In extended contests, the winner of a particular opposed action can choose to let the victory ride instead of translating it into a risk penalty for the opponent; in that case, the winner gets some bonus to their following rolls in the contest, which apply until either they decide to stop letting it ride, or until they lose a contest. Note that bonuses are cumulative, and every bonus applies until the contest is lost or the bonuses are cashed in. When the bonuses are cashed in, the risk factor for the opponent is increased by the amount of the bonus (for this one roll). Opposed actions (extended bonus): Difference of 0-1: No bonus (but current bonus can continue to let ride) Difference of 2/3: +1 bonus Difference of 4/5: +2 bonus Difference of 6+: +3 bonus ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Example: Meg and Claude have got into a duel in the middle of The Rusty Anchor. The other tavern patrons, knowing what's good for them, have mostly cleared out. Meg has a Cutlass skill of Great (+2), Claude's is Good (+1), and the risk factor begins at Poor (-2). In the first round, Meg gets a Superb (+3) and Claude gets a Fair (0). Meg decides to let this ride, so she has a running +1 bonus. In the next round, Meg gets a Superb+3 (+6) and Claude gets a Mediocre (-1). Meg has two options: cash in her +1 bonus, and get in an expert hit on Claude ("expert" since there's 6+ degrees of difference) with a risk factor of Mediocre (-2) (raised from the base of Poor (-2) because of her +1); or she can get an additional +3 bonus (from the difference of 6+) giving her a total +4 bonus. She does that. In the third round, Meg gets a Superb+4 (+7). Claude gets a Good (+1). Meg, again, can cash it or let it ride. If she cashes it, Claude becomes Hurt (twice) and suffers a -1 penalty on following rounds. If she doesn't, then she'll have a total +7 bonus for round four, which would mean she almost certainly wins (unless she rolls a -4 and Claude rolls a +4, which wouldn't be a calamity, just a reset back to round one). So say she lets it ride. In the fourth round, she has Superb+5 (8), and Claude has a Good (+1). She cashes in the 7 bonus, raising the risk level to Superb (+3) (we'll say it's capped there), and Claude now has either a Very Hurt tickmark (and so is at -2 to future rolls) or loses an arm or something. We'll say the former, although the latter is I guess a strategic possibility (but not really more than twice). In round five, Meg gets a Great (+2), and Claude gets a Mediocre (-1) (due to the penalty). Meg lets it ride (since all she can do otherwise is give Claude a Scratch, which won't matter until he gets two more Scratches and two Hurts). In round six, Meg gets a Superb+1 (+4), and Claude gets a Fair (0). Meg lets it ride and has a +3 total bonus. In round seven, Meg only gets a Great (+2), but it doesn't matter since Claude gets a Poor (-2). She, again, sees no reason not to let it ride and is up to +5. In round eight, Meg gets a Superb+3 (+6), and Claude gets a Fair (0). Same deal as before -- Meg goes up to +8 and doesn't cash it in. Round nine, whatever Meg gets she wins, cashes it in, and Claude has been Very Hurt twice. Sadly, under the rules as written, this isn't enough to take him out, so there'd be another four rounds of this (unless Claude gets lucky, which is possible, but with a total of -3 worse than her (since he was worse by 1 at the start) he's not likely to get lucky for long enough to actually win). So, we need to change things. One possibility is just to drop the number of Very Hurt boxes to 1 -- you get two, you're out of there. This is kind of lame, though. Another is to take advantage of the fact that it's (relatively) much easier to apply Hurt tickmarks than Very Hurt ones. A +4 or +5 risk level will do it. So, hmm, keeping the same die rolls, let's see how this goes if Meg tries for that. Round 1: Meg Superb, Claude Fair. Meg lets it ride, total bonus: +1. Round 2: Meg Superb+3, Claude Mediocre. Meg lets it ride, total bonus: +4. Round 3: Meg Superb+4, Claude Good. Let's say Meg cashes it, although that is clearly stupid (since next round she'll be able to do a Very Hurt). Claude is now Hurt once. Round 4: Meg Good, Claude Fair (since he's Hurt). Meg has to cash it, since she gets no bonus. Claude is now Hurt once and Scratched once. [Note that at this point we're effectively where we were in the previous fight, only Meg is slightly worse off since Claude is only Hurt, not Very Hurt] Round 5: Meg Great, Claude Fair. Meg lets it ride, total bonus is +1. Round 6: Meg Superb+1, Claude Good. Meg's total bonus increases to +2. Round 7: Meg Good, Claude Mediocre. Meg's total bonus increases to +3. Round 8: Meg Superb+1, Claude Good. Meg's total bonus increases to +4. Round 9: -- well, ok, what probably happens here is that Meg wins and cashes in her bonus, Hurting Claude a second time. So all this example proved is that going for Hurt isn't a particularly effective strategy either, at least not with these die rolls. You could say, looking back, that Meg should try for Very Hurt on the first strike and then go for Hurt next, but that wouldn't finish him off in less than 9 rounds, which is the objective. Ideally what we want is a 5-6 round match. So, a third alternative is for Meg is just go for Scratches. The problem with this strategy is Claude can take other penalties instead of Scratches (stumbling or dropping his weapon or something), but ignoring that, let's just see how it goes. Round 1: Meg Superb, Claude Fair. It seems like it's most efficient to try for the +1 or +2 risk factor increase and get multiple scratches at once, so Meg lets this ride. Round 2: Meg Superb+3, Claude Mediocre. Meg (perhaps foolishly) cashes in her bonus. Claude has two Scratches. Round 3: Meg Superb, Claude Good. Meg cashes it in again. Claude has three Scratches. [Note that in the previous fight Claude was Hurt once at this point, so we're in some sense in the same position] Round 4: Meg Good, Claude Good. Claude still Scratched thrice. Round 5: Meg Great, Claude Good. This is just a degree-1 difference, so it's not even enough to make Claude take a penalty. Round 6: Meg Superb, Claude Great. Ditto. Round 7: Meg Mediocre, Claude Good. "Well, crap," Meg says. Round 8: Meg Good, Claude Great. Anyway, we draw a merciful veil over this fight as Claude probably gets his revenge. Anyway, this-all is just not that good: the fights take too long and the outcome seems too inevitable (although Meg did get some good die rolls). So I guess we need an alternate system. To fix the bonus increasing too much, we could make the bonus not increase so dramatically: say, instead of summing, you get the highest bonus you've got so far. This encourages people to cash out earlier, I suspect, but that might be a good thing. Assuming we go with this, then the bonuses get assigned earlier: tie=+0, 1=+1, 2/3=+2, 4/5=+3, 6+=+4 To fix it taking so long, I guess we could change "when you have a Hurt box checked, you're Hurt" to "when all the Scratched boxes are checked, you're hurt". But that screws up other things earlier (where you get a Hurt box directly). So another possibility is just to lower the number of boxes. Say, one Hurt box and one Very Hurt (when you get Hurt it is pretty much bad news, in that case, but it would work -- could possibly introduce the "wound not as bad as it looked" fudge point usage). In that case I guess Great risk makes them Very Hurt, and Superb makes them Incapacitated. Which is crazy, but you really don't want to be getting to Superb risk, I suppose. Anyway, a playthrough with this system: Round 1: Meg Superb, Claude Fair. Meg lets it ride, +2 bonus. Round 2: Meg Superb+4, Claude Mediocre. Meg lets it ride, +4 bonus (the +2 was wasted, but oh well) Round 3: Meg Superb+4, Claude Good. Meg cashes it. Claude is Very Hurt (under the revised effects of Great (+2) risk). Round 4: Meg Good, Claude Mediocre (since he's Very Hurt). Meg gets a +2 bonus. Round 5: Meg Superb+1, Claude Mediocre. Meg takes the +3 bonus. Round 6: Meg Superb+3, Claude Fair. Meg takes the +4 bonus. Round 7: Meg Superb, Claude Poor. Meg cashes in and he's Incapacitated. Finally! Not to mention that if Claude was smart he might have surrendered after round 3. Let's try another simulation under these rules. Round 1: Meg Superb+1 (she has all the luck), Claude Fair. Meg takes the +3 bonus. Round 2: Meg Superb+2, Claude Great. Claude got lucky this time in some sense. So should she cash the +3 and make him Hurt, or hope to get Very Hurt (shouldn't be too hard). Probably the latter is smarter. Round 3: They both continue showing off their mad swordfighting skillz: Superb+4 and Great, still not quite enough of a lead for Meg. Round 4: Superb and Mediocre. Round 5: Superb+1 and Good. Round 6: Superb+2 and Superb. Round 7: Superb and Good. Round 8: Superb+3 and Superb. Round 9: Superb+2 and Superb (still can't get him!) Round 10: Superb and Fair. At this point they get bored and quit. Now, consider the alternate universe where Meg cashes in round 2. Round 3: Superb+1 and Good. Meg takes the +2 (so she's back to where she was because he's Hurt). Round 4: Superb and Poor. Meg takes the +3. Round 5: Superb+1 and Fair. Since he's Hurt already, Meg cashes the +3 and he's Hurt again, so goes to Very Hurt. Round 6: Great and Good. Meg takes the +1. Round 7: Good and Mediocre. Meg takes the +2. Round 8: Superb+2 and Good. Meg takes the +3. Round 9: Superb+2 and Good. Meg cashes the +3 and it's curtains for Claude. One more simulation. Round 1: Meg Fair, Claude Great. (Uh-oh, Meg!) Claude takes the +2. Round 2: Meg Great, Claude Superb. Round 3: Meg Superb, Claude Superb+3. Round 4: Meg Superb, Claude Great. (Man, look at Meg go). Meg takes the +1. Round 5: Meg Superb+3, Claude Superb+2. Round 6: Meg Good, Claude Superb. Claude takes the +2. Round 7: Meg Good, Claude Superb. Round 8: Meg Superb, Claude Superb+1. Round 9: Meg Good, Claude Great. Round 10: Meg Fair, Claude Great. And now death by boredom/exhaustion kicks in again. The other issue is that it's generally great to be Meg (literally Great, in fact) here, and not so great to be Claude. But ignoring that for the moment, let's at least see that fights go quick when one person totally outclasses the other: Meg (Great) fights apprentice soldier Boffo (Mediocre). Round 1: Meg Great, Boffo Fair. Meg takes the +2. Round 2: Meg Good, Boffo Mediocre. Round 3: Meg Good, Boffo Fair (you outclass him, Meg, remember?). Round 4: Meg Superb, Boffo Good. Round 5: Meg Superb+1, Boffo Mediocre (finally!). Meg takes the +3. Round 6: Meg Superb+1, Boffo Mediocre. Meg cashes the +3 and Boffo is Hurt. Round 7: Meg Good, Boffo Terrible-1. Meg takes the +3. Round 8: Meg Superb, Boffo Poor. Meg cashes the +3 and Boffo is Very Hurt. Round 9: Meg Superb, Boffo Terrible. Meg takes the +4. Round 10: Meg Superb+4, Boffo Mediocre. Meg cashes the +4 and Boffo is out. Ok, that was unexpected. Let's try another one. Round 1: Meg Superb, Boffo Great. Meg takes the +1. Round 2: Meg Superb+3, Boffo Mediocre. Meg takes the +4. Round 3: Meg Superb+5, Boffo Fair. Meg cashes the +4 and Boffo is Very Hurt. Round 4: Meg Fair, Boffo Good (hey, it happens). Boffo takes the +1. Round 5: Meg Superb+1, Boffo Mediocre (but you know which way to bet). Meg takes the +3 (note that she can't cash this in, since he's not Hurt, just Very Hurt). Round 6: Meg Superb+1, Boffo Terrible-1. Meg takes the +4. Round 7: Meg Superb+3, Boffo Terrible-1. Meg cashes the +4 and Boffo is out. I'm sure there's a moral here but damned if I know what it is. Again, realistically Meg should have told Boffo to surrender after round 3 since it was clear where things were going. Also, there's something of a problem here in that the absolute best-case combat is still going to take four rounds (get a +4, cash it, get a +4, cash it) -- but then, maybe that's reasonable given that it's Poor (-2) risk level. At any higher level note that it suddenly drops to only two rounds, as the +4 would be enough to raise the risk level to Superb (+3) and hence Incapacitate Boffo. Even on a slower situation it'd often go +2, +3/+4, cash. Another idea here would be to let the combatants choose to raise the risk level by 1 at the start of the round. Maybe you can raise it by as much as you want, but you suffer a -1 to your roll this round by level you raise it by (mechanically, to keep you from raising it too much, and to compensate the other person for having things get nastier than they expected; story-wise, because you're pressing in harder and hence opening yourself up some). It seems like for fairness this should be stated *before* people declare their actions, so they can say, I dunno, "As you charge in towards me I brace for a riposte" or something. In this last fight, say Meg raises by 2 at round 1 to try and finish things. Boffo gets a +1 bonus after round 1, but then Meg gets a +3 after round 2, and cashes in round 3 to Incapacitate Boffo (due to the higher risk level). How would the previous fight go with that rule? Round 1: Meg raises the risk by 2 and the combatants tie. Round 2: The combatants tie again. Round 3: Boffo takes a +1. Round 4: Boffo realizes he can cash for a Hurt and does so. Round 5: Meg Good, Boffo Mediocre. Meg takes the +2. Round 6: Meg Great, Boffo Mediocre. Round 7: Meg Great, Boffo Terrible-1. Meg takes the +4. Round 8: Meg Superb, Boffo Poor. Meg cashes the +4 and wins. So even if you're rolling crappy, it's good to raise the risk if you're better. Which we expected. Anyway, I'm not sure what to do about the Claude/Meg fights. I don't want Meg to always win just because she's one skill level better or because she got lucky early in the fight and won a good degree, but I also want things to end reasonably quickly if a contestant gets into a bad situation and doesn't manage to get themselves out of it. (Note that then one reasonably clever thing to do is, if you have a +3 bonus, raise the risk level: you'll be down to +2 for one round, but if you make it through ok, then next round you're at an effective +4 for damage). Also, a final note is that it would be pretty easy to adapt this to other kinds of contests: you just need each contestant to have a skill and some amount of resources. Like, climbing a mountain: the climber has Mountain Climbing and three boxes of Endurance, the mountain has Unconquerability or something and, say, four boxes of Height. You'd just need to decide when to check off a box -- maybe you can check off Endurance or Height whenever you would be able to inflict a Hurt or Very Hurt wound (obviously, thematically this would be the climber getting tired or getting frostbite or a piton coming lose or whatever, or the climber reaching rest-stop after rest-stop on the mountain).