Talking about Drama Dice

[Jandar]

Hi there.

Last week I was thinking a lot about the OVA game I am trying to set up here at home, and I was making up new player-characters.

One of my favorite features of OVA are the Drama Dice. That is maybe about half of the fun in the Ricochet System: You know that you always have that chance of using your extra power, pumping a little extra effort into an action that you would normally not stand a chance of completing successfully.

But here is something I've wanted to get feedback on:
According to the rulebook, 5 Endurance buys 1 Drama Die. As it is possible to use several Drama Dice at a time, someone with a lot of Endurance left over could throw 10, 15, or more dice into the fray.

This is where I think some "abuse" could set in. We all have come across the occasional power gamer who wants to milk every rules bit and every ability for maximum effect. So, since Endurance powers the Drama Dice pool, if I were a min-maxer type of gamer, one ability I'd go for would simply be Vitality. Buying Vitality +5 would automatically increase my Endurance to 200 (40 + 160). Those 200 Endurance would translate into 40 dice. Pretty good, huh? Since Endurance is something that also refills easily and fast, I'd be trying to utilize my pool of Drama Dice as much as possible.

The only definitive comment on the recovery rate of Endurance is that, "After combat has ended, all Endurance is regained. An exception is unconscious characters ..." (pg. 82)

Two questions about that:

1) Does the above sentence mean that the only situation where you should use your Endurance pool is combat?

2) Have you experienced situations where a player in your group would try to get his character into many fights, i.e. several in one game session, only so that he could draw on his Endurance pool again?

I've also thought about creating a "Luck-Spreading" ability that makes it possible for one player-character to give out Drama Dice to other (player-)characters. You're exuding good luck on those with you, or you are casting an invigorating or skill-enhancing spell.

And what about setting aside a Drama Dice pool for the whole group, where every player-character currently in the group could use up dice from that account, and it would always be the communal group account of the party?

[Clay]

You bring up a good point. But worse than that is the fact that, if you're not in a stressful situation, according to the rules you can theoretically use INFINITE Drama Dice. (After all, Endurance refills outside of stressful situations...)

Because of this, the Distribution edition of the game, and later revisions of the PDF, include the following textbox under Drama Dice:

Endurance used for Drama Dice and Miracles cannot be recovered as described in the Combat chapter. Spent points are not restored until the end of the adventure or at the Game Master’s discretion.

I think that fixes your worries somewhat. ^_^

[Jandar]

I think that text box will help the game and lessen the problem of players using Endurance for Drama Dice too much.

But this leads to another question:

Suppose I have a character with a total of 40 Endurance (the default score). That character burns up 30 Endurance for a Miracle, then goes to a combat scene where he fires his Special Move for another 10 Endurance.

Since 30 of the 40 Endurance points were spent on a Miracle, would his Endurance box only refill to 10 in that case?

The new rule suggests it would only go to 10 until the beginning of the next adventure.

[JuddG]

Because of this, the Distribution edition of the game, and later revisions of the PDF, include the following textbox under Drama Dice:

Endurance used for Drama Dice and Miracles cannot be recovered as described in the Combat chapter. Spent points are not restored until the end of the adventure or at the Game Master’s discretion.

If I might suggest a rephrase of that maybe it would be:

Endurance used for Drama Dice outside of combat situations only refresh at the end of the scene or conflict in which they are used, not in the manner described in the Combat chapter. Endurance spent on Miracles do not refresh until the end of the current adventure, though a GM may choose to refresh them sooner if the situation warrants.

This way, "rest" still recovers the Endurance cost of Drama Dice (inside and outside of combat), but Miracles take a serious bite out of your resources and are therefore reserved for truly worthy efforts.

[TheBouncyPherret]

I think that text box will help the game and lessen the problem of players using Endurance for Drama Dice too much.

But this leads to another question:

Suppose I have a character with a total of 40 Endurance (the default score). That character burns up 30 Endurance for a Miracle, then goes to a combat scene where he fires his Special Move for another 10 Endurance.

Since 30 of the 40 Endurance points were spent on a Miracle, would his Endurance box only refill to 10 in that case?

The new rule suggests it would only go to 10 until the beginning of the next adventure.

When Drama Dice and/or Miracles are used, the Endurance for them is temporarily unavailable. So in your example above, yes, the character's Endurance would only recover to 10.

Of course, the GM has the right to say "you get full Endurance back" at anytime. Usually between adventures or right before a major plot event--battle with the major baddie, the most important social interaction to get the info needed, etc.

TBP

[Jandar]

That's all right. Thank you, TBP.

I am usually so bad with game math and numbers all around that I wanted to make sure I got the calculation right this time.

As a GM, I wouldn't have a problem with the ruling that some of the Endurance becomes temporarily unavailable. That's a good ruling, in fact.