Tips & How-tos for Dragon's Dance (Formerly 'Tips for PbP')

Just a little something I wrote some time ago that I imagine some might find useful (especially new players), as my experience is that there's always someone that makes mistakes on this.

The Basic Test
For any kind of test, the following steps are followed:
1. Roll an amount of dice equal to the sum of the test dice and bonus dice
2. Discard an amount of dice equal to the sum of the bonus dice and penalty dice
3. Apply any modifiers to the test.
4. Compare the result with the difficulty.

Typically, a difficulty is given by the narrator for a given task, ranging from automatic (0) to heroic (21). If you succeed, you gain a number of degrees of success based on by how much you beat the result with:

0-4: 1 degree
5-9: 2 degrees
10-14: 3 degrees
15+: 4 degrees

Two other kinds of tests are also worth mentioning:
A Competition Test is one where two or more characters each roll against the same difficulty and compares results, whoever gains the most degrees of success wins, while an equal amount of degrees is typically a tie.

A Conflict Test is one where a character use an ability against another character. This may be to swing a sword past his shield or to sneak past undetected. The test is made against the relevant passive defense of the character in question, such as combat defense against attacks and passive awareness against sneaking. Sometimes an opposed roll is used instead. For example, if the guard that a character is trying to sneak past is actively searching, the guard rolls awareness-notice, and that is the difficulty rather than the passive awareness.

Test Dice
These are the kept dice (though see penalty dice below). You have a number of these equal to the rank in the ability tested. Fighting 5D, for example means that you have 5 ranks in Fighting, and thus roll 5 test dices with fighting. Sometimes, you gain additional test dice. Noted as +XD, these are added. If you have the expertise (long blades) quality, you gain +1D when fighting with a longsword, and would thus roll 6D on any test with a longsword, plus any additional test dices you could gather from other circumstances.

Bonus Dice
These are unkept dice. You have a number of these equal to the applicable specialty for the test in question. You may for example have Fighting 5D, Long Blades 3B. You roll the 5 test dices for the longsword as usual, but in addition, you also roll the 3 bonus dices, for 8 dice total. But bonus dices are unkept dice, so you only get to keep the 5 dice with the highest result. Some circumstances may alter the amount of bonus dice you get. If for example, you wield a bastard sword with it's training penalty of -1B, you roll one less bonus dice than you would have (so 5 kept and 2 unkept), if you took the aim action, you'd get +1B (for 5 kept and 4 unkept), and if you had animal handling 3 and were on horseback, you would gain an additional +3B. However, you may not have more bonus dice than test dice on a roll (some qualities and other factors allows you to circumvent this in specific cases, mind). So you remain capped at 5D+5B, if however, you have the expertise (long blades) quality, you have (5+1=6)D, which would allow you to roll 6D+6B.

Penalty Dice
These are additional unkept dice. Noted as -#D. If you have Fighting 5D, Long Blades 3B, and are using the charge action (which bestows a -1D on your attack) you roll 5D+3B as normal, roll all eight dice, remove the 3 lowest, as normal. And then you remove an additional dice because of the penalty. Essentially you roll eight dices and keep the four highest. Keep in mind that penalty dice does not reduce the cap on bonus dice. If you were charging on horseback as in the above example, you would roll 5D+5B and then apply the penalty dice after, effectively rolling 10 dice and keeping the 4 highest.

It should be noted however, that there are many exceptions to these basic rules;
for instance certain things will give you bonus dice that can exceed the normal limit on bonus dice (such as the Fast weapon quality).

Something else to be aware of: how to calculate your passive score: 4x(test dice) + 1x(bonus dice)
Note that this ignores penalty dice and modifiers! However, again there are exceptions to this.

Of particular note is the Flaw drawback. It is very common (particularly in middle aged and above characters):
In addition to getting a -1D in the attribute, it reduces your passive and derived statistics as if the attribute were one lower.

Ok, in an attempt to eliminate some of the hangups that have slowed the melee, I've been thinking that a review of the jousting rules is in order.
That way any questions/issues can be addressed ahead of time.

I'm no expert (Symon is my first jouster), but here's how I understand it. Let me know if I missed anything, or got something wrong.

Giddy up!
Jousting is mounted combat. In general it follows all the normal rules for combat while mounted.
There are several exceptions of course, or I wouldn't need to make this thread.
The general format is that you make a series of passes along a divided field.
Each pass consists of each participant making an attack roll, and then dealing with the results.
In theory you are aiming for your opponent's shield, with the goal of knocking them off their horse without killing them.
In between each pass you may take one (and only one) Catch Your Breath action.

Initiative? We don't need no stinken' Initiative!
Jousters are assumed to strike simultaneously (Spear Fighter II would be hilarious here, but no.) As a result, Initiative is not rolled.

Ramming Speed!
There is only one action you can take: charge! Note that this means your attack will have the charge modifiers.
This means there is no point to spending DP/fatigue to get extra actions. Arguably you could spend a DP and a fatigue (or 2 DP) and get a second charge, but I think hitting your opponent in the back would be perceived as cheating.

Perhaps you could use them to get an extra Catch Your Breath actions, but that is up to the Narrator. DP are probably better used to add bonus dice or convert bonus dice to test dice, adn fatigue is probably better used to ignore the penalties from injuries or a wound.

Dodge this.
It doesn't matter how good you are at dodging. What matters is how well you can get your horse to move just right at just the right time.
Combat Defense does not apply. Instead you attack against your opponent's passive ride: (Animal Handling x 4) + (Ride bonus dice)
Note: this is NOT an agility check, AP does NOT apply. Shields do not add to it, nor Blood of the Royne, Acrobatic Defense, or anything else that modifies CD.
Wear the heaviest armor you can find, because AR is still important.

Tourney lances are crap, but they still hurt
Tourney lances have the fragile quality (2+ DoS and they break), and on the jousting results table on page 168, they break if there are 0-1 DoS. So either the fragile property does not apply in a joust, or the lance breaks every time (unless you critically miss). Also, while it is not explicitly stated, I think the notion of a superior tourney lance is laughable.
Regardless of whether or not they are crap, they still can do a LOT of damage. Their base damage is Animal Handling +3, +2 for charging, and are powerful for potentially even more damage. That means that even if you dropped your Animal Handling to 1 and have no business on a warhorse, you do at least 6 damage per DoS. Most will be doing at least 8, and a starting character could go as high as 13 with nothing above a 4. This is why heavy armor is a must!

Tourney lances are spears
They also have a training penalty. Thus hope you have at least 1B in spears or you are at -2D right off the bat (-1D for not meeting the training penalty, -1D for the charge).
All other modifiers apply as they would to any other spear. Don't forget that you are mounted, and thus also get your Animal Rank as bonus dice (after accounting for training).
Assuming you have at least 1B in spears, the attack roll formula is: ([fighting]+[spears]-1+[animal handling])d6k([fighting]-1)
If you do not have at least 1B in spears, the attack roll formula is: ([fighting]+[animal handling])d6k([fighting]-2)
Note that it is an attack roll, so normal bonus die limits and modifiers apply (wounds, injuries, fatigue, Talented benefit, etc.), as well as the Tourney Knight benefit, of course.

The last one riding wins
Like any combat you can knock your opponent out with enough damage (though they can take injuries and wounds as normal). With the amount of damage that can be done, this can happen fast.
However, that is the secondary method (in theory). The primary method is by unhorsing them. If you hit your opponent with at least one DoS and they are not knocked unconscious, they must make an
Animal Handling(Ride) test to stay in the saddle. The difficulty is determined by the number of DoS: 9/12/15/18. Remember that any injuries or wounds you take to reduce the damage apply to the check!
If you are knocked off, you take 1 DoS worth of damage [AR does not apply!]

Note that if both riders remain defeated after the third pass, the tourney judges may declare a winner (typically whoever had the most DoS)

It is not wise to enter a tourney joust "
just because"
. Unlike in the melee, there is a penalty for losing beyond any injuries or wounds you may take. The loser of a joust must give their armor and their horse to the victor. Typically they are ransomed back for the monetary value of the objects, but that is up to the victor.

Maneuvers
Jousting isn't just a dice-off, however. There are maneuvers you can choose to modify your rolls. Every maneuver has a penalty that comes with it's benefits, however.
For each pass, you choose a maneuver. Ostensibly you should not know your opponent's maneuver in advance, but as the is PbP that is difficult to arrange. I would however suggest that we put the name of the maneuver in the the die roll description, as you are supposed to choose the maneuver before rolling.

Code:

Name | Benefit | Penalty
-------------------|-------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Standard | none | none
Aggressive | +X on Fighting check | -X on passive Ride (easier to hit you)
Braced | +X on Ride check if hit | -X on fighting check
Defensive | +X to passive Ride | -X on fighting check
Eyes Fixed | +1 on Fighting check | +1 damage per DoS dealt to you if hit, may lose an eye or die if defeated
High in the Saddle | +X on Fighting check | -X on Ride check if hit

Note: X is either 1 or 2, your choice.

Cheating
I don't really have to go over this, right? We're all honorable folks who would never... what's that you said? Oh fine, I'll go over it.

There are two ways to cheat in a joust. 1) aim for the rider or 2) aim for their horse.
Presumably this would mean making your attack roll against the rider's CD&
nbsp;
or the horse's, rather than their passive Ride. Either CD will likely be much lower, so you will have a much better chance of success... and of course, a higher chance of doing serious damage, which is why it's not allowed! If you do cheat, you make a deception check against passive awareness checks to escape notice. Presumably, it will be against your opponent and any judges, as well. Even if you successfully pass it off as having been an accident, your victory will be tainted by the bad blow and it may have a negative impact on your reputation.

Lady Corrine Marsten wrote:My only PbP advice is "
Don't be a dick."
, but we've got that down already, I think.

Lady Corrine Marsten wrote:My only PbP advice is "
Don't be a dick."
, but we've got that down already, I think.

Theomore Tullison wrote:

Lady Corrine Marsten wrote:My only PbP advice is "
Don't be a dick."
, but we've got that down already, I think.

You character can totally be one, though :mrgreen:

Yoren longshore wrote:I was looking at orokos expression help when I found out about something: Some abilities allow you to re-roll certain results. You may express this with an r
for example: If you have 4d6k3r1 Orokos will roll 4d6k3 but if any ones pop up it will reroll the ones until it does not show any more ones. If you only wish to reroll once type:
ro in the expression. This will look like this in the example above: 4d6k3ro1.

Hope this helps anyone!

Yoren longshore wrote:I was looking at orokos expression help when I found out about something: Some abilities allow you to re-roll certain results. You may express this with an r
for example: If you have 4d6k3r1 Orokos will roll 4d6k3 but if any ones pop up it will reroll the ones until it does not show any more ones. If you only wish to reroll once type:
ro in the expression. This will look like this in the example above: 4d6k3ro1.

Hope this helps anyone!

Luecian LongBow wrote:Any help appreciated in advance but I tried to combine marked into my persuasion-charm roll and it did not seem to work as I thought. I used an attractive example I had found on the forums but clearly something went wrong as it appears it rerolled all the dice once? Any ideas or should I just stay with rolling and then manually rerolling any 6's? Thanks in advance


[url=Charm Influence-Lord Dunstan Tullison][/url]: 5d6ro6k4! 16