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Old 12-21-2016, 07:56 PM   #1
Culture20
 
Join Date: Feb 2014
Default A lesser super-luck: saved roll

We've all had that one time where we roll a critical success early in a session for a largely irrelevant action and later wished we could have saved the roll for a crucial action later. So what would it cost to have a sort of Super Luck where you can "choose" a roll, but must have rolled it before in the same session (time period), set it aside, and rerolled the original?
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Old 12-22-2016, 05:38 AM   #2
khorboth
 
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Default Re: A lesser super-luck: saved roll

I probably wouldn't allow this. I feel like it would devolve into a bunch of "can I roll for that? what about that? Hmmm... maybe I'll try to seduce the woman at the bar. Maybe I'll try some default acrobatics rolls. Maybe... we'll roll out lots of extra stuff just so I can get the roll I want in the bank."

Maybe that's just my group of roll-light gamers, but that's my thought.
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Old 12-22-2016, 04:24 PM   #3
Culture20
 
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Default Re: A lesser super-luck: saved roll

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Originally Posted by Ransom View Post
Sounds like a sort of Preparation Required limitation.
Except the preparation is in real life. For the character it's more like saving good fortune for a rainy day.
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Old 12-22-2016, 04:28 PM   #4
Culture20
 
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Default Re: A lesser super-luck: saved roll

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Originally Posted by khorboth View Post
I probably wouldn't allow this. I feel like it would devolve into a bunch of "can I roll for that? what about that? Hmmm... maybe I'll try to seduce the woman at the bar. Maybe I'll try some default acrobatics rolls. Maybe... we'll roll out lots of extra stuff just so I can get the roll I want in the bank."

Maybe that's just my group of roll-light gamers, but that's my thought.
I can totally see this as a problem with some groups. But assuming your players are rational actors who won't try to grind for the session's good roll... any ideas on how this would be priced? It's a limitation on Super Luck, to be sure, but it's kind of like a temporary disadvantage of anti-luck, where you're required to re-roll a good roll (of your choice, not the GM's).
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Old 12-22-2016, 04:30 PM   #5
Anaraxes
 
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Default Re: A lesser super-luck: saved roll

How do you resolve the original action that was rolled for? The first two options that come to mind are first, to push the good roll, and then just re-roll, with abiding by the second result mandatory (though you might allow use of the just-saved roll). Second, "karma", so that if you save a success, you have to take a failure on that roll, and to save a crit success, you have to take a crit fail. (That's not as bad as it sounds, because as has been pointed out, players will choose non-critical rolls without really terrible consequences as the sort to generate a lot of re-stocking rolls.)
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Old 12-23-2016, 01:22 AM   #6
starslayer
 
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Default Re: A lesser super-luck: saved roll

Super luck (side effect: unluckiness(time spanning))
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Old 12-23-2016, 01:30 AM   #7
kirbwarrior
 
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Default Re: A lesser super-luck: saved roll

While it would normally be based on Super Luck, I'd just make it a perk;

You can turn a critical success into a failure to make a later roll into a critical success.

It would last until used and you can't refill it until then. I'd only allow it if the players don't try to 'fix' it, especially since I do light rolling outside of combat (it might be better in combat heavy campaigns, but then you're choosing to fail in combat...)
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Old 12-23-2016, 08:48 AM   #8
evileeyore
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Default Re: A lesser super-luck: saved roll

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Originally Posted by kirbwarrior View Post
While it would normally be based on Super Luck, I'd just make it a perk;

You can turn a critical success into a failure to make a later roll into a critical success.
I could go with that as well, but either the roll has to be a '3' or you'd have to record the exact result rolled.

One way leads to simplicity, the other to a bit of bookkeeping.
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Old 12-23-2016, 09:04 AM   #9
starslayer
 
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Default Re: A lesser super-luck: saved roll

Wow, I think your both crazy. The ability to 'bank' a crit is with a lot more than 1 point.

I seriously would never build a PC without crit banking, probably 2-3 levels of it if it were a mere point. Doubly so in a story heavy game there are lots of 'well it's fantastic that the morning smoothie I made up to impress my date is a crit, but I'd much rather have her retching in the bathroom if it means that my next seduce roll is an auto-crit (or crafting, or enchant roll, or to do up the 36x batch of healing potions, or reciting the ritual in ancient Sumerian to banish the big bad without a protracted fight, or merchant roll to get that +10 grimore for free, or the reaction roll to make culthu my best friend)
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Old 12-23-2016, 09:42 AM   #10
malloyd
 
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Default Re: A lesser super-luck: saved roll

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Originally Posted by starslayer View Post
Super luck (side effect: unluckiness(time spanning))
I don't know that it's exactly a side effect, but it is some combination of those traits. The Super Luck needs once per session rather than once per hour (on the model of Limited Use that's probably -20 or 30% depending on how long your sessions usually are), and a limitation on it that you must have previously made a roll as good as you need (which isn't very big), and the Unluckiness does have quite a large one (you get to choose the bad moment, not the GM!). Looked at like that, it seems upward of 50 points.
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