Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[Frank Crank]

Hello I just read through the Showdown rules. They seemed fine but Iam not realy clear about how to conduct skill checks e.g. attacks.

Do you roll only the skill die
OR can you chose to roll the skill die or the attribute die
OR both will be used and one result has to be picked?


Sorry for this basic question but for me it is not realy clearly explained in the book. In the according text it is stated that you have to use the Attribute die or the skill die. If this would be the case, then there is no link between the attribute and the skill, right?

FRANK

[Thunderforge]

They're essentially two names for the same thing: the die you roll when making a check. If you are making a "Fighting" check, you would roll the "Fighting die", a.k.a. the skill die because Fighting is a skill. If you are making an "Agility" check you would roll the "Agility die", a.k.a. the attribute die because Agility is an attribute.

So if you have Fighting at d6 and Agility at d8, you would roll the d6 whenever you make a Fighting skill check and a d8 whenever you make an Agility check. The "link" between the two only exists for the purpose of giving a unit a skill (it's more expensive to push a skill higher than its linked attribute). Even though Fighting is linked to Agility (for purposes of purchasing the skill), you will never roll the d8 in Agility when you want to make a Fighting attack.

Also, don't forget that all Wild Cards get to roll a "Wild Die" along with all skill and attribute checks. So if a Wild Card has a Fighting at d10, they roll a d10 and a d6 and take the better of the two results (but don't add them).

[Frank Crank]

Mmmh, that sounds a bit strange to me. Extremas are very good to show any flaws. So in this case a chacrakter without fighting ability but d20 in Agility is only rolling a d4-2 when fighting. On the other hand a character with agility of d4 but a fighting skill of a d6 is much better off. When comparing the point value also the one with less agility is cheaper, right?

Bye, Frank

[Thunderforge]

First off, you can't have a d20 in a skill. Skills range from d4 to d12. Raising it one die type higher than a d12 gives you a d12+1, and another gives you a d12+2. (Since there's no d14 and d16 in a standard die set, that's the alternative). The target number is usually 4, so if you're getting a d12 plus some number, you're probably always going to succeed.

Otherwise, what you've said is correct: the one with less agility is cheaper than the one with a boatload of agility and more fighting. I don't know the math exactly, but I'm pretty sure that increasing an attribute by a die type costs more points than increasing a skill by a die type (but as previously stated it costs double to increase a skill die beyond its governing attribute). So the d12+4 Agility and untrained Fighting character would be worth more points than the d4 in Agility and the d6 in Fighting. The former would more or less auto-succeed at any Agility tests though (perhaps the scenario says that they have to make Agility tests to try to dodge falling rocks or something) whereas the latter would be merely average.

EDIT: By the way, Trait = Attribute. I'm mixing game terms here. Savage Showdown seems to prefer the term Trait for Agility, Smarts, etc.

[Clint]