First, I'm really starting to appreciate the built-in narrativism in this game. Starting to run accomplishments over the weekend, I came up with a set up where the one character's twin brother had a prophetic dream and is trying to persuade her... hold it, I thought, something's not right. I reread the accomplishment section of the rules and switched the setup so that she is the one having the dream, and off we go, with the characters and the choices in the spotlight the whole time. Neat.

Second, I'm trying to get a feeling for how aggressive to be with Raises. The other guy (Albert) rolled OK, but not as well as I did; I ended up with two 10's. So he's already Taken the Blow once during the accomplishment ("I hope my guy learns to shoot straight") and I still have both tens left. Part of me is saying, hit him with both tens, make him take another blow, that's what the dice are for; part of me wants to stretch it out and make him work for it. Since it's an Accomplishment, any Fallout the NPC gets is unlikely to play a role in the game in the future, unlike Albert's Fallout.

How are other GM's handling this? I'm interested in what Albert thinks, too, if he reads this.

Well, unfortunately my weekend run of Dogs got postponed, so I don't have any direct experience yet.

However, I'd say that you should give it to 'em with both guns as it were. Use the tens. Unles you think that stretching it out would be more interesting. The player can always Give to avoid fallout, right?

-Eric

Don't forget: "I can't shoot straight" is a great trait.

I tend to think about the NPC and the conflict that I'm representing with these rolls.

My players have come to expect during an exorcism or direct contact with a demonic force that I'm going to go for broke and put my dice at their throat.

Also, what kind of conflict is it?

If it is a verbal or social conflict I'll generally try to draw it out and get some role-playing out of it but if its a gun-fight I tend to throw my big dice up front and go fo' it.

Paka: that's a great rule of thumb. I'm starting to see that you can go all-out, the system doesn't allow PC death with an unlucky roll or anything like that.

He may have rolled better, but I had a 50+% edge in the number of actual dice.

Wound up with some neat Fallout and xp, too. I now have "Learned to shoot straight" at 2d6. Not bad for a guy who was the family accountant before getting called as a Dog.

-Albert

I like how it turned out, too. It was smart not to escalate to physical confrontation with the instructor, even though he'd whacked you with a stick.

Smart because he'd have gotten in big trouble with the Temple, or smart because the old coot had 20d10 in the "I can thrash anybody" trait?

:)

It hasn't really come out, but Alma's traits hint at this: When he came, he was half-convinced that it was Helam, his older brother, who was supposed to be there. One reason Alma has such a high Acuity is that it's the one place where Helam doesn't excel - in all other areas, he's the seeming paragon of a Faithful man.

He's always had a self-confidence problem, which is why I gave him the 2d8 Relationship: "The Dogs found me worthy." At some point at the Temple, he realized that, no, he wasn't a replacement for his brother. And at some point, he'll get over his Big = Oaf delusion, and turn those Xd4 "I'm Big" dice into d8s or d10s.


Out of curiousity, were the motives I implied about Brother Wesley - that he was trying to get Alma to realize that this was _serious_, that Alma could get hisself kilt if he didn't pay attention - what you had in mind?

-Albert