Daggerheart General Thread [+]

[Arilyn]

I'm not against spending a Fear to "Compel" a PC experience. Oh that mayor's son was assassinated by the Sapphire Syndicate so best not let your affiliation get out. Tbh, I've been thinking of ways to spend Fear outside of combat and making pseudo compels seems like a good idea.

Outside combat is a great way to spend fear. During combat I mostly use fear to take monster turns and to fuel their abilities. I agree with the pseudo compels as well.

 

[aramis erak]

I'm not against spending a Fear to "Compel" a PC experience. Oh that mayor's son was assassinated by the Sapphire Syndicate so best not let your affiliation get out. Tbh, I've been thinking of ways to spend Fear outside of combat and making pseudo compels seems like a good idea.

Neither am I, in theory. It is, however, not in scope for the rules-as-written mechanics of Experiences.

 

[zakael19]

Generally something leveraging an experience with potential downsides would come under "Reveal an Unwelcome Truth/Unexpected Danger" (the noble's bodyguard steps around him and peers closely at you, she seems to be narrowing in on that Azure Assassin tattoo you have), or "Use a PC's Backstory Against Them." I would probably lean into this if they used their Experience for a boost to a roll and then failed with Fear, or succeeded with fear and I wanted to heighten the ensuing situation.

Otherwise yeah, you're into a home-brew mechanic, which I think is pretty cool - I'm not super familiar with Compels but I really like the mechanic in Blades Deep Cuts where you can "Invoke Trauma/harm" to complicate the situation. But then again, these other systems give the player a carrot of XP or such and Deep Cuts lets the character opt to Tough it Out for stress cost if they dont want to deal with the threat.

I do think that integrating Experiences in a more explicitly mechanical way from the GM side would be nice.

 

[darjr]

My players hit a milestone and leveled to level 2! A big fight through trees and dryads and a chaos storm that plunged them into the deep ocean. Players turned into sea creatures to survive.

 

[aramis erak]

I did a bit of anydice work... adapting code from 4d6 Drop Lowest
If one is in a random PCs mode... (middle 1 of 3d4)-2 for each.

ABILITIES: 6 d [middle 1 of 3d{2,1,0,-1}]
loop P over {1..6} {
 output P @ ABILITIES named "Ability [P]"
}

Generates:

	+2	+1	+0	-1
Roll 1	63.92%	34.52%	1.56%	0%
Roll 2	23.83%	65.23%	10.89%	0.05%
Roll 3	5.27%	60.36%	33.69%	0.69%
Roll 4	0.69%	33.69%	60.36%	5.27%
Roll 5	0.05%	10.89%	65.23%	23.83%
Roll 6	0%	1.56%	34.52%	63.92%
⸻⸻	⸻⸻	⸻⸻	⸻⸻	⸻⸻
Number where most likely	1	2	2	1

These are lopped off at 0.01% precision by Anydice.

This produces an expected array of [+2, +1, +1, +0, +0, -1].

Going to 5d4km1, the array doesn't match, being [+1,+1,+1,+0,+0,+0]
switching to a 1d{+2, +1, +1,+0,+0,-1} (a d6 marked +2, +1, +1, +0,+0,-1)

	+2	+1	+0	-1
Roll 1	66.51%	31.93%	_1.56%	_0.0%
Roll 2	26.32%	62.74%	10.87%	_0.07%
Roll 3	_6.23%	59.40%	33.5%	_0.87%
Roll 4	_0.87%	33.5%	59.4%	_6.23%
Roll 5	_0.07%	10.87%	62.74%	26.32%
Roll 6	_0%	_1.56%	31.93%	66.51%
⸻⸻	⸻⸻	⸻⸻	⸻⸻	⸻⸻
Number where most likely	1	2	2	1

Again, more dice makes it [+1,+1,+1,+0,+0,+0]

trying 1d{2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0,-1,-1} (d10)

ABILITIES: 6 d{2,2,1,1,1,0,0,0,-1,-1}
loop P over {1..6} {
 output P @ ABILITIES named "Ability [P]"
}

gives

	+2	+1	+0	-1
Roll 1	73.79%	24.65%	_1.56%	_0.1%
Roll 2	34.46%	54.6%	10.78%	_0.16%
Roll 3	_9.89%	55.74%	32.68%	_1.70%
Roll 4	_1.7%	32.68%	55.74%	_9.84%
Roll 5	_0.16%	10.78%	54.60%	34.46%
Roll 6	_0.01%	_1.56%	24.65%	73.79%
⸻⸻	⸻⸻	⸻⸻	⸻⸻	⸻⸻
Number where most likely	1	2	2	1

So, if you're missing the random, several comparable ways to do it.