Hi, new to Genesys and I've been doing some research about the "blue wave". It seems like the consensus is that no more than 2 boost dice should be allowed in passing to another PC so that it doesn't break the game. Is this in addition to the Assist maneuver, or inclusive of it? For example, a PC takes an assist maneuver, along with a combat action to attack a NPC, and rolls enough advantage to pass 2 boost dice to another PC. Since the Assist maneuver adds a boost, would that add to the 2 boost rolled, making it 3 boosts? Or, just cap it at 2 boost? How are you vets doing it?

Thanks!

I rarely see the need for a cap, but in my time with Star Wars, we use 1 Advantage to pass 1 Boost die only, then it's 2 Advantage per extra Boost dice.

The Assist maneuver Boost die shouldn't get nerfed just because you passed a few extra Boosts.

They cap Defense (Setbacks) to 4, but you can still add Environmental and other Setbacks, so it can go higher than 6 or 7 Setbacks in a crazy combat situation.

There's no reason to cap Boosts, as if a player would rather throw extra Boosts to an ally instead of doing something narratively awesome with the Advantages, that's their call.

2 hours ago, salamar_dree said:

I rarely see the need for a cap, but in my time with Star Wars, we use 1 Advantage to pass 1 Boost die only, then it's 2 Advantage per extra Boost dice.

The Assist maneuver Boost die shouldn't get nerfed just because you passed a few extra Boosts.

They cap Defense (Setbacks) to 4, but you can still add Environmental and other Setbacks, so it can go higher than 6 or 7 Setbacks in a crazy combat situation.

There's no reason to cap Boosts, as if a player would rather throw extra Boosts to an ally instead of doing something narratively awesome with the Advantages, that's their call.

Thanks for response, much appreciated!

To my mind, the only reason to cap passed boosts is to encourage the players to be more creative with rolled advantage. Otherwise, you just get "I heal strain and pass a boost" every time. That said, even those options can be fun if you encourage (or require) the players to justify how their check is setting up their ally for greater success, especially if it's more than one blue being passed.

I also don't have a problem with large numbers of boosts on a check for multiple reasons. I mean, you could conceivably have two passed boosts from a previous check, the PC could use the Aim maneuver twice, they could have the Accurate quality on their weapon, they may have some talent, and they may have done some legwork to get even more advantages. All of those can stack up boost dice.

In short, you might cap passed boosts if they're proving a block to player narrative creativity. But there's nothing game-breaking about allowing them to stack up, either; it's just how the game represents what other systems might call momentum or advantage or whatever.

Thanks for the insight!

The "Blue Wave" is usually only used in relation to the "free" boost dice granted by spending advantage. There is literally no cost to it, since you're rolling the dice anyway. So the usual limit that I've encountered is one boost die to the next person (1 advantage) and one boost die per PC (2 advantage option per character). And that's per skill check. So If character A generates enough advantage to pass one boost die to character B and one to character C, they both get one. On character B's turn, they not only give character C a boost die but also give the next character a boost die, character C goes next and gets three boost dice: one from A and two from B.

I guess you could say that the two-dice limit is per character from one check (1 choice of the 1 advantage "next character" and one choice of the 2 advantage "one character of your choice").

But again, the assist manoevure costs something so shouldn't be limited during structured encounter (limits outside of structured encounters are discussed on pages 26–27 of the CRB: Assisted Checks).