Multiple Actions & Penalties

[Rassilon]

Note that with extra actions, you don’t need to declare everything at first. The option to perform additional actions can and should go with the flow, organically, if you need to do more in each round.


Here's an example:




We join this adventure close to its conclusion.

The Second Doctor is on a Dalek Saucer hovering over London in the year 3056 AD and needs to stop the Daleks from destroying the city with a ‘Megatron Bomb’. Jamie and Zoe are being held in a detention cell below the main deck. The Doctor has 6 Story Points left. He has no idea how to stop the Daleks.

The GM tells him that the bomb will be detonated soon and asks him if he wants to spend a story point for a ‘hint’. He does.

The GM then tells him that the control console can be destroyed by ripping out a cable, possibly causing a chain reaction from energy feedback through the power conduits. At the very least, it will disable the bomb trigger mechanism. At worst, it will destroy the ship. The cable is across the control room chamber though, next to the console.

The Doctor is cowering behind cover while Daleks glide to and fro.

Doc asks the GM if he can stall them.

“Sure…but we are going into rounds now as there is a risk of detonation”.

GM says he is rolling a die in secret for the number of rounds until detonation. He takes a sharp intake of breath, looks up at the Doc and shakes his head regretfully as if he rolled a 1. Sadistic GM. (In fact, there was no need to roll. The GM does this just to heighten the tension and make it more exciting for the players).

The Doctor can't take the risk of spreading his actions over seperate rounds in case the bomb detonates the next round so he decides to go all-out in one round to stop it.



A. TALKERS

The Doctor attempts to convince the Daleks to stall or stop the bomb being detonated. It’s worked in the series before so why not give it a try?

He rolls Presence + Convince (4+5) verses a difficulty of Improbable (27) - which the GM decides is next to impossible.

Doc also role plays, trying to make a logical argument and hoping the GM will reward him accordingly with a reduction in difficulty.

“Wait! Stop this! You don’t need to destroy Earth. It has resources, slaves for your empire! There is no need to waste resources!”




It’s pretty feeble but he hopes it will work.
The GM agrees to shift the difficulty down to Very Difficult (24) for the roleplaying and his logical argument. Doc rolls an absolutely average 7 for a total of 16 but doesn’t want to sacrifice story points yet.

He fails miserably with a BAD result, which is a 'No' (he rolled 8 below).

Daleks: “ WE DO NOT NEED THIS PLAN-ET. THE EN-TIRE GAL-AX-Y IS OUR RE-SOURCE”



There is nothing else for it: Doc says he’s going to leg it out of cover across to the console, rip out a cable and fry it.



B. MOVERS

The GM rules the power console is 1 area away.

The Doctor declares he will take another action and run over to the console.

The GM asks the Doc to roll against a difficulty of EASY (9) using his Coordination & Athletics (3+1), with a -2 penalty for his first extra action. He rolls a 7, for a total of 9. Success, with a 'Yes, But' result. Yes, the Doctor makes it, but he is now fully exposed.



C. DOERS

Doc declares he’s taking yet another action to rip out the power conduit cable and must roll Strength + Athletics (2+1) against HARD (18) difficulty, along with an additional -4 penalty for his second extra action. He rolls another average 7, for a total of 6. He fails DISASTROUSLY (rolls more than 9 below the target number).
He can’t afford to fail this so he spends 3 story points to bump the result to a success, which is a 'Yes, but' result. He rips the cable out in a shower of sparks. Dalek alarm klaxons shriek out as the Megatron Bomb detonation is aborted, but the surge causes a 'power feedback loop', which will result in the ship's destruction...





D. FIGHTERS


“ EX-TER-MIN-ATE!”

The Daleks open fire on the Doctor.
He will try to duck behind the exploding console with a Reaction roll.

There are three Daleks (Multiple Opponents / Cooperation Rule), and the leader Dalek makes the roll for all three with a +2 for each extra Dalek for a total of +4 to its Coordination + Marksmanship of 5. It rolls another average 7 for a total of 16. This is the difficulty the Doc has to roll against with his Reaction.

The Doctor rolls to duck behind the console using his Coordination + Athletics (3+1) against difficulty 16 with a -6 penalty for taking his third extra action. He rolls another average 7, for a total result of 5 (Note that this roll will count against any and all further attacks against him in this round). He has a DISASTROUS result, which is potentially fatal, so he spends his final 3 story points to bump the result to a success and he ducks behind the console just as the Dalek rays hit it.

The Doctor now has to escape the control room, free Jamie and Zoe and escape before the ship explodes...and he has no Story Points left...

[gruesome]

Thank you very much for this excellent example.

I literally played my first game last night and our GM was running only her 2nd game and I am not sure I really understood the multiple actions concept within a turn.

I do notice using many SP to boost results much higher and wonder why, from a strictly mechanical perspective, that you would not choose to always use one SP for each of the extra actions to gain two additional dice to the roll as it sort of seems like a more cost effective use. Even if you still fail, it seems likely it would only be by one level or so.

If the answer is simply, "just because and this was just an example about multiple actions" thats cool.

I just want to make sure I am not missing something about adding dice to the roll prior... Like maybe it can't be done on "extra" actions or something.

[Rassilon]

Jun 30, 2013 21:24:14 GMT gruesome said:

Thank you very much for this excellent example.

I literally played my first game last night and our GM was running only her 2nd game and I am not sure I really understood the multiple actions concept within a turn.

I do notice using many SP to boost results much higher and wonder why, from a strictly mechanical perspective, that you would not choose to always use one SP for each of the extra actions to gain two additional dice to the roll as it sort of seems like a more cost effective use. Even if you still fail, it seems likely it would only be by one level or so.

If the answer is simply, "just because and this was just an example about multiple actions" thats cool.

I just want to make sure I am not missing something about adding dice to the roll prior... Like maybe it can't be done on "extra" actions or something.

It's just an example. You can use Story Points for any rolls - including on multiple actions. In the example, The Doc was being sparing on spending them (he was saving them for later!).


Welcome to the forum!

[jeffrywith1e]

Revisiting this and it is excellent. Is this homebrew or is it RAW? I can't find this referenced if it is. Could you point me in the right direction? Thank you.

[Rassilon]

Thanks - this is an original example I wrote.

[koushiro]

Hello, I'm completely new to this game. So if possible would someone kind enough tell me how this entire game works? I heard that there are sets and now I'm confused with the rules. Do each rule/s vary from the set? If so would it mean that the 10th set and 11th's set of rules are different from the 11th? And how many players are needed to play this game? I don't have a lot of friends that know both Classic & Modern Doctor Who, It's quite rare to find a fellow Whovian in my actual home country. Thank you!
-Koushiro

[Stormcrow]

There are a number of sets. Their rules are almost identical. The biggest differences between them are the addition of extra character traits in the newer sets and a different set of aliens described for each. While the sets are unofficially called the "10th Doctor edition," "11th Doctor edition," etc., they're not really restricted by the named version of the Doctor; that's just where the artwork and selection of creatures come from. It's all the same game. You can get any version and play the full game.

There are also a lot of supplements. You don't need any of them to play the game. Each Doctor has a sourcebook that describes adventures and aliens he encountered. There's a book about UNIT and other militaries, a book of game master advice, a book about time travel, TARDISes, and Time Lords, a couple of books on aliens and creatures, and several pre-written adventures.

You can play the game with as few as two people: one player and one game master. Role-playing games are more fun with more players, though: a good number is four players and one game master. More than about six players is still doable, but it becomes more difficult to manage.