Difference between revisions of "Possibly Asked Questions"

From Dragon
Jump to: navigation, search
 
m (1 revision)

Revision as of 14:26, 16 July 2010

  • If I have to spend a Yang on a shtick that has an effect based on my Yang (or successess on Yang dice rolled), do I spend the point before or after the effect happens?
    • The stat goes down after everything else has happened.
  • Can we have shticks with talents that do lots of things, like in Oath?
    • Generally a shtick will only have a single mechanic, rather than multiple mechanics per shtick. To do related things with different mechanics, you buy multiple shticks.
  • If I buy a shtick, can I change it later? Like, if I taught it to myself, and then I find someone who can teach me, can I make it cheaper? Or, if I want to make it better?
    • In most cases, no. We may allow increasing a shtick's frequency, as long as doing so makes sense and doesn't break your shtick pyramid, but Power and Source will generally not get to change. If you're particularly unhappy with your set of shticks, ask us about a radiation accident. The GM's have ruled though that if the source of a schtick is 2 (or 3) and you buy it a second time, you can reduce the source cost to 1 to reflect the fact that you can teach yourself the second copy.
  • Do you have a suggested reading list for getting into the genre?
    • A lot of our inspiration is from movies - recently, Forbidden Kingdom, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Kung Fu Panda, and older stuff that some of our players have probably seen way more of than we have.
    • Bridge of Birds, by Barry Hughart, is marvelous. It has two sequels, out of what were supposed to be many.
    • The Three Kingdoms is said to be the classic novel of ancient China; Laura is currently finding it a bit dense.
    • "Shaolin Soccer" and "Kung Fu Hustle" are good comedy movies that have schticks aplenty
    • What about The Paladin by C.J. Cherryh and foo of the Empire by Janny Wurts?
    • A friend of my cousin's suggested the TV series Samurai Champloo.
    • Some of these may be in genre: Zu - Warriors from the Magic Mountain, A Chinese Ghost Story (I, II, III, and an animated version), the Swordsman trilogy, The Bride With White Hair (I, II), Dragon Gate Inn (original and remake), Ashes of Time (if you like artsy movies with incomprehensible plotlines), and of course Eon's favorite, Black Cat (and its sequel, Black Cat 2: The Assassination of Boris Yeltsin).
    • (Players should feel free to add other recommendations)
  • How do shticks that don't add dice or skill stack with each other?
    • Well, they might stack in frequency. If you have two shticks that give you "see in the dark, once a run", then you can see in the dark twice per run. If you have two shticks that give you "see in the dark, always on", then you probably should have bought a different second shtick.
  • If I have a shtick that adds +3, and I split my dice, do I add the +3 to each roll?
    • If the frequency is 6, then you can add the +3 to each roll. If it's once per action or less, then you only add the +3 to one of the two rolls.
  • Does it take an action to use a shtick?
    • As a general rule, it does't take an action, diceless or otherwise, to activate a shtick. Whatever the shtick affects (such as a roll being made) may take time, or an action.
  • I see there are GM-only pages. Can I set up a page that can only be read by the GMs and me?
    • Unfortunately, no. The mediawiki plugin we're using only has the one "restrict" group. As a somewhat passable alternative, we suggest putting limited-sharing documents on Google Docs (and putting links to the documents on the wiki if you want to keep track of them there).
  • Does spending my Yin/Yang/Chi with a shtick decrease my Tao stat? (Including my speed roll, if I'm rolling Tao?)
    • Yes. "Spending" effectively lowers the sub-stat temporarily, which can reduce the main stat. This also affects throwing your Tao dice onto a roll.
  • To what extent is Foraging redundant with Survival?
    • Survival is mostly a superset of Foraging; Foraging is about finding stuff to eat, while Survival also includes things like which one is poison ivy, and how to float in quicksand.
  • For my starting shticks, can I have picked them up from different teachers?
    • After some waffling, the answer to this is yes. However, you should only start with one in-game Source who you expect to still be teaching you.
  • I need a teacher to buy shticks; can I just buy stats and skills however I like?
    • You still do need a training montage to buy stats and skills, but don't require a specific teacher. Unless otherwise noted (such as armor skill), you can just buy a skill that's on the skill list, and you can always just buy stats. If it's not on the skill list, you can still probably buy it, but talk to the GMs.
  • How are dodging and parrying different?
    • You can parry with your weapon (or martial arts) skill. However, you can only parry melee attacks, not ranged attacks. Dodge works on both melee and ranged attacks, but requires the specific dodge skill. If you have no dodge skill, you dodge for 9s.
  • Which perception skills do what?
    • First, because it is frequently a source of confusion: "Active Perception" includes perception checks you make when you are intentionally looking for things. "Passive Perception" includes all perception checks. Passive Perception is not just for when you are not paying attention - it is the one that you can use when you're not paying attention, in addition to when you are paying attention. (That's why Passive Perception is more expensive than Active Perception).
    • The rest of the perception-ish skills are relevant for more specific things - tracking is useful for finding, following, and identifying tracks; eye for detail is relevant if the thing you're looking for is a detail or is in the details. Unfortunately, you can't always tell whether there will be tracks or interesting details when you start looking; you can say "I look for tracks" and know that you get to throw in Tracking. "Detective" skill is pretty much always relevant when looking for Clues (as well as other detective-ish things that are not perception checks).