[IAWA] Advantage dice questions

[Lars M. Nielsen]

I just finished reading In a Wicked Age, and it looks really great. But I found some aspects of advantage dice unclear. Here are some questions.

1. Suppose A is challenged in round 1 by B. A wins and and gains an advantage. Now C challenges A in the same round. Does A get his recently won advantage die to add to the roll, and if not, why?

2. Suppose A wins the challenge from C and gains an advantage. In round 2, does A get two advantage dice, since he won the the advantage twice in the previous round

3. Can you strike multiple entries of your character's name from the We Owe list to give yourself multiple advantage dice for a roll?

4. Advantage dice gained by using the We Owe list last until the end of the conflict, but what about those gained from winning the advantage?

[Troels]

Caveat: I have seen only preliminary drafts. But anyway, here goes to the best of my understanding...

1. Everyone must declare their participation and immediate tactics in the conflict before any dice hit the table. Therefore, the hypothetical situation cannot occur. The highest roller of all simply gets advantage if the opposition isn't immediately defeated.

2. No. You never, never ever roll more than one advantage die per player in the same roll.

3. See 2. You could regain advantage that way if you lose it. See the example below.

4. Not sure on the exact wording obviously, but I suspect that if you take a good hard look, you will find that in all cases, an advantage die applies only to the next roll. If the comparison between your next roll and the opposition's causes someone to carry an advantage forward, then that player will carry an advantage forward. It's just that the advantage die will never carry into a new conflict.

E. g. Oak and Ash are fighting with knives for the love of Holly. In round one, Oak ends up at 9, 7 and Ash at 6, 5. In round 2, Oak starts with an advantage dice in addition to whatever dice he has for this conflict. In desperation, Ash's player crosses himself off the We Owe list, so they _both_ start with advantage in round two. After a bit of jostling, the dust settles around dice showing 8+6, 2 for Oak, and 8+4, 6 for Ash. Ash is starting to seriously nourish the local vegetation with the dark blood of his veins, but he still holds on to the bright arterial stuff. In the third and final round, Oak keeps his advantage die because he rolled best in round two, and Ash loses his because he didn't. If Ash's player has more entries on the WO list, he could cross himself off once more to gain yet another advantage die for the last round.

Does that make sense to you?

Yours, Troels

[John Harper]

Troels, some of those rules have changed in the final draft. For example, there are cases where you can roll more than one advantage die at a time.

But not all of these questions are covered by the book. I'll wait for V to answer.

[Lars M. Nielsen]

I've been rereading the game and found some rules that could help to clarify a bit.

On page 19, it states that advantage dice stack, and you add them together.

Also, advantage dice gained from striking your name from the We Owe list last until the end of the conflict OR until "somebody doubles somebody". The last condition is pretty vague. Does it mean that if you eliminate someone from the conflict, or you are eliminated, the die disappears? I suppose so, but it could also mean that any elimination in the conflict causes the die to disappear, even if you had no part in it. This seems pretty absurd, but you could deduce that from the rule.

Troels, here is the scenario in question 1 in a more detailed version:

A, B and C are in a conflict. B and C are on the same side, and are both against A.
All roll their dice. B rolls the highest, then C, then A.
B keeps his dice on the table, the two others grab their dice again.

B challenges A. A rolls his dice again.
A wins just barely, and gains an advantage die. He then grabs his dice again.

C challenges A. C and A both roll their dice again. A also rolls his advantage die.
A wins again, but not enought to win absolutely against C, so he gets an advantage die.

A was challenged, so he doesn't get a turn this round.

Now turn 2 comes. Does A have one or two advantage dice?

It's not explicitly stated, but the phrase "keeps his/her advantage die" keeps popping up in the example conflict. This could mean that an advantage die only stays with you until the next challenge in the conflict. In that case A has only one advantage die at the beginning of the second round.

After reading the first conflict example again, I conclude that this is how it works. But my other question still stands.

Sorry if this seems a bit rambling, but I care a lot about clarity of rules, especially in a game that looks so awesome . I just want to be completely sure about stuff like this.

I'm sure I have more questions, but it's getting a bit late.

[lumpley]

1. No. Roll the advantage die you won this round at the beginning of next round, not before. (I waffled a lot about this rule, but there it is.)

2. No. You can have only one advantage die from winning.

3. No, just one.

4. One round only.

More questions welcome!

-Vincent

[Lars M. Nielsen]

Thanks for the answers.

One more question. When do you lose an advantage die? The kind you get from winning dice rolls.

[lumpley]

At the end of the round.

But, like, if you won the advantage again, you don't have to throw the die back in the bowl and fish it out again, you can just hang onto it.

-Vincent

[Valvorik]

If you're in conflict of 2:1, say above A is against B and C.

In round 1, assume A wins (not doubling) against B and C.

In round 2, A has an advantage die to use rolling against B, A also has an advantage die to use against C.

Assume A wins against B, loses against C (again marginal).

A keeps advantage over B, loses it to C.

In round 3 (final round under rules), A rolls an advantage dice against B, and C rolls an advantage dice against A.

Q1 - Is the above summary correct?

2nd scenario, same as above but in round 2, assume C beats A before B and A roll their conflict.

Q1 - Correct that here A is out, C is the winner who negotiates with A.  A and B do not continue rolling the conflict.

Rob

[lumpley]

When you roll an advantage die, add it to your highest die. It doesn't matter who you're comparing it with - A never has a different roll vs B than she does vs C.

In round 2 of scenario 1, A rolls one advantage die and adds it to her highest die. B and C don't.

In round 3 of scenario 1, A rolls an advantage die, C does too, and B doesn't.

(Imagine a sword fight. Imagine that A is using her advantage over B to keep B between her and C. She doesn't have the advantage over C, but she can use her advantage over B to neutralize C's advantage over her.)

In scenario 2, correct.

-Vincent

[Valvorik]

Thanks for the explanation, and for the example, that will help players/gms describe matters properly.

Rob

[Valvorik]

Sorry, another question.

Reading the example on page 22 of rules, in 2nd round we have Tom/Tajie with advantage won earlier answering GM (Erin)/Esan with advantage won earlier.  Tom rolls at bottom of 1st column and loses not isn't doubled.  GM(Erin)/Esan keeps advantage die.  But it looks like Tom kept advantage die too, in 3rd round, 2nd column Tom's rolling an advantage die (along with Erin).

Shouldn't Tom have lost the advantage die?  I thought any time two character conflict (challenge/answer) in round with each other only one of them can come out of that conflict with an advantage die (other than an owe list-strike die).

Rob

[Lars M. Nielsen]

I'm pretty sure that once you win an advantage die, it lasts the entire next round, and nothing can take it away from you.