My group and I recently completed a successful Scion game. Scion is a white-wolf game in which you play the children of ancient gods in the modern world. The game itself is rather irrelevant to what I have in mind for this discussion, but if you really need to see more about the game here is a link to the website.
In Scion there is a mechanic called "Stunting" in which you add dice to the character's dice pool after a player's particularly engaging description of the action. The summary (in a combat example) of how the mechanic wotrks is simple.
[list]
+0 Stunt Dice: You don't give a player stunt dice for a non-descriptive action, i.e. "I hit him."
+1 Stunt Dice: Any descriptive addition to the action, i.e. "I punch him in the face."
+2 Stunt Dice: A really good description that makes everyone at the table sit up and take notice, i.e. "I haul back with my right arm as I grab the guy's collar with my left and pull him into my punch...I'm hoping to add some teeth to my collection."
+3 Stunt Dice: This is a rare bonus, only really given when everyone at the table loudly clamors for the extra die. It's hard to explain, but you'll know it when you see it.
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So, why do I go on and on about some mechanic this other game uses? I know that Shard mentions the "Roleplaying Bonus" dice fairly often, and seems to tacitly encourage them for most actions. The questions I have are pretty specific though:
One, Are we encouraged to use Roleplaying Bonus dice in combat?
Two, if almost every action, including combat, gains one or more bonus dice, does that break the system?
When I run Shard (hopefully very soon), I would like to use stunt dice in a way similar to Scion's, and I am worried that the game may not be set up for it. If it isn't, what mechanic advise do I need to keep my game's system from falling apart? IS there any need?
From my reading of the Basic Compendium, I am pretty confident that nothing drastic will happen to the system, and I can roll with punches since I've been GMing for almost 20 years...but surprises happen, and I want to make sure I don't get sideswiped.
In Scion there is a mechanic called "Stunting" in which you add dice to the character's dice pool after a player's particularly engaging description of the action. The summary (in a combat example) of how the mechanic wotrks is simple.
[list]
+0 Stunt Dice: You don't give a player stunt dice for a non-descriptive action, i.e. "I hit him."
+1 Stunt Dice: Any descriptive addition to the action, i.e. "I punch him in the face."
+2 Stunt Dice: A really good description that makes everyone at the table sit up and take notice, i.e. "I haul back with my right arm as I grab the guy's collar with my left and pull him into my punch...I'm hoping to add some teeth to my collection."
+3 Stunt Dice: This is a rare bonus, only really given when everyone at the table loudly clamors for the extra die. It's hard to explain, but you'll know it when you see it.
[/list]
So, why do I go on and on about some mechanic this other game uses? I know that Shard mentions the "Roleplaying Bonus" dice fairly often, and seems to tacitly encourage them for most actions. The questions I have are pretty specific though:
One, Are we encouraged to use Roleplaying Bonus dice in combat?
Two, if almost every action, including combat, gains one or more bonus dice, does that break the system?
When I run Shard (hopefully very soon), I would like to use stunt dice in a way similar to Scion's, and I am worried that the game may not be set up for it. If it isn't, what mechanic advise do I need to keep my game's system from falling apart? IS there any need?
From my reading of the Basic Compendium, I am pretty confident that nothing drastic will happen to the system, and I can roll with punches since I've been GMing for almost 20 years...but surprises happen, and I want to make sure I don't get sideswiped.
-JFC Wolz
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The post was edited 2 times, last by joewolz ().