Page 133 - World of Darkness

Successive Attempts ing that he “goes for broke” before the activity is performed.
You then spend a Willpower point in a reflexive action to
If your character fails an action in a turn, he can try gain three dice on your roll.
again in the next turn if time and circumstances permit. Willpower should be spent and three dice are added
He can throw darts for fun over and over again until he to your dice pool before all penalties for your roll have
hits a bull’s eye. Other situations don’t allow for repeated been applied. So, form your pool, add all bonuses — in-
efforts. Your character might have a limited opportunity cluding your three dice from Willpower — and then sub-
to break down a door to get out of an inferno before he’s tract all penalties. Yes, that means if penalties are suffi-
burned alive. When time is a complete luxury and your ciently extreme, you could be reduced to a chance roll
character is under absolutely no pressure, the Storyteller even if you have spent Willpower for three extra dice.
may allow you to make successive attempts with a full Circumstances are stacked so heavily against your char-
dice pool. No penalties are imposed. acter that not even sheer determination can improve his
If, however, time is short and/or the circumstances odds of success.
are tense, a repeated effort can be attempted in each sub- Example: Your character tries to deactivate a bomb,
sequent turn, and the Storyteller can choose to levy pen- but he has no tools whatsoever, and he’s literally in the dark.
alties on successive attempts. Generally, a -1 penalty ac- His Intelligence + Science total is 3. A spent Willpower
cumulates with each attempt after the first: -1 for the sec- point adds three more, for a subtotal of six. The Storyteller
ond try, -2 for the third, and so on. The Storyteller is free decides that darkness imposes a -3 penalty, for a final total of
to make the penalty more severe if the stress is particu- three dice.
larly high. The Storyteller allows successive attempts to Now, if your character had no Science dots at all and he
break down the aforementioned door, for example, but still tried to deactivate the bomb, your roll would be based on
each roll after the first might be at a -2 penalty. Intelligence alone and would suffer a -3 penalty since
The nature of the action determines whether second Science is a Mental Skill (see. p. 63). You therefore decide
chances are possible. They might be if your character at- to spend a Willpower point. If your character has 2 Intelli-
tempts to persuade someone of something, parallel park gence, your dice pool starts out at five (2 + 3 for Will-
or wriggle free from ropes that bind her. It does not apply power), but the -3 untrained penalty and -3 darkness
if your character fails an attempt to shoot someone, de- penalty reduce your pool to zero dice. You must make a
tect an ambush, catch a baseball, notice a clue or to do chance roll for your character to succeed, even though you
anything else at which she has only one chance to suc- spent Willpower on the task.
ceed. If you spend Willpower for extra dice and your pool is
Example: Laura struggles to remember the punch-code still reduced to no dice by penalties, the Storyteller may
to the laboratory door as the security guard’s footsteps grow allow you to reclaim the Willpower point. After all, with-
closer. The Intelligence + Composure roll made for her out those three extra dice you were still going to be re-
comes up with no successes. Laura’s player asks the duced to a chance roll. Before making the attempt, your
Storyteller if she can try again. The Storyteller allows one character realizes that the effort is nigh hopeless, with or
more attempt before the security guard appears, but at a -1 without all his determination. Alternatively, the Story-
penalty because it’s a successive attempt. Laura’s Intelligence teller may insist that your Willpower is spent, even though
+ Composure total is normally five, which is reduced to four its benefits are lost due to penalties. He may say that your
due to the -1 penalty.
character must go through with his focused effort once
Note that successive attempts cannot usually be made the point has been spent. It’s the Storyteller’s prerogative
in the stages of an extended action. If one roll in an ex- to go either way.
tended action nets no successes, you can’t re-roll it in a It’s too late to spend Willpower if you’ve already rolled
successive attempt. No progress is made at that stage of for an action. That is, if you compose your pool, remove
the project, the time is wasted, and the next normal roll dice for penalties, roll and get no successes, you can’t an-
in the effort is made. If, however, a whole extended action nounce that you spend a Willpower point to roll three
fails (the total successes required is not met), the Story- more dice. It’s too late.
teller may allow another attempt to be made at it. All the Only one Willpower point can be spent per turn no
rolls in the new attempt may be subject to a penalty. See matter how it’s used.
“Rule of Thumb: Extended Actions,” above, for more in- Willpower can be spent on only one roll at a time in
formation. an extended action. If your character goes for broke at
each stage (for each roll), you have to spend a Willpower
Heroic Effort point at each stage.
If for some reason your character’s Resolve and/or
Sometimes just trying to accomplish a feat isn’t Composure temporarily increases during play, perhaps as
enough for your character. It’s do or die. He has to make a a result of a mystical spell, he gains one Willpower point
leap or catch a falling child or make his last bullet hit the per dot increase. Essentially, he has access to one or more
mark. That’s when he puts his all into it. You can have free Willpower points for the duration of the effect. When
your character make this extraordinary effort by announc- his Attribute returns to normal dots, your character loses

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Chapter 6- DRAMATIC SYSTEMS