Mechanical question: is +3 always the maximum?
Put another way, let’s say you’ve got Hard+3 and you get a +1ongoing from some game effect but then you also get a +1forward, when you next roll+hard do you get a +5 to the roll, or is it still just +3?
Mechanical question: is +3 always the maximum?
Mechanical question: is +3 always the maximum?
I think the +5 is certainly more fair than capping out at +3, in the example you give. It’s how I’ve run it in the past.
I don’t recall any rule saying you can’t have more than a +3 to a roll. The rules say +3 is the maximum for a stat, but no cap for a roll that I recall. I would have the player roll at +5 in the example you give also.
There are a number of examples in the book which suggest you might make a roll with a + greater than 3. Healing someone with “roll + stock spent” could be anything for example. Being hit with 4harm might mean you make the harm roll at +4 etc.
Help, Read a Sitch, No Shit Driver
etc. you can get quite high in the right circumstances.
I’m not sure about this but I’m sure Meguey Baker (subtle summon) would know.
+5
Drew Harpunea’s got the right of this. +3 is the max for a stat, but you have legit a +5 to a roll? You are one lucky and/or resource-wise badass.
Cool, I thought that was the case but I didn’t feel confident enough to say so with certainty.
I have never, I mean never, seen anyone stack bonuses in AW. I don’t even know how I would react to that.
I’ve seen it once or twice. It’s not common, by a long shot.
Wait, what? For real? You people don’t both read a sitch and then get help from another PC? Or ask the savvyhead for advice? Or if you’re the driver and you’re behind the wheel, you don’t ever get another bonus?
Consider my mind blown!
Yeah, as Christopher Weeks touches on, the Driver particularly can get really high rolls pretty easily. You can with only one advance (+1 Hard) have a Driver who rolls +4 basic in Go Aggro and Seize when in their car. You only need to have also just read a sitch, and be acting on it, or you’re being helped by a friend, or you’ve had nice happy sex with a Gunlugger who likes you just before… you’re now +5.
I’ve seen this plenty of times. Monsterhearts does it best for me, you can stack bonuses but you can never get higher than a +5 to a single roll. This is essentially my custom homefront move in Apoc World now and any hacks I MC.
You know how the workspace move promotes activity? Oh, I need to get help from Dremmer? Let’s go talk to Dremmer… I think that having the system open to occasionally needing really high rolls can do that too.
OK, shit, I need to go talk to Spector, he’s oftener right and anyway, he might have some useful gear. Now, how do I get October both on my side and in the sack…he can deliver a +1 forward. And then, wouldn’t it be helpful if Gritch had my back? And I know that anyone who sleeps a night under the UFO gets an advantage…but, well…maybe the squirpions won’t attack tonight or I can bargain with their queen. And so on…
I don’t even vaguely think that the ability to accumulate these bonuses is a bug that needs fixing. It’s a feature! I mean, maybe that’s what Monsterhearts needed. But it doesn’t seem like a wise rule for everything.
Maybe people who want to help are hard to find? Maybe people don’t check things out before they rush in?
It depends on the group, the characters, and the situations at hand – some of our games are help-heavy (“Are you helping me regulate the holding?”, “Dunno, are you rewarding me for propping up your rule?”) others are more like a group gravitational bodies distantly acting on each other (“We can help?”, “Come on! I am Oftener Right!”).