The Dresden Files > DFRPG

Game Balance and the Laws

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iago:

--- Quote from: Rechan on February 10, 2010, 11:16:25 PM ---Holy crap. I thought that they lasted until you got something like, well, rest. They last an entire session? Even if say, there's downtime (like in the books, where there's the period Harry gets a bit of sleep and can eat a sandwich)?

This means you can only have like maybe three conflicts per adventure, or else you're going to kill your party.

--- End quote ---

You may be leaping to conclusions about what qualifies as recovery starting -- but I'll give you a mildly inaccurate yes to your last conclusion.  You've gotta pick your fights in the Dresdenverse, or you'll end up screwed.

Rechan:

--- Quote from: iago on February 10, 2010, 11:29:18 PM ---You've gotta pick your fights in the Dresdenverse, or you'll end up screwed.

--- End quote ---
I wasn't making that connection as a player, but as a GM. The GM has to know when to make those unavoidable or "hard to avoid" conflicts, or pepper his adventure with only a few.

After all, PCs might very well understand to be wary, but that also depends on the adventure. If the enemies are hellbent on fightin', or the only way to resolve things is going through the villain's face...

Compare this to the Novels. Using Dead Beat as an example:
(click to show/hide)Battle with Corpsetaker. Battle with Cowl. Escaping Grevaine (and Corpsetaker). Torture session with Liverspots (I forget his name). Battle with Spirits/Zombies to get the Wardens. Final Showdown with Grevaine/Cowl.
Only the first was avoidable, and only that would've occurred had Harry slipped out the back instead of defending Bach.

Bosh:
Also in most of the books, Dresden just barely crawls across the finish line with a nasty nasty set of consequences. In fact in some of the books is seems like he has that stunt in SotC that lets you delay being taken out by spending Fate points. The Dresdenverse is pretty hard on PCs so although the death rate is pretty low, the consequences get piled on pretty high and characters should end a lot of their adventures in the hospital.

TheMouse:

--- Quote from: ClarkValentine on February 10, 2010, 10:42:55 PM ---Oh, of course. My point was that those consequences had mechanical effects, but not of the "apply this modifier every time you roll dice" variety.

--- End quote ---

We're on the same page. I just don't like using the word "penalty" with something Consequences, since we're talking about a hobby which has had flaws/ disadvantages/ death spirals/ whatever for a long time. It carries some weight that simply doesn't apply to Consequences, or at least not in a straight forward, transparent way.

LCDarkwood:

--- Quote from: Rechan on February 10, 2010, 11:16:25 PM ---This means you can only have like maybe three conflicts per adventure, or else you're going to kill your party.

--- End quote ---

No. This means that if you have a lot of consequences, you're going to be conceding a lot of fights. Stress clears out at the end of the scene, so you can usually keep yourself in a conflict with fate points and whatnot even if all your consequences are filled for at least a couple of exchanges. And if you concede before the roll that takes you out, you can dictate the terms of your defeat. So, in this sense, TPK is a pretty impossible outcome unless you're actively gunning for it... but it is possible that you might have a group that spends a certain amount of the story getting beaten back and suffering setbacks and complications as a result of engaging in conflict.

Which, of course, would make them precisely like this wizard PI that I know...


-L

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