Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]


St. Lawrence, Maine

Sunday, April 19th, 2015

8° F

Overcast, Drizzle

Feels Like 5°  Wind: SW 7 mph

Current Night Info




The shattered corpse of a dormant city slowly stirs as life seeps back into it. It is a place where seeds of redemption now take root while a timeless struggle for supremacy begins anew. Beneath the rotted shell of the city, under the desperation and despair, lurks untapped power. Multiple factions of Kindred (and others) vie for control, and that power impatiently waits for those ambitious enough to grasp it. Welcome to St. Lawrence by Night

We are currently at maximum player population and will not be accepting additional players into the game until further notice.



Maps of St. Lawrence

The St. Lawrence Herald

Notable Characters

Player's Character Section

Player's Haven



Masquerade Status: 67


Progress: 80%
New Posts -:- Active Topics -:- The Staff -:- Contact -:- Chat Server (Discord)
Quote Post Quote Post
Add Reply
Knowing When to Roll and When to "Roll with It"; Guidance on how to handle dice rolls
Topic Started: Jan 12 2018, 04:43 AM (5 Views)
TheStranger
Member Avatar
Administrator
When you’re writing a post, you may come to a point where you want to use a discipline or take an action. You may ask yourself, should I roll for this? In light of that, here’s some guidance as to when and how you should roll.

Example: Your character wants to coerce the Starbucks barista into giving you free coffee.

First, ask yourself if you are doing something that is consistent with your character. In this case, are you playing a character with high Manipulation or something else that suggests he would normally be successful when attempting such an action without much effort? If so, you probably don’t need to roll.

If you are doing something outside of your character’s normal bailiwick, then consider rolling. If success is not realistically a foregone conclusion, then you probably ought to roll to see if you succeed or fail or botch. In the coffee example, if you’re a genuine person who just can’t stomach being manipulative to other people, then it doesn’t make sense for you to just assume you can get away with manipulating the barista. You should roll.

The intent of this is to encourage you to play your character the way they would realistically act. People in real life tend to play to their strengths. When they step outside of their comfort zone, that exposes them to risk of failure, embarrassment, etc. That’s realistic. Some people will just stick to what they know and never try anything else. It’s safe. When they try to branch out, to try new things and grow, they very well might mess up and suffer consequences for it.

So in that regard, use your best judgment as to when it is appropriate to roll and when you can just assume success.



The second thing to consider is how critical your action is to the story/plot/gameworld/characters. Coercing the barista for free coffee? Probably not going to change the course of the story very much. Now if the situation were different, and say you were coercing someone’s ghoul into handing over the location of their master’s haven? Alright, that’s different. You should probably roll for that.

Put simply, is whatever you’re doing really going to impact the game or its characters in it in any significant way? If the answer is no, then you probably don’t need to roll. If the answer is yes, then sure, you should probably roll. When in doubt? Ask the Storyteller.


Also, please note that this also applies to Discipline rolls. If you’re just doing something relatively non-critical with a discipline, and it’s one your character can typically succeed at without issue, then just go with it (though you still need to expend WP, blood, etc. as the rules dictate). You don’t need to roll to use dominate to tell the pizza guy to cluck like a chicken before you murder him (he's gonna be dead anyways, see?). You should only be rolling when success or failure would have some meaningful dramatic impact. If you aren’t sure, ask the Storyteller.






Also, a note on social rolls in general. Of course, the guidance above applies to this as well, but I want to elaborate. When using a social roll to get someone to do something, keep in mind that the roll is not mind control (I mean, unless you’re using actual mind control). If you want to coerce that barista, and it’s determined that you should roll for it, keep in mind that a successful roll doesn’t force anyone to do anything. Now, as a Storyteller, I’m liable to say that your successful roll means that you get what you want from the NPC because it’s simpler that way and why not? But there are reasons why the thing happens, and it’s just because you rolled enough successes so you win.

So now let’s say the barista is another PC rather than an NPC.

This gets a little trickier, as you have to respect the agency of both players. It SUCKS not being in control of your own character, but at the same time, someone using a socially-adept character shouldn’t be put at a disadvantage just because the character they are working on happens to be a PC and the other player says “I don’t wanna!”

So it will be handled like this: If you’re rolling social dice against an NPC, the Storyteller dictates what happens as normal. If you’re rolling social dice against a PC, the PC in question is expected to incorporate the results of the roll into their subsequent actions/response, but they are NOT forced to act in any specific way. The reason for this is because without knowing the PC’s situation and mindset, the Difficulty is hard or impossible to determine. But hang on, there’s another side to this. Keep reading.

So in light of this, the player on the receiving side should honestly consider what sort of DC they would expect on such a roll, given their mindset and personal situation, and then look at the results and respond accordingly. Is the barista worried about losing her job? Is she being watched by her boss? Does she hate the other character? Is this going to come out of her pocket? And so help me, if you think it’s a difficulty of 10, it better have SEVERAL really good reasons. Don’t be ridiculous. Be realistic. You’re an adult and this is a game. Don’t cheat. If you aren’t sure how to act, talk to the other player and the Storyteller and work it out.

I trust you all to respect this and not to cheat each other. If a roll is legitimately a failure, everyone treats it as a failure. If it should succeed partially, then let it be so. If it’s a slam dunk? Shatter the backboard. But if you roll really high to convince someone to commit suicide when they normally wouldn't otherwise? Yeah, that's probably not going to happen. So again, use the rolls like this as guidelines, but social rolls do not result in mind control, nor are they ok to just flat out ignore. It's called role playing. Do it. If I, the Storyteller decide that someone isn’t acting realistically to a roll made by another player, we’re going to discuss it, and they may or may not be advised to tweak a response accordingly.

This is not something I want to do, but it’s part of my job.

I’m not trying to run some sort of totalitarian regime, but we are telling a story TOGETHER here. I expect everyone to play nice and tell a story TOGETHER – not against each other. This doesn’t mean “always say yes.” This means, “Do what the situation and dice rolls dictate, whether that’s good or bad for your character.” My job as the Storyteller is to be the referee in case of disputes and to provide a singular vision we can all occupy together. I also trust that you’ll trust me to make fair decisions when necessary. I’m trying to make the game FUN. Trust in that. If I have a personal agenda, it will be obvious when I murder your character with falling rocks in your haven for "no reason."


Just be a goddamn adult playing a game with other adults and everything will be fine. We’re here to have fun TOGETHER. I have always been impressed with the players here. I have great confidence this trend will continue.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Fully Featured & Customizable Free Forums
Learn More · Register for Free
« Previous Topic · Rules & Character Creation · Next Topic »
Add Reply