Why are big and crap items 1d4 instead of, say, 2d4? I thought having more d4s meant higher likelihood of taking fallout?

Just because something's big doesn't mean it's crappier. 2d4 would make it crappier.

Believe me, from actual play, I can tell you that a 1d4 item is pretty damn crappy. 

One of my players wanted a big crap shotgun. It seemed appropriate that such a cantankerous device should be 3d4, not 2d4, so I rolled with that. I just wanted to get the official word on the "why" of it. Seems like a big crap wagon would have more opportunities for crappiness than a regular-sized crap wagon. Same for a big crap horse, and so on.

This is, hands down, the least upsetting piece of drift I've ever heard!

Ben gets my endorsement for using Will instead of Body for medical aid conflicts. You get my endorsement even harder for using 2d4 for big crap.

-Vincent

I think you should save the 2d4 for "extra crappy" not for big crap. I mean, if I have a horse that can't run very fast, I get 1d4. If Jim has a clydesdale that can't run very fast, and Nate has a palomino not only can't run very fast, but also has asthma and gets distracted easily by bright flowers and doesn't take orders well, well then I think it's Nate who deserves the 2d4, not Jim.

Likewise with crappy guns. My beat up revolver is 2d4, your beat up shotgun should only be 2d4, but Vincent's derringer with a tricky mechanism that makes it fire before it clears his sleeve, that sucker's 3d4.

I love this conversation.

Another way of looking at it is that the die size comes from the crappiness, while the the number of dice comes from the fact that it's big. If Br. Jayne is beating someone with a big crap axe handle, he gets the benefit of more dice, but the disadvantage that he'll probably be tempted to take fallout. If he was just using a crap axe handle, he'd only get the increased temptation to take fallout.

Yeah, I guess I can see that.