Battle Dice

[Angelalex242]

Are Battle Dice declared before you roll, or are they used after, only if needed?

If my TN to hit is 17, and I roll a 15, do I then add a d6? Or do I need to declare it up front?

[Deadmanwalking]

Per p. 151 of the current rules, where preliminary rolls are described:

"When a player is about to make a roll, he may add 1 bonus Success die to the roll. To add the die, he may spend 1 of his own bonus dice, or another player may spend it to give it to him."

So...before the roll. You need Hope to add after the roll.

[jacksarge]

I must be too generous with my players, I let them choose after they've seen how the dice have fallen.

[Angelalex242]

Indeed you are. You should fix that.

[Majestic]

Yeah, definitely before. When we played a few nights ago one of my players rolled, came up a little short, and so decided to add in his Battle Die (from the Preliminary Roll). I saw him do this and reminded him that he has to add that die beforehand.

He'd rolled a 1. So he swiftly snatched it back (took the glass bead, which I use in my game to remind people of how many dice they have from Preliminary Rolls) and reclaimed the extra Battle Die for later use. Somehow I think if he'd rolled a 6 he wouldn't have been so quick to reclaim it.

[Angelalex242]

Everyone wants to win, dude. Can't blame a man for being quick to resnatch a die he rolled a one on.

[Majestic]

Well, I wouldn't say "everyone". Some of us are okay with just letting the randomness of the dice fall where they may.

[Pangea]

I must be too generous with my players, I let them choose after they've seen how the dice have fallen.
For what it is worth, in one of the tabletop campaigns I play, the LM has a house rule that you can use a bonus die after a roll, to add a flat 3 (you do not roll the die, just take an added 3 to your total).
Personally, I do not use that in the games I LM.

[Jussi Marttila]

I decided to let players use prep dice after rolling, since I dislike the concept of having to spend limited resources blindly. On the other hand, I now think that in the future I'll play it according to the rules, because my players seem to never really run low on Hope.

[Deadmanwalking]

I decided to let players use prep dice after rolling, since I dislike the concept of having to spend limited resources blindly. On the other hand, I now think that in the future I'll play it according to the rules, because my players seem to never really run low on Hope.

It's not entirely blindly. You know your dice pool and have some idea of your target number, after all.

For example, in the game I'm in, my Beorning has Axes 3 and a pretty good chance of hitting, but only Protection 2, so I save my Battle dice (and Song dice) for Protection tests. This is a good choice, since I probably hit on average with most attacks, but probably fail on average on my Protection tests.

Likewise, with Travel 2 and Hunting 3, I've usually used Lore dice on Travel checks (though that's no longer the case most days due to my shiny new Travel 3).