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Episode 1968: The Gate Is Straight, Deep, and Wide

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If something a PC is about to attempt is going to be dangerous - possibly more dangerous than the player realises - it's a nice touch to give them a gentle warning. Try useful phrases like, "That's going to be tricky", "You're not really sure if you can do this", or "It's a wolf, not a puppy dog".

Commentary by memnarch (who has not seen the movie)

Wait, the Force guides Rey's hand? Is Luke going to suddenly show up here on this ship as well? Is Rey being a secret Jedi of some sort why Pete's character build for her has seemed surprisingly underpowered so far? Is Kylo Ren secretly manipulating things in the distance despite not being anywhere near the one remaining spy or having a probable reason to know what's going on? Sally has been pretty quiet lately... There can't actually be something other than good timing in the movie right?

I'm a bit surprised the rathtar didn't immediately eat Finn but dragged him down the hallway first. Maybe after the couple guavas, it was feeling a little too full to eat a fin at the moment as well. Or it wanted to share with the other rathtars? I don't think squid or octopodes usually share food. Though, it could also be bringing tribute for being a part of the Rathtar gang.

I wonder what exactly a Fate point does in this system that can make a 6 turn into success. The Fate system has Fate points that can give a bonus to a roll, allow a reroll, or activate powerful stunts for example, but Fate is also not a d20-based game. Lots of d20 systems have versions of their own special points for extra things: Inspiration, Hero, and Victory to name some. They've only come up once before in comic as far as I remember, so maybe we'll get a better idea if we continue seeing them in the future.

Commentary by Keybounce (who has not seen the movie)

So we see the mechanics of "Fate points" in this system. Or do we?

The idea of having some sort of bonus to your roll for spending things like experience points is pretty straightforward. Games where you net about 4 XP per session tend to have this (I'm thinking of both TORG and Cypher here, there may be others that I'm not familiar with with similar behaviors.)

But, we know that this is a system where 50 XP as a bonus for roleplaying is reasonable, so that's a different scale. And, we're not spending XP for a reroll. We're spending a Fate point. And the roll is a failure. Even with a reasonable bonus, it would still fail. Yet, "the Force guides your hand". While BB-8 says, "That was risky".

If a Fate point is a guaranteed success, that would not be risky. If a Fate point is a bonus to the roll, that would still be a failure.

So, what is a Fate point? And why is The Force working with Rey?

So at this point, I can reveal the one point of "spoiler" I came into this commentary with. While I might have been mistaken about Rey and Ren being two different characters (when I first saw "Ren" in the comic, I figured I had the spoiled name wrong), I did know that

Spoiler hidden for people who have not yet seen Episodes VII-IX Rey would become a Jedi and make her own lightsaber. (And somehow, that becomes a major plot point? But making a lightsaber isn't even an automatic thing - Luke used his father's, for example). And here we see The Force starting to work with Rey.

So, what does that imply about Fate Points? Pete is making it clear that a Fate Point is singular. Rey only has the one. So spending it is major. Perhaps this is a way, in this system, for characters to get a once-in-a lifetime character growth, a special improvement. Which would mean that Pete felt that this was so important, to save another party member, that he was willing to have his character's growth determined by the GM to make this happen.

Wow. Pete being concerned about other members of the party?

Transcript

GM: Rey, what’s your idea?
Rey: I search for a security panel. Like the one in the hangar.
GM: <roll> You spot the glow of CCTV monitors at this intersection.
GM: Unaware he’s being filmed, Finn is the unwitting star of the show. The rathtar is dragging him along this corridor here.
[SFX]: Yank!
Rey: Right. When they reach there, I hit the door control.
GM: Timing will be tricky.
Rey: I spend my Fate point.
GM: Roll.
Rey: Uhhh... 6.
GM: You hesitate...
Finn: Yaaarrgh! Heeelp!!
[SFX]: Squirm!
GM: ... but the Force guides your hand. The door slams shut, severing the tentacles.
[SFX]: Slam! Snip! Snip!
Rey: Gotcha, suckers!
BB-8: That was risky.
Rey: Yes, but the best sort of risk.
BB-8: Oh?
Rey: No risk to me!
[SFX]: pow!


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Published: Thursday, 11 March, 2021; 01:11:07 PST.
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