New rules for BDTP and Harm

[oliof]

To answer your mostly hypothetical question, it would be one pool point and 2 penalty dice for every action for any action tied to  Harm levels 4 and 5 (if it's Vigor again, so much better for you) and one pool point and a penalty die for any action not tied to Harm levels 4 and 5.

As you have only one slot left on your Harm Tracker at that point, the suffering won't last long...

[Paul T]

This is interesting, because I'd always interpreted the text differently. I've just reread it, as well, and it still seems to me it could be read either way.

I thought:

* Harm 1, 2, 3 is just a penalty die on the next BDtP action. They stack if you take several in one round.
* Harm 4 or 5 means you take a penalty die permanently, to a particular Pool. These do not stack.
* Harm 6 means you take a penalty die to everything, and must spend a point just to act.

I figured that more serious effects superseded less serious effects. So, if you're Broken, that's it--you don't take additional penalties for Harm 4 or 5 (the one-time penalty dice for minor harm being an exception) on top of that.

By any straightforward reading, though, it seems that sometimes getting hit for Harm 1 could be worse than getting hit for Harm 5, depending on which Pool you're using in the conflict--after all, after it's done, it collapses back down to 1.

In my own head, I was interpreting the rules as:

* If you take Harm in a round of BDtP, roll a penalty die on the next exchange. Effectively, your character is not affected in any lasting way if you only take minor Harm..
* If you take Major harm ("bloodied"), you take a permanent penalty die to one Pool (instead of a temporary one). Your character is now suffering the condition "Bloodied in [Pool]", which means a penalty die all the time in that Pool.
* If you are Broken, you replace the "bloodied" condition with the "broken" condition--you roll at a penalty all the time, and must spend a die just to act (which, in my mind, is equivalent to two penalty dice, when you choose to act).

Is that simpler or more complicated? How do you keep track?

Those of you with more experience playing the game, which level of penalty *feels* more appropriate?

[oliof]

I have trouble seeing where the difference is between what you wrote and what I wrote.

Broken: You don't get two penalty dice if you don't pay up. You just cannot act. So it is slightly different to two penalty dice.

[Paul T]

Harald,

The difference is:

Do you stack all the penalties, or do you just take the "worst" condition you're suffering from.

One requires you to track each individual level of Harm. The other lets you just look at the single highest Harm.

For all you experience TSoY players, which "feels" better?

[oliof]

That depends on your personal aesthetics:

Stacking gives you a somewhat traditional death spirally feel, but in reality it's not as harsh as one might think.

Skipping lower Harm levels and/or ignoring them makes Harm less ... harmful and gives characters some more staying power. Which personally, I deem mostly unnecessary.

[Paul T]

That's very helpful, Harald, thanks!