If you have some Treasure in hand, and more Checks than you think you can use in a Camp, how tempting should it feel to head into Town? I’m in the position now where I’m still Fresh, we have I think 6 Checks total and about 11D total treasure. I expect that Fresh +1D would be HUGE in successfully ramping up Resource abilities using those Checks. I could get from Resource 0 to potentially Resource 3 with potentially another couple PCs reaching 2 (decent odds of this, maybe 50-50 overall).
I don’t see any prohibition against:
Fresh working in Town.
Fresh working for Town Abilities.
Helping for Lifestyle Test.
Anyone Helping is at risk of Tax, correct? The question is does +1D treasure/cash reduce 1 die of Tax from just one PC or reduce 1 die of Tax before considering application of the Tax to all relevant PCs?
As a parallel topic, this (very understandable!) decision to return so quickly to Town may conflict with the Goals of one or more of the party members. If so, and assuming the party does indeed decide to return, should there be any blowback?
(I’m sure there could be some IC justification generated, the desire/need to purchase extra gear to handle the perceived Threat from Below, etc)
They don’t get artha because they didn’t complete their goal (spending time in town will take away precious game time for achieving goals) which could cause them to level slower.
I can’t recall any that it really conflicts with, like “Icky Townies, must avoid them.”. I’m sure the others will bring it up if there is, this is ultimately definitely a group decision to make and Beliefs/Goals of everyone need to be a factor in that.
If so, and assuming the party does indeed decide to return, should there be any blowback?
Conceptually I didn’t picture this different than whether or not to Camp or to check that closet/side room/potential loot location before exploring further down into the darkness. Or to do this Belief/Goal first or that one first but still get to both of them. Not a mutually exclusive decision, or even if it was there is already plenty of “blowback” for total, session long abandonment of Beliefs/Goals via a lack of reward at the end of the session.
Maybe there is a Tick Clock scenario we, the players, aren’t aware of? But we can only, functionally, concern ourselves with information we do have.
Hmm…I’m thinking you may be overlooking something. You shouldn’t be able to have 6 checks and fresh condition, unless you have a really powerful instinct. You are aware that unspent checks get discarded at the end of camp phase, so you can’t hoard them? (pg. 83)
This bears shades of the D&D “five-minute workday” complaint, except that in TB, the day never really ends. Town is not your friend. And that’s assuming you don’t take into account possible tests needed to find your way out of the dungeon and back to town (which might not even be available, thanks to events).
So, I don’t see this as a problem. If the party has 6 checks and 11D of treasure, it can be assumed that they (mostly) earned it, and probably won’t be as lucky the next time. :evil:
Correct. From my original post; “we” have that many checks, I think. I have 2, my recollection is another has 3, and a 3rd has 1. All gained within last 3 Turns, which included a Drive Off conflict that we really dominated (no compromise at all) so that helped. I got my 2 by breaking tie the other way Defending against an Attack, which only cost 1 Dispo (later recovered via another Defend).
The “throw away the leftovers at the end of Camp” rule is what brought the idea of Town to my mind. We have a lot less conditions than that. But maybe we can do some different stuff in Camp. Or we press on and toss my Fresh? Seems like a waste to do that though when I could be putting that Fresh to use in Camp and beyond. That +1D really makes a huge difference when you have low Skills.
Less lucky? The die rolls nearly drove us to cry. The tie I rolled Defending was, I believe, 2 successes out of 9 dice. It was brutal. But the Elf made one key Instinct Test to find a big loot pile and during the Drive Off we out scripted the GM and did have a little luck in him rolling nearly as bad at key times and having weak critters.
P.S. We have a fair amount of beginning loot in hand, somewhat anti-socials that we are.
I don’t really see a problem with heading back to town when you want. One thing to keep in mind is that checks aren’t quite as useful in town since they can only be used two ways: recovery tests before going into town and to earn advancement tests when helping, then remaining checks are discarded when you leave town just like camp.
If I were the GM I wouldn’t have an issue with it, though I’d make sure the dungeon evolved in some way. Some new surprises, maybe monsters lying in wait for you knowing you might be coming back, etc.
It’s a tough decision. On the one hand, having that many checks to use on helper advancement in Town could be a nice boost for less-used skills like Criminal (or Circles!), and they’d probably go a long way towards making sure the entire party starts the next adventure Fresh. On the other hand, burning a pile of checks on creating supplies is pretty damn useful too, and also helps with skills. Then again, you’re the only Fresh one, so maybe that’s not as sure a bet as making sure everybody starts Fresh next time. Tough! I love that about this game - even “metagaming”/optimizing is fraught with hard choices!
(I don’t even know how I’d handle that situation. Having everybody be Fresh is pretty awesome, and you could ride it out for a camp or two if you’re lucky. On the other hand, despite taking up a lot of your pack slots, having a wealth of supplies - or scrolls, even! - would also be super useful. I think I might lean towards the latter, but I’m not sure!)
Yeah, when my players have had a camp phase with some extra checks (either running low on conditions or failing to relieve them) they’ve used them to make scrolls & elixirs & such. Very handy to have around.
After our first beautifully disastrous session, I do not understand this concept of “extra” checks. I think I may need to lean on my traits more heavily.
Good point Odie about the potential for regaining Fresh for the other PCs. Nobody is beat to crap (the Elf already ate his Injury for -1 permanent when I failed my Healer ) so it is entirely feasible that we could get 3 of 4 or even all 4 out Fresh.
On the Camp side, a top item on my own agenda is crafting Inflammables (for me and others). With Checks left over after dealing with Conditions maybe the Scavenger and Hunter can rustle up a couple materials dice in Camp, add in a die or two for Lore Master and Laborer Help (using Checks for their advancement), sprinkle Fate & Persona and that becomes a reasonable Test. I don’t have a good feel for how other’s agendas fit with Camp, if they have much else to do there.
Incidentally, this is the same group I posted the actual play log for, if you want to see how those 6 checks were earned. Bascially, we got into a good position in the combat, and then granted one tie-breaker (Dwight) and one +2 to the enemy (me using Foolhardy), for 4 of those 6 checks. Our first session also had only a couple people with conditions, and one of us took the big -1 from failed healing of an injury. But no more conditions!
And that’s assuming you don’t take into account possible tests needed to find your way out of the dungeon and back to town (which might not even be available, thanks to events).
The tie I rolled Defending was, I believe, 2 successes out of 9 dice. It was brutal. But the Elf made one key Instinct Test to find a big loot pile and during the Drive Off we out scripted the GM and did have a little luck in him rolling nearly as bad at key times and having weak critters.
) so it is entirely feasible that we could get 3 of 4 or even all 4 out Fresh.