Hey guys. I ran a tutorial game for my players, getting them comfortable with building dice pools and stuff, as well as allowing me, a newbie GM, to get used to the system as well. While we were running things, I noticed that often a player would roll, say, just a single boon or bane, and there'd be no readily available effect for it. That seemed kind of weak to me, so... I was wondering.

The following should apply to both combat and social checks

What do you guys do in your games if a player has nothing to spend boons or banes on? Especially in the case of rolling only one.

Chaos Stars count as a bane if no other Chaos Star effect is specified, but this seems a little weak. What do you guys do with Chaos Stars in this case?

Sigmar's Comets are well designed in that they can be used as a success, a boon or a critical if no other effect is mentioned, but what other things have you guys done?

Looking forward to hearing it!

a single boon or bane is a very small benefit/disadvantage in a check. that's why they are normally not specified

i make up small effects on the fly, like for example 1 fewer/more recharge. sometimes i let them convert the boons in a success, if they have like 5 of them left

chaos stars in combat situations can do alot: drop your weapon, damage your weapon, fall to the ground (need 2 maneuvers to get up and have weapon equipped again) and in the worst case, destroy your weapon!

My table realizes that unless they are lucky enough to be using an action with a line for one, there is seldom something from a single boon or bane.

I use a standardized table of free form additional benefits from comets and harm from chaos stars etc. (based on text in the hardbacks) such as double fatigue or stress recovery on comet or weapon damaged sometimes from a chaos star.

Chaos stars rarely count as banes for me. There are plenty of things that Chaos Stars can do plot-wise. During a fight a rolled Chaos Star could indicate the fight was noticed by someone (local constable, enemy reinforcements, etc). I have also used them as "plot advancers" meaning that I progress the enemy forwards towards completing a goal. As mentioned, it could also be used as a weapon drop/break, tripping, knocking a lantern over and setting the place on fire, etc.

Agreed re not using Chaos Stars as banes, that's wussy for a Chaos Star! Players at my table know to Fear the Chaos Star!

This is part of what keeps high level play interesting. Sure you aced that check, but ooooh, a Chaos Star......

Chaos Stars have meant things like:

- oops you dug the vampire out from under the rubble not your friend;

- you're mucking about in the rags discarded from disease victims - Disease check please;

- oh, poor bow, Wood Elf fired so many shots at once it's Damaged now....

Rob

I seldom do anything with a single bane or boon if there's no line on the card that says it can be used.

Sometimes I deal out a fortune die on the next check that player makes, provided he/she rolls for the same thing or related things. For example, the player try to swim against a current, rolls no successes but one boon. On the next swim check the player (might) get a fortune die, since he/she at least had something positive to show after the roll. Same goes for a single bane, it might "award" a misfortune die on a related check. More often than not though, they do not get anything for a single bane or boon.

Chaos stars I pretty much leave up to the players. If they make up something 'really bad' as an effect from the star I add one fortune to the fortune pool on the party sheet, if they come up with something too soft like "I slipped and fell in the mud" I usually make it worse by dealing out stress/fatigue/wounds, have their clothes torn badly, make them drop some coins (which they only notice later) or similar extra bad stuff and if the chaos effect was too lame I do not award the fortune point to the pool. This has effectivly removed the need for me to invent chaos star effects, and the players think it's fun to come up with effects for themselves or the other group members, I just have to go with the best suggestion and sometimes make what they come up with a bit worse.

if something obviously fun/exciting/mean is not there for me to suggest, i see if the players come up with one. if they can't, i place a purple bead on the party sheet. i can cash this bead in as a chaos star at any future stage. this has motivated the players to get creative.

i'm considering letting them bank sigmar's comets too

I have had a lot of problems coming up with stuff for Chaos Stars and Sigmars Comets. What I've started doing is this:

Make a list before the game og positive and negative events that could happen that fit the adventure. Then you can refer to that list if you don't come up with anything for the specific situation.

I'm with Valvorik, chaos stars are special. The nature of my game (Black humour interspaced with extreme violence and stupidity) means that my players should fear the chaos star ... unless it's rolled by someone else. Then they should be ready to laugh, they really can be a high-point of a session. Examples to date:-

Falling off a stagecoach whilst trying to be Eroll Flynn

Breaking a bowstring

Treading on a Duchess' lap-dog and killing it

Tripping whilst vaulting a bannister - fall ten foot, stunned and a broken nose (then being munched on by zombies. Ouch!)

Getting your weapon stuck in someones head

Farting whilst meeting a potential noble patron (a real stinker)

The best way to deal with them is off the top of your head and in keeping with your game - something noble and heroic like a snapped weapon if thats where you are (fighting on with a broken sword etc), and something a bit earthier if it warrants (I've always fancied someone choking on a fishbone ...). For me, it truly is one of the best mechanism in wfrp

Oh yes, an example I forgot. Banging your head on a wall and drowning. (Though that was in special circumstances and felt harsh even to me!)

My personal favorite Chaos star was when the bright wizard was trying to blast skaven and hit their stash of warpstone instead. Ended with the party running away from warpfire and yelling at the wizard about "This is why nobody trusts wizards!".

Stars/Comets I'm very flexible with, players can use them for their abilities, adding a success, removing some fatigue or creating an otherwise interesting narrative results that gives them an advantage. I do the same when a Chaos star is rolled.

In generally it allows for interesting dynamics and I agree that they shouldnt be ignored but rather rolled into the narrative in particular in combat where sometimes players have a tendancy to depart from the story into tactical mode. It allows me as a GM to keep things "story".

For example a Chaos Star coming up on a successful role I might do something like "You bash the crap out of this guy and find yourself spalltered with blood and guts".. aka no mechanical effect but may result in story effects later after the fight in terms of NPC reactions or some such.

I think the general idea is to have fun with it, be creative and give it narrative purpose to help embelish the story. It doesnt have to have a mechanic effect.