but I have allot of Debt and I need to get that 6 down. So I stake to Debt on the For side, split it into two 3 then attempt to roll down one of the 3s?

I realize is is a bit self defeating since I've given the For side the potential to get something higher than 6 (up to 12) but otherwise my character couldn't Affect the Conflict at all, right?

[TonyLB]

Legally, you could do that ... but why would you?  You've now created a situation where instead of being behind 1 to 6, you're behind 1 to 3+3.  At best with a single roll, you're going to reduce that to being behind 1 to 3+1, which still loses ... and that's a one in six chance.

If you're going to bet on a one in six chance, why not just roll the 1 die, and hope to get a six and tie?  Then you can split the die you're actually in favor of (the "against", in your example) into 3+3, and there's plenty of time to roll it up later.

Is there something I'm missing here?

[Keiko]

Legally, you could do that ...

Ah thanks.

but why would you?  You've now created a situation where instead of being behind 1 to 6, you're behind 1 to 3+3.  At best with a single roll, you're going to reduce that to being behind 1 to 3+1, which still loses ... and that's a one in six chance.

If you're going to bet on a one in six chance, why not just roll the 1 die, and hope to get a six and tie?  Then you can split the die you're actually in favor of (the "against", in your example) into 3+3, and there's plenty of time to roll it up later.

Is there something I'm missing here?

It's a 2 in 6 chance of reducing the total since you could roll a 1 or 2 and that would drop that sides total to 4 and 5 respectively.

In this instance it was two players trying to use team work. One was going to split the die and try to roll it down a little on their Action and another was going to try to roll up the opposing side, possibly splitting it as well. I guess a Player could spend a Story Token for another Action or use another character to roll up the opposing side as well. Dropping the total gives greater chance of not only matching but actually beating the total if I'm reading things right.

As I understand, you need an Ability of 6 (or a 6 point Inspiration) to use on a Conflict with a value of 6 since the Ability has to be rated equal too and higher than the highest die on the Conflict? When you split the dice it drops the highest dice value to 3 so opens up many more Abilities to use in affecting the Conflict

Or am I totally screwy here?

[JohnUghrin]

Oh and is it the highest die or the highest value on a conflict that determines what rating and Ability needs to affect it?

Neither. Its the value of whatever die you want to affect.

So you could have a side with a 6 and a 1. To roll the 6, you'd need to split it first by staking debt. To roll the 1, well anything should work.

At least, that's how I've been playing it.