Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[tigerguy786]

How do you explain what happens when a PC needs to spend a benny on a re-roll?

Do you wait until the PC has spent whatever bennies they're going to spend before deciding on a narrative or do you factor in the attempts as say "Almost missing the leap, but you grab the ledge and pull yourself up."?
(Almost missing the leap representing the failed agility test and grabbing the ledge representing the raise on the subsequent re-roll)
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TIGER, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

[vitamin_dei]

Depends entirely on the circumstances for me. If it was a longshot to begin with then I may narrate it as a by-the-skin-of-their-teeth success to underline the drama of the situation. If they were blowing bennies to be a Big Damn Hero I try to let that happen.

In a recent TPA game a player was using one of the pregens who was designed around skills and bennies (Luck, Great Luck, Young). At a dramatic moment the player played against type and burned three bennies to take out an enemy when the dice were constantly working against him. Big Damn Hero. If he'd been disarming a bomb or landing a plane or something I probably would have described it as a very lucky last minute save.

tldr; Whatever's most in service of a cool story.

[ValhallaGH]

Circumstantial.

I usually try to include some note of the prior failure, but the final description has to wait until the action has been fully resolved.
Of course, I encourage my players to describe things. Their ideas are often very interesting.
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"Got a problem? I've got the solution: Rocket Launcher."
"Not against a Servitor."
"... We're all gonna die."

[Jordan Peacock]

If it's a Critical Failure that got rerolled, I usually can't resist the temptation to describe it as something that LOOKED like it was going to go horribly wrong, but the hero surprised at the last moment and pulled through.

However, I've been on the flip side in a game where it amused the GM to describe things such that every time someone failed a trait roll and then spent a Benny to turn it into a success, it was a goofy recovery. I feel guilty about letting that bug me. For instance, while making a Stealth roll, you stumble and quite nearly blow it, but there's some stroke of luck that saves you, distracting your enemy at the right moment. I think he envisioned Bennies as "stupid hero luck" rather than "rule of cool." I suppose it depends on the tone you're aiming for (e.g., "Ghostbusters"-level silliness, rather than Call-of-Cthulhu horror or epic high fantasy).
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[Kythkyn]

[Snate56]

Technically, using a Benny means the previous action never happened, but however you want to describe it works.




SteveN
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"We've got a blind date with destiny... and it looks like she's ordered the lobster." <The Shoveller>

[The Dread Polack]

I always think of bennies as something being spent by the player, completely unconnected to the physics of what's happening in the game world. Therefor, there is no "prior failed attempts" to describe. Whatever the final result is, is the only result. Not that there's anything wrong with describing it that way, but it's how I always do it.

If a character is unlikely to have made the roll, but does; that's when I describe it as looking like a lucky shot- regardless of whether any bennies were spent on it.

[samuraicrab]

I am old school and say bennies represent a wild cards "Fate". They are simply destined for great things and bennies makes sure misfortune doesn't happen. Unusually good luck or a higher power intervining on there behalf, they are speacil people.