I ran my first DitV gathering today.  It was limited to character generation and initiatory conflicts, but it went well.  Nevertheless, one player asked a question I was unable to answer, and had never even thought to ask.

"When I escalate from a shoving match to a firefight, what happens to the dice I already have on the table?  And what if I went in arguing, then punched somebody, then hit him with a bottle, then pulled out my guns?  Is there a limit?"

I scratched my head, picked up and thumbed through my rulebook, and said, "I dunno.  I don't think so.  I'll ask."

So there it is.  It's probably been asked before, and I'm not seeing it on these forums.  I had just assumed the new dice got tossed down with the old (since this is an escalation of an existing conflict and not a follow-up conflict), but maybe I'm wrong.  And if someone knows, could they give me a page reference -- or better yet, a section reference, as the different editions are paginated differently?

The dice you have stay on the table.  Since you can't reroll any attribute, you'll only get one set of dice on the first two escalations, and none at all on the last.

That is, you'll only ADD one set of dice on the first two escalations...

Thanks, Fred.  I found the rule no more than ten minutes after I posted the topic.  I've even read it before.  It's page 35 in my edition.  Sorry for the wasted topic.

Still, that would be a hell of a conflict, wouldn't it?  I wonder how far a player could take that, if he or she wanted to?  With Stats, Relationships, listed and improvised Belongings, and Escalations, you could get quite a mound of dice on the table if you really tried. 

Come in arguing, using Acuity, Heart, Traits, and Relationships; Escalate to a struggle for possession of some object, using Body and new Traits; Escalate to a brawl, using Will, new Traits, a chair, a bottle, an ashtray, some guy's hat, your knife, and a parlor harp; Escalate to a gunfight, using new Traits, your best gun (and maybe the Relationship you have with it), your second-best gun, your buddy's gun, etc.  And then there's your old yaller dog, your buddy, and the bartender who's sided with you, all chipping in as the opportunity presents itself.  Damn, that's a lot of dice!

I've had conflicts* that ended up using ever dice on a Dog's sheet, plus a monderate lump of dice for improvised items. It was against three sorcerers in a Hate and Murder town, and was a huge long conflict that ended with everyone involved dying.

It was after that conflict that I started to see how much Dogs can win against, if they are willing to give enough pain and take enough pain as part of it. Stopping a Dog who will do anything at all in order to stop you is something that requires a hell of a lot of doing.

*I say conflict(s), but it was only 1. I'm not that cool.

I think I rolled every die I own in a Dogs conflict, once. I went out and bought more the next day. And I've come close a few times to rolling all the new ones, too.

And I'm old skool. I carry my dice around in a big steel lunchbox. They don't fit in no bag.

One thing to remember is that if the stakes change, that's a follow-up conflict... which can mean even MORE dice on the table.