So my friends and I are doing a Shadowrun inspired Gen game, and all of us that play like the game but we are, by no real definition, Experts in the Game. During Char Gen, Someone decided to do a Texan Troll Samurai type (named Truck Nuts- we are a ... lighthearted bunch) and someone mentioned wanting a talent called "Hold My Beer". Off the cuff I decided here is the effect:

Hold My Beer: (ranked)

For every rank in Hold My Beer the player may add 1 blue AND 1 black die to any active roll.

Now looking at this on the surface it seems to me to be pretty even, and even possibly not that good- all things considered, it SHOULD cancel everything out most of the time, but every once in a while things will get extreme, which is the intent.

My question to the Rules Demigods and Demigoddesses here is : D oes this seem to work out? We have not done a deep dive into the rules, so if there is a strange or arcane rule or ability that would make this OP, or somehow goofier than intended, please point it out. Also, any advice or comments on this would be welcome. Yes, it's intended to be lighthearted and slightly goofy. Pure Chaos kinda deal. My initial worry is if it should be allowed to be used for Magic Rolls. We have yet to playtest it in our group in this capacity, but I could just imagine some wingnut with 3 levels of this casting a spell with 3 Blue and Black dice added to the mix.

Thanks in advance

The average results should cancel each other out... but the mechanics themselves run counter to some of genesys' core principles (namely the minimizing of dice pools). This talent adds up to 10 dice to the pool with a net result of no effect. Which seems like a waste of XP and the time spent rolling and reading all those extra dice.

Alternatively, I would make it a talent where you spend a few Strain to remove a number of Setback from noncombat checks. That way its a talent that you activate right before you do something that would normally be very difficult due to circumstance; such as most drunken dares. ergo, "Hold mah' Berr".

I would have it add success and threat, instead of dice. Then either limit it to once per encounter or once per session.

I think that would definitely fulfill the goal. Increasing chance of success, but with side effects.

On 12/17/2018 at 12:31 PM, Noahjam325 said:

I would have it add success and threat, instead of dice. Then either limit it to once per encounter or once per session. 

I think that would definitely fulfill the goal. Increasing chance of success, but with side effects.

@Noahjam325 got to it long before me. Another option would be to an improved version that allows you turn one rank of Hold My Beer into and instead of and .

On 12/17/2018 at 11:31 AM, Noahjam325 said:

I would have it add success and threat, instead of dice. Then either limit it to once per encounter or once per session.

I think that would definitely fulfill the goal. Increasing chance of success, but with side effects.

I suddenly want the foil-Talent "All Part Of The Plan" where it allows you to add a Failure to the result in exchange for an Advantage.

I imagine them being taken by quirky characters in lighter hearted games.

On 12/20/2018 at 7:40 AM, Cantriped said:

I suddenly want the foil-Talent "All Part Of The Plan" where it allows you to add a Failure to the result in exchange for an Advantage.

I imagine them being taken by quirky characters in lighter hearted games.

I love that idea, but the only downside is the way failures work in Genesys. Multiple failures don't mean as much as multiple success. A talent like the above would be very easy to game to just add advantage until you're down to 1 success with a ton of extra advantage.

Maybe something that can triggered on a failed check? Give it a story point and/or strain cost.

Either Talent should have to be activated before making the check, and/or be limited to once per encounter.

What if the talent let you upgrade the check once, but on both sides of the dice? One green becomes yellow, and one purple becomes red? Make the results a little swingy-er that way to represent the potential tragedy or awesomeness of what is about to happen. You could add an advantage or a threat depending on the result.

After reading just the title, my thoughts were similar to the OP's but on a harsher level. "Hold my Beer" makes me think of trying something risky that can lead to either great or horrific results. So, my first thought was to upgrade both the difficulty and ability dice once each. That way, you are creating a better chance of a Triumph while also creating a better chance of a Despair.

my interpretation:

Hold My Beer (T3, Ranked)

By flipping a Story Point the player may upgrade his dice pool for every rank in "Hold my Beer" once,
and add Setback dice equal to the rank in "Hold my Beer" for his next action.

PS: thanks to all that Bud Spencer and Terence Hill movies !

There's a similar talent in the Star Wars games that lets you suffer 2 strain before a check as an incidental. If you succeed, you add a Triumph, if you fail, you add a Despair.

4 hours ago, Klort said:

There's a similar talent in the Star Wars games that lets you suffer 2 strain before a check as an incidental. If you succeed, you add a Triumph, if you fail, you add a Despair.

This! This is your Hold my Beer talent right here.

Or if your looking at star wars talent it might be something like the gamblers double or nothing

Double or Nothing
Tier: 3
Activation: Passive
Ranked: No
Suffer 2 strain to perform the Double or Nothing
incidental to increase the difficulty of the next check by
one. Then, after canceling opposing symbols, double the
amount of remaining advantages.

There is a improved version for succes and a supreme one that doubles triumps and despairs

Do note this talent is very powerful.

I like the above one @kaosoe posted its better for the theme a bit more simple.

12 hours ago, Archellus said:

Do note this talent is very powerful.

yet this is no generic talent !

the tier is wrong !

based on the "Gamblers tree" in Genesys this is a Tier 5, with its improved and supreme versions at 8 and 11, hardly a cheap buy.

2 hours ago, Terefang said:

yet this is no generic talent !

the tier is wrong !

based on the "Gamblers tree" in Genesys this is a Tier 5, with its improved and supreme versions at 8 and 11, hardly a cheap buy.

I took it from the expanded genesys talent list here on the forum. I guess they put it at Tier 3 to make room for improved at Tier 4 and supreme at Tier 5 but I agree with you that its very powerful if you allow this talent it should cost a ton Tier 4 or 5 seems fine.

11 hours ago, Archellus said:

I took it from the expanded genesys talent list here on the forum.

that is one of the talents that should go to the "situation to watch" section.

On ‎12‎/‎25‎/‎2018 at 3:43 AM, Klort said:

There's a similar talent in the Star Wars games that lets you suffer 2 strain before a check as an incidental. If you succeed, you add a Triumph, if you fail, you add a Despair.

On ‎12‎/‎25‎/‎2018 at 8:35 AM, kaosoe said:

This! This is your Hold my Beer talent right here.

This is great, but after some consideration I would add one requirement - The number of difficulty and/or challenge dice you are rolling needs to be equal to the number of ability and/or skill dice you are rolling. "Hold my beer!" isn't for simple challenges, but something that has a chance of failure, in my opinion, or the above talent doesn't work. I wouldn't want a player that is rolling 2 greens and 2 yellows against 1 purple to be spending 2 strain to get a nearly automatic triumph whenever he wants. There needs to be some risk. The task needs to be at least somewhat challenging.

For my money, I think the Hold My Beer talent should add 2 Setback in exchange for an upgrade. Statistically the player is subtracting from his chances, as two setback 'take away' more success and advantage than an upgrade adds but the additional chance for a triumph might be worth the risk. Likewise, perhaps Just As Planned could be an inverse - something that adds 2 Boost but downgrades the skill roll by one? I don't know if 2 Boost would be worth the exact inverse (upgrading the difficulty of the check), as a slightly better chance to succeed is not worth the danger of a Despair.

On a side note, in my current campaign characters accrue homebrew Grit Points, which until now had no value other than to attract a greater share of supernatural bad guy attention. I think we will start letting players activate one of the above effects once per session per Grit point. Just the sort of thing epic heroes might do.