For the infection roll, who can help? On page 430 it says “A player may only help another player in the test for the maneuver if he has given that player a helping die, a linked test die or a connection during the preceding scenes of the maneuver.”
My guess is each player may have exactly one of his characters help the rolling player (if they gave a helping, linked, etc die), and the GM may have exactly [# of players - 1] appearing characters help. How close am I?
–Guy
The GM may coordinate all of his FoNs if they appeared in the maneuver.
The players may help each other. If a subordinate character’s boss isn’t making the roll, he can’t help. If a subordinate character’s boss is offed, he may make rolls like a normal character.
-L
Hi all.
We played last week-end, and we also stumbled accross some questions about helping during the infection roll.
First of all, it is said (p431) that “as long as FON or other character was featured in the maneuver at all --even if it was just in a color or intersticial scene-- the GM may have that character help or be helped for the maneuver roll” (notice the rules precise “FON or other character”). That seems strange: concerning that the GM easily can introduce up to 5-7 NPC (even only considering “named” NPC: not necessarily FON, but important NPC which have stats and such) in his various scenes, this means that he could have 5-7 NPC helping the maneuver roll, i.e. easily gain +5-10 dices?? How can the player fight against this?
Just above, Luke seems to imply that only FON can help for the maneuver roll. But I thought that each side only had one FON per phase… that even if characters are destined to be (or have been) FON in another phase, they do not bear the title “FON” when outside their phase.
So, shall we consider that “only the FON of this phase or any other can help the GM maneuver roll”? And no “other character” can help? By the way, can the FON of the player’s side (when not a player) be used by the GM to help his maneuver roll (this could be considered “highjacking” a FON!)?
Then, another thought/question came to my mind last week-end: in our games, maneuver rolls are often made with up to 8-10 dices (say 5-6 for the basic skill, +2-3 for ForK with another skill and a wise, +1-2 for help for another player). And that’s not counting artha; plus, we’re only two players… with 4-5 players, we would easily use 13-15 dices without artha. Are those numbers correct? Is it considered “normal” to double (or worse!) the basic skill when making the maneuver roll?
Someone with Authority will hopefully chime in on this, but here goes:
Each side has three Figures of Note. These characters are always involved in all phases, can help in all maneuver rolls, can be specially targeted as a Phase goal, et cetera. They’re special.
Each phase has one of the three FoNs for each side as Featured. This character gets even more attention than the other two FoNs during his featured phase; the game effectively revolves around the conflict between the two Featured FoNs. He gets to add to pre-Phase disposition and is likely the ‘default’ go-to character to make Maneuver rolls. When the phase ends, he’s no longer Featured but remains a FoN.
In short, what you’re thinking of as ‘FoN’ status is really ‘Featured’ status. There’s only one Featured FoN per side at a time, but he still has something special about him before and after his Featured phase.
As for dicepools in the Maneuver rolls, I wouldn’t be at all surprised or worried about 10-12 dice on a regular basis. Even with a full Take Action all-out offensive on every Maneuver, that’s still only 5-6 dispo per roll knocked off on average, meaning that you’re going to see quite a few Maneuvers before 20+ damage is done and the phase ends. If either side chooses to mix in some defense, things get extended even more. I’d say you want 10+ dice on every Maneuver roll, just to keep things moving.
You’re right that p431 is a little awkwardly worded. I’m not an “authority” but my latest understanding of the GM’s Infection roll is that a) only a GMFON can make or help with that roll and b) the GMFON had to appear in a scene during the Maneuver.
This is a bit different than the rules for players: a) any PC (Featured FON, FON, 2iC) can make or help the Infection roll and b) to qualify as a helper, that character had to provide help dice to the character making the roll.
p.
Hi!
If you want to (or must) win that Maneuver and your characters have got required skills or even traits - why not? But always theres a catch - you can create powerful FONs but theres no chance that you collect 10-14 dices in every type of Maneuver.
On the other hand that trick with big pools of dice make game faster - if you start with 28-35 Disposition in both sides of conflict and you want to have fun, there`s no place for campaign which will be last for 30 sessions.
(…)as long as FON or other character was featured in the maneuver at all --even if it was just in a color or intersticial scene(…)
I guess, but probably im wrong - maybe thats remain of other part of rules, where relationships also can help? Please look at posts Mtiru and Stormsweeper in this thread.