Page 127 - World of Darkness

stroyed, or that completely erroneous “facts” are taken as
truth.
The Attribute, Skill and Combat chapters suggest
possibilities when dramatic failures arise. They don’t nec-
essarily mean your character has to die, only that fate has
thrown a gigantic monkey wrench into the works. A clever
Storyteller uses a dramatic failure to raise tension a notch
and to introduce new opponents or to provide impetus for
character development. How does your character come
to terms with accidentally shooting an innocent child,
for example? Dramatic failures make for exciting scenes.
If penalties levied against your dice pool reduce you
to a chance roll, the Storyteller might allow you the choice
of going through with the action or not. You might want
your character to make a desperate effort. But if the risks
of a dramatic failure outweigh the potential gains of a suc-
cess, you might not want him to go through with the feat.
The Storyteller may allow you to abandon an effort if your
character could reasonably assess his situation and recog-
nize that the odds are stacked dangerously against him.
Trying to cross a busy highway on an injured leg might be
obviously suicidal. If, however, your character is unaware
of or couldn’t foresee the factors (the penalties) that in-
terfere with his intended effort, the Storyteller may de-
cree that the intended action must proceed.
Actions

Like you, your character can try to do pretty much
anything he sets his mind to. He can attempt to jump,
read foreign languages or seduce a member of the oppo-
site sex. His relative success is based on his traits, any tools
Dramatic failures do not occur when you still roll any he brings to bear, the number of dice that you get to roll,
part of your normal dice pool. If penalties to your character’s and how well you roll. Various activities call for different
action reduce you to few or as little as one die in a pool, kinds of rolls. Some, like throwing a punch, have imme-
your character is not at risk of suffering a dramatic failure. diate effects if any at all, while others such as rebuilding
A roll of 1 here is just an ordinary failure, not an extraor- an engine can involve time and energy, being performed
dinary one. A dramatic failure occurs only when you are over a prolonged period. Yet other activities have either
reduced to a dice pool of zero and you get a 1 on a chance immediate or extended effects, but involve direct compe-
roll. tition with someone else. He who does the best job pre-
When one of these horrific developments occurs, your vails. Examples of the last include arm wrestling (imme-
character loses control of his own fate. The Storyteller diate) or trying to win a long-distance race (prolonged).
decides how your character’s action goes terribly wrong. The following are the actions your character can per-
He may slip and fall or loses self-control. Maybe some- form, along with systems for deciding how well he does.
thing goes wrong regarding your character’s weapon or tool.
His baseball bat cracks or his computer locks up. Instant Actions
The precise nature of a dramatic failure is up to the Many activities take almost no time to achieve.
Storyteller. He could be lenient and decide that your Shooting a gun is an obvious example. Karate chopping a
character’s gun jams and needs to be cleared, or he could piece of wood is another. These feats are performed and
be cruel and decide that the gun ex-
plodes and does damage to your char-
acter, or that an ally or bystander is The possible results from any instant action:
hit by the shot. If your character seeks
to seduce someone, a dramatic fail- Dramatic Failure A single chance roll is made and a 1 results
ure could mean that he outrages her, Failure No successes achieved on the roll
instead. If he conducts research, a dra- Success One or more successes achieved on the roll
matic failure can indicate that docu- Exceptional success Five or more successes achieved on the roll
ments are accidentally lost or de-

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Chapter 6- DRAMATIC SYSTEMS