Maximum dice pool question

dekrass · Mar 2, 2016

Does your dice pool maximum just limit the number of dice from your attribute , skill, and equipment? To put it another way, can exploits and circumstantial modifiers go above your limit?
For example if a PC is grade 5 and has AGI 6, rifles 3, had a higher position than his enemy, and aims does he get 7d6 for the attack?

Morrus · Mar 2, 2016

Yep. There's a sidebar which explains the order in Future Core (and in the others when they come out). LUC allows you to exceed your max, too. It's really worth making the effort to get into position; good tactics can make you quite deadly.

Of course, if your target has any sense, he'll have some cover.

Angusto Macintosh · Mar 9, 2016

Morrus said:
Yep. There's a sidebar which explains the order in Future Core (and in the others when they come out). LUC allows you to exceed your max, too. It's really worth making the effort to get into position; good tactics can make you quite deadly.

Of course, if your target has any sense, he'll have some cover.

Do you remember what page that sidebar is on? I'm only asking because I've read through Future Core a couple times and I didn't see that. In fact, the rules in Future Core seem to suggest that you can never exceed the pool size limit under any circumstances (except for using luck when making an attack roll). If there is a sidebar that mentions this then I would like to be able to show it to my group as several of us take turns as the GM.

dekrass · Mar 9, 2016

Page 31 under making an attack.

Morrus · Mar 9, 2016

Yep, what he said! That said, I know that some GMs prefer to limit it completely (making for a more gritty game), so you should feel free to do that instead if you prefer. A long as your whole group is on the same page.

In fact (this isn't errata, just a house rule suggestion) making that part of Cinematic Mode might be appropriate.

Angusto Macintosh · Mar 9, 2016

dekrass said:
Page 31 under making an attack.

Thanks. However, that sidebar does not actually state that you can exceed your dice pool on anything other than Luck so if it is meant to imply it then it is contradicted by the section on maximum dice pools (pages 8-9) since that says that if your pool is larger it gets reduced.

Angusto Macintosh · Mar 9, 2016

Morrus said:
Yep, what he said! That said, I know that some GMs prefer to limit it completely (making for a more gritty game), so you should feel free to do that instead if you prefer. A long as your whole group is on the same page.

In fact (this isn't errata, just a house rule suggestion) making that part of Cinematic Mode might be appropriate.

OK, in that case, I'll discuss it with the group and see what the consensus is. Thanks

Morrus · Mar 9, 2016

Angusto Macintosh said:
OK, in that case, I'll discuss it with the group and see what the consensus is. Thanks

Bear in mind that creates two very different games, in terms of tone. It might be worth trying both and seeing which you (and your group) prefer.

User_Undefined · Mar 9, 2016

So, just for clarification, you can exceed your dice cap by way of LUC, positioning, and exploits, correct? Because I remember asking the same thing and you saying no.

User_Undefined said:
Reading through this reminded me of a question I've had for a while that involves the attack dice pool. Suppose I made a fresh character that could get an attack pool of 8d6 through attributes, skills, positioning, and gear. My dice pool is capped at 5d6. So, could I exchange 4d6 for damage and have 4d6 in my attack pool, or does the pool stop at 5 before any exchange happens?

Morrus said:
Before. Definitely before!

Morrus · Mar 9, 2016

User_Undefined said:
So, just for clarification, you can exceed your dice cap by way of LUC, positioning, and exploits, correct? Because I remember asking the same thing and you saying no.

That was a year ago during the playtests! The final version is the one in the published book.

[Edit - to clarify: the attribute + skill + gear core dice pool *always* caps at the max. There's no exception to that.]

So the ways to exceed it are LUC, positioning, and exploits. High ground, crossfire, aiming, is dangerous stuff, deliberately. Don't let that happen to you, and try to make it happen to the bd guys.

However, like I said (and I might write this up more officially somewhere) -- the game does work just fine both ways. You just get two different styles of game out of it. So if you want to say that no player can ever throw more than their max dice pool after all adjustments are applied, that makes for a more gritty game, but a perfectly valid one.