12 thoughts on “Can data points be applied after a roll?”

  3. My gut says yes. It would make them much less useful if you could only spend them beforehand, not knowing if they would make the difference — especially since by default you can only get them on 10+ results. Their scarcity suggests spending post-roll is, if not intended, at least a better way of running them.

  5. Absolutely. They’re intended to give an edge when needed.

    Mathematically, here’s the breakdown.

    – There are 36 possible rolls on 2d6

    – The only time a Data Point is useful is on a 6 (taking it up to the 7-9 result) or on a 9 (taking it up to the 10+). Otherwise doesn’t change the result at all.

    – The chances of rolling a 6 or a 9 on 2d6 are 9 out of 36, which is to say 25%.

    – Spending a Data Point before the roll will end up with a wasted data point 75% of the time.

    – Saving a Data Point until you need it means there’s a 1-in-4 chance that Data Point could save you from worse consequences.

    – On average, each character will make 4.75 rolls in a session, making it very likely that at least one roll will succeed or fail based on whether they had an appropriate Data Point.

  10. Snap, good eye, Antti. Yeah, Familiarity’s “keep it if the move succeeds” makes it sound like you’re spending it before hand and don’t know what will happen.

    I guess that clause might be important in situations with “Get Involved,” where you resolve your roll, use a Datapoint, and then someone else uses G.I. to knock your roll back down?

  11. Heh, I was wondering about this same subject when I saw the preview, and after seeing this I came to conclusion that data point should be used before the roll. That’s why I remembered it 🙂

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