So I am a new GM and have a question about skills with descriptions related to "Character may remove [bl] per rank of..." How does apply this to skill checks in black setback die are not needed? Am I misunderstanding something? Any thoughts?
Setback in skills, please help!
It doesn't apply to skill checks where there are no setbacks. Which means in order for the player to feel like the Talent was worth the purchase, setbacks should be a regular addition to most skill checks. Be careful with them, more than 2 can be pretty severe, depending on the capabilities of the player and the underlying difficulty, but you should be able to think of a reason for at least one setback most of the time
It would only apply in cases where there were black dice to remove. Black dice can be added whenever there is a situation that makes a particular action more difficult. For example if someone is trying to access a computer terminal while being shot at he may suffer a black dice being added to his pool to represent the duress he's feeling. If he has an ability that removes black dice from checks, in that example he would not have the black dice added to his pool after all, indicating that he's cool under pressure when it comes to that skill.
Yep, it means that your character is such a pro that they can perform well under stress, danger or other suboptimal conditions.
It's a good habit to get into as a GM to add a setback or two to many or most skill checks. This way your characters can overcome those setbacks while their enemies may not be so talented.
Some situations where I add setback as a GM:
- it's dark outside
- it's raining
- it's foggy
- the characters are underwater
- they're clinging to the side of a mountain
- they're being shot at
- they're being chased
- they're trying to be super quiet
- they're talking to sweet-talk a Hutt
And so on!
Thanks friends! This is really helpful.
Might also check this thread for more suggestions:
http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/107025-when-to-add-setback-dice/
And it's companion thread for Challenge dice:
http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/90944-when-to-use-challenge-red-dice/
Just as an additional point to progression's list: it's difficult at first, but it's important to learn to set the difficulty of a task based on its inherent nature. If a lock is Average to pick, it does not become Hard because it's dark. It's still Average, with a setback for darkness.
So if there are no setback dice involved would that allow them to be applied as boost dice?
It doesn't sound like it, but I thought I better ask.
No. Talents that give boost dice say so. These just remove setbacks.
If the GM never gives out setback dice, the players can start asking for it. In my group, when we have those talents to remove setback we keep asking if there are any setback that we can ignore. We do this with hopes that it stays on the GM's mind and that setback will become a more regular occurance in our games.
Learning the ins and outs of a new system can be difficult. For my group, we seem to forget about setback dice. Probably because other games, such as D&D, can only make a skill check harder due to other circumstances by increasing the difficulty. Increasing the difficulty is done by adding purple dice. We need to break that mindset and remember that adding setback dice exist and apply them more regularly.
So if there are no setback dice involved would that allow them to be applied as boost dice?
It doesn't sound like it, but I thought I better ask.
not raw, but some groups use this as a houserule. if the player can come up with a good enough explanation (related to the talent) for the boost die he gets it. this makes those talents a little better without flooding the game with setback dice.