Rolling Dice and Using a Flaw's Rating

[Stan Shinn]

I’m trying to figure out when you would use your Flaw's rating mechanically. I get the role of using Flaws to provide narrative flavor and make the game story interesting, but when would you actually roll the dice? Here are some ideas on my end — what do you do in your games?

• Flaw as an Ability: You can use your Flaw like any other ability if it makes narrative sense in gameplay. If your flaw is ‘Hideous Visage’ from having terrible scars all over your body, the GM may allow you to use ‘Hideous Visage’ when you’re trying to intimidate someone. 
• Flaw as an Augment: Using the  ‘Hideous Visage’ example above, instead of using the Flaw as an ability, you'd attempt to use it as an augment. You roll your Flaw rating. If you succeed,  ‘Hideous Visage’ is an augment to another ability you then roll when attempting to intimidate someone.
• Acting Against Your Flaw: Perhaps this could work a bit like Pendragon, where you roll to see if you act according to your Flaw, or if you can act in a manner not like your flaw. Let’s say your Flaw is ‘Insatiable Curiosity’. If you find a mysterious device with a big red button, you’d roll your Flaw’s rating. If you succeed then you act according to your Flaw and push the button; if you fail you resist your Flaw and can choose not to push it. Maybe like in the Fate RPG, you can spend a Story Point to resist the Flaw even if the dice tell you otherwise. It would be on the GM Hmmm, not sure about this approach — thoughts?

Any other ideas on how and when you’d actually roll dice and actually use the Flaw’s rating?

Edited November 8, 2022 by Stan Shinn

[Stan Shinn]

Looking at the SRD for QuestWorlds again, it looks like 'Flaw as an Ability' is disallowed:

Quote

"Your character may have one or more flaws. Unlike an ability, you do not use a flaw to accomplish something; instead the GM uses your flaw to hinder you from accomplishing something, or invokes your flaw to force you to act a certain way. Flaws are used to enrich your character and provide story obstacles to be overcome."

What is not clear to me from the SRD is how mechanically "invokes your flaw to force you to act a certain way" would work. I'm guessing it's something like my 'Acting Against Your Flaw' description above where you roll to see if you can act against a Flaw.

So would succeeding on a Flaw roll mean you have to act according to it, or would that success mean you can act against it? I'm thinking only a Failure would mean you could act against it, since the higher a Flaw is rated means its harder it is to not act in accordance with it.

Edited November 8, 2022 by Stan Shinn

[Stan Shinn]

Here's a genre-specific idea for using Flaws. In Superhero games, Flaws could be your power's weakness. 

• Flaw as Power Limit: In games with superheroic powers, the Flaw could be a limit on one of your superpowers. Superman could have the 'Vulnerable to Kryptonite' Flaw. If the hero encounters kryptonite, they'd roll to see if the vulnerability takes effect. Succeeding on the 'Vulnerable to Kryptonite' Flaw roll means the vulnerability takes effect, shutting down your power and weakening you. If you failed the Flaw roll, the Flaw doesn't take effect; you manage to crawl away or put a lead cover over the rocks and escape the effects of the kryptonite.

Thoughts on this usage?

[Stan Shinn]

Here's a variation on the 'Acting Against Your Flaw' idea in my original post. In  'Acting Against Your Flaw' your roll with your Flaw as your target number, and the GM rolls in opposition as usual. 'Flaw as Story Obstacle' works slightly differently.

• Flaw as Story Obstacle: In this variation, your ‘Insatiable Curiosity’ is the opposition target number. If your ‘Insatiable Curiosity’ is rated 15, the GM would roll dice using ‘Insatiable Curiosity’ as the opposition target number. The player then finds another ability (perhaps their 'Determined to Protect My Friends' ability) and roll that ability and compares it to the GM's result.

Thoughts on 'Flaw as Story Obstacle' (GM rolling the opposition using the Flaw as the target number) vs.  'Acting Against Your Flaw' (where there is no opposition and the player rolls with the Flaw as the target number). I suspect 'Flaw as Story Obstacle' is more in line with the normal QuestWorld core mechanic.

[AlHazred]

I have allowed Flaws to be used as Augments, but there are consequences. In the example you give, if a character used their "Hideous Scars" flaw to augment an Intimidation ability, the person intimidated would spread the information among their own circles ("Family," "Clan," or similar). Also, I'd generally only allow something like that in a specific case, like if the person being intimidated had a "Vain About Appearance" or similar Flaw of their own.

[Eff]

On 11/8/2022 at 9:26 AM, Stan Shinn said:

Looking at the SRD for QuestWorlds again, it looks like 'Flaw as an Ability' is disallowed:

What is not clear to me from the SRD is how mechanically "invokes your flaw to force you to act a certain way" would work. I'm guessing it's something like my 'Acting Against Your Flaw' description above where you roll to see if you can act against a Flaw.

So would succeeding on a Flaw roll mean you have to act according to it, or would that success mean you can act against it? I'm thinking only a Failure would mean you could act against it, since the higher a Flaw is rated means its harder it is to not act in accordance with it.

Section 2.7 lays this out in full detail, but there are two rules which this applies to.

First one of these concerns Flaws and tactics. What happens is that when you use a tactic that overtly contradicts your Flaw, you take a hindrance on the roll for that tactic, and if there's a dubious conflict there or you have an ability you can use to try and overcome that Flaw's effects, you can roll that out as a contest- your Flaw against base resistance. Degree of success determines the penalty you take from it- on a defeat, no penalty, the Flaw is overcome, on a victory, you take -5 and an additional -5 for each success you received. 

Second one comes into operation during general narration. If the Flaw is relevant to the ongoing story, and you choose to act in accordance with it, the GM "might impose a hindrance on further actions". But if you choose to resist it, it's a simple contest- find an Ability that can produce a credible tactic for resisting the Flaw, use the Flaw's rating as the resistance, victory allows you to overcome the flaw (and possibly take a penalty on a relevant Ability) and defeat means you succumb to the Flaw and the GM might impose a hindrance on further actions. 

So the answer is "it depends"- when the Flaw is interfering with a specific tactic, you're trying to roll over the Flaw. When the Flaw is interfering with actions outside of a specific contest, you're trying to roll under the Ability you're using to resist and overcome the Flaw. There's a minor rules hole here- when you spend Story Points on the first instance of Flaws, do they add successes to the "your" roll, the Flaw, or do they add successes to the resistance, the "GM" roll? But in any case, I think that these rules might be better served as a paired set of options that don't have to be used simultaneously, like a softer form of picking a Sequence type to use. 

I wouldn't allow the use of Flaws as if they were Abilities, because they're specifically something which works against the character when they're trying to overcome obstacles or answer questions, and they "mirror" your highest, second-highest, and lowest abilities (depending on how many you take). If a player wanted to describe something about their character that was sometimes a hindrance and sometimes a benefit, I would have them make a paired Ability and Flaw that reflected the same fact about their character. 

The one instance where I could see Flaws being usable as if they were Abilities might be in a PVP-heavy game where you could use your Flaws solely to put hindrances on another PC, but even then, that would be a fairly abstract rule that would demand the specific game carefully frame what could be used as a Flaw, I think. 

I think that broadly I would not allow Flaws that weren't relevant to the genre of the specific game- "Hideous Visage" should only be a Flaw if it's something that would consistently interfere with the character's ability to overcome obstacles and answer questions. It might be appropriate for a game where you need to interact with high-society intrigue where appearance might well be an essential part of getting people to listen to you, but I wouldn't say it's relevant to a superhero game generally. Somebody like the Thing or Chamber with angst about their unusual appearance should probably have that Flaw clarified to emphasize the psychological aspect- their hang-up about their appearance causes them internal problems more than external problems. 

Edited November 10, 2022 by Eff
additional clarification

[Stan Shinn]

On 11/10/2022 at 3:56 PM, Eff said:

Section 2.7 lays this out in full detail, but there are two rules which this applies to....

Thank you for such a detailed and insightful response! Very helpful! 🙂