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Plain Dumb Lucky.

Started by Aidan, September 25, 2009, 01:40:56 PM

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Aidan

Just wanted to know where I can find the 'plain dumb luck' rule, or better, exactly what it is. A friend of mine (who goes by the name of 'Dust King' around here) suggested it after the most spectacular round of shooting I have seen in many long years of wargaming.

I might as well elaborate. In the scenario I was GMing last weekend, in which the protagonists were supposed to prevent the assassination of an important statesman (well, two statesmen, but one more important than the other), the antagonists were having some ridiculously good rolling, stringing headshots together despite their lousy, supposedly jam-prone guns. They'd just reduced the primary target to a bloody mess on the canyon floor, and the secondary target was unconscious with an acute head injury, so the protagonists would have to literaly drag him off (alive) to even force a 'draw'. Then something remarkable happened.

Diraan Amriil, nicknamed 'Dirril', definitely the protagonists' least skilled gunfighter with a mediocre BS of 52, was the only one in a position to fire at the elite sniper backing the cannon-fodder assassins up and just about to pop the head of the secondary target when he was next dragged in line of sight. Dust King, controlling Dirril, decided to go for the long shot, and used his actions to aim, fire four shots semi-auto with his sub-machine gun, and then fire another four shots without reestablishing aim. Close enough not to suffer range penalties, Dirril's first four shots had a 32% chance of hitting, his second 4 a 12% chance. Of the first 4, all hit with a roll under 10%, two of them being placed shots. Of the second 4, 3 hit, all with rolls under 10%. I'm no statistician, but I'm pretty sure the chances of rolling 7 out of 8 <10 results on a D100 are pretty minimal. At the time, we were pretty much dumbstruck as the sniper was gunned to pieces by a character specifically described as a lousy shot.

So that brought us to decide that Dirril should have the Plain Dumb Luck ability. He's been lucky in the past - he's dodged at least two would-have-been headshots from high-powered rifles, and in his very first scenario he managed to commandeer an enemy helicopter mid-flight after careening an aircar off a bypass and leaping out to grab hold of the low-flying vehicle shooting at him. But, as far as sheer numerical improbability goes, this is just plain weird.

In fact, it's plain dumb lucky.

-Aidan.


phil1103

Stolen from Character Concepts thread.

Plain Dumb Luck
The Emperor smiles kindly on the character and they are able to defy the odds and extricate themselves from the most difficult of circumstances. Once per game they may re-roll any one Difficulty test and choose to keep either result, or you may force a -60 modifier on any opposing character's roll that directly affects the lucky character. GM's must be prepared to judge if there are any incongriuty in whether the character is affected by a roll.

Phil.

Kaled

Quote from: Aidan on September 25, 2009, 01:40:56 PM
Diraan Amriil, nicknamed 'Dirril', definitely the protagonists' least skilled gunfighter with a mediocre BS of 52
To be fair, BS=52 is not that mediocre - it's above average, between average and expert.  But still, that's a fantastically lucky set of shooting - between that and the other things it's definitely a fair reason to give him Plain Dumb Luck.
I like to remember things my own way... Not necessarily the way they happened.

Inquisitor - Blood Bowl - Malifaux - Fairy Meat

MarcoSkoll

Quote from: Kaled on September 25, 2009, 02:29:29 PMTo be fair, BS=52 is not that mediocre - it's above average, between average and expert.
Depends on how exactly you take the word "Mediocre". Mediocre is pretty much "Not really worthy of note", in my book, which works fine for a rather average BS like 52.

~~~~~

As I said in the Character Concepts thread, the original source is the Kal Jericho article, which can be found at the links in my signature as usual.

Anyway, Dirril sounds like he could get on well with my Terminator squad and Striking Scorpion Exarch, both of which have bent odds quite dramatically. In one Tau shooting phase, that Terminator squad took thirty-two 2+ saves and eight 5+ Inv saves with zero fails - at modest odds of 2,242,693 to 1 against.

Still, that falls a teeny bit short of the chances of 7 out of 8 D100 rolls being 9 or less, because 29,038,216 to 1 against is slightly improbable.
For reference, the odds of winning the jackpot on the UK lottery are a mere 13,983,816 to 1 against.

I think that's fair justification for Plain Dumb Luck. Although to tell the truth, he probably doesn't need it.
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

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Hadriel Caine

thanks again to Psycho for typing that up.

sound interesting. I think the BS is about average from what i've seen of characters that are actually used, rather than hypotheticals and rulebook stats.

Adam
The Fall of Astraea
Astrean OOC- feedback thread

\'You have to lie to keep people happy\'

Aidan

Thanks guys, Dirril now has Plain Dumb Luck under his abilities. One question, would the option of a -60 penalty to an opponent's roll, would the player have to declare before or after the roll was made? (The latter would make it a lot more valuable, of course.)

Quote from: MarcoSkoll on September 25, 2009, 04:47:11 PM
Quote from: Kaled on September 25, 2009, 02:29:29 PMTo be fair, BS=52 is not that mediocre - it's above average, between average and expert.
Depends on how exactly you take the word "Mediocre". Mediocre is pretty much "Not really worthy of note", in my book, which works fine for a rather average BS like 52.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I meant. And seeing as the guy has gone through military training twice and has a good 10 years of combat exprience, it does fall a little short of the mark expected for him.

Quote from: Adam Cunis on September 25, 2009, 06:00:15 PM
sound interesting. I think the BS is about average from what i've seen of characters that are actually used, rather than hypotheticals and rulebook stats.

With BS, I usually try to work it out by considering what it would be with a 20% bonus - ie, raising the gun to eye level. In Dirril's case, I took into account that he would often be firing on semi-auto, and a BS under 50 would start limiting him pretty much to auto-hits.

Quote from: MarcoSkoll on September 25, 2009, 04:47:11 PM
Still, that falls a teeny bit short of the chances of 7 out of 8 D100 rolls being 9 or less, because 29,038,216 to 1 against is slightly improbable.
For reference, the odds of winning the jackpot on the UK lottery are a mere 13,983,816 to 1 against.

Hmmm... that does put in in perspective. Wow. :o

-Aidan.

MarcoSkoll

Quote from: Aidan on September 25, 2009, 11:54:36 PMOne question, would the option of a -60 penalty to an opponent's roll, would the player have to declare before or after the roll was made?
My ruling is before, else it's just too powerful.

It is still akin to Might points in LotR - useless if squandered at the right time, but very powerful with wise use and a little luck.

QuoteHmmm... that does put in in perspective. Wow.
Well, if you think about it, simply rolling six 10 or under rolls on six D100s is a one in a million chance.

When you add in other two dice (even if one was a miss), and bring that down to 9 or under, that's even more unlikely. About 29 times less likely, in fact.
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles

Dust King

That was a epic game, just realising the first four shots had hit at <10 was great, but then deciding to roll the other four was amazing, I couldn't believe it and I was the one rolling ;D

Good times... good times.

TheNephew

And now that he's officially lucky, sit back and watch him fail every test he's forced to take...

It's this sort of story that makes Inquisitor the great campaign game it is.

psycho

Quote from: Adam Cunis on September 25, 2009, 06:00:15 PM
thanks again to Psycho for typing that up.
cheers but its ok guys

kerby

RobSkib

Quote from: MarcoSkoll on September 26, 2009, 01:27:09 AM
Quote from: Aidan on September 25, 2009, 11:54:36 PMOne question, would the option of a -60 penalty to an opponent's roll, would the player have to declare before or after the roll was made?
My ruling is before, else it's just too powerful.

I beg to differ, I've always played it as you can claim your Plain Dumb Luck after you've seen the dice roll. It's supposed to be powerful, yes, but it's supposed to be given to characters who have a habit of jinking out of bad situations anyway. It can only be used once, so if you're that worried about it, just reload your multimelta and try again... ;)
An Inquisitor walks into a bar - he rolls D100 to see if he hits it.
                                     +++++++
Gallery of my Inquisitor models here.

Kaled

I agree with Marco - if I were GMing the player would have to declare before the die roll was made.
I like to remember things my own way... Not necessarily the way they happened.

Inquisitor - Blood Bowl - Malifaux - Fairy Meat

MarcoSkoll

Yeah. It's not meant to be something you can use to guaranteed effect.

After all, if it is being used against a very nasty gun, then at least it will slaughter the chances of a placed shot, even if it doesn't guarantee a miss.
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles