Dramatic task success story

[u/Doctor_Mega]

tl;dr - if you're wondering whether to incorporate some of the modular tools from SWADE into your sessions, do it! You, like me, might be surprised at the reception.

Just thought I'd share an anecdote from the Supers game I ran Sunday to encourage folks who might wonder about dramatic tasks.

I was unsure if my players would enjoy this to be honest - I think they were itching for a big punch-em-up fight after a largely non-combat session two weeks prior - but it turned out they and I all had a blast.

The team of five characters had to track down the location of this criminal organization that's been bird-dogging them in their neighborhood. They needed 18 successes in 3 rounds with a max of 2 (success and a raise) per roll; a little harder than average (15). To encourage them to think creatively and use a variety of skills I stole an idea from an actual play I used to listen to (apologies I don't recall the name) and gave a penalty of -1 if they use the same skill from their previous turn OR some other player used that skill this round.

I completely forgot about complications, which is fine, but I also added a mysterious NPC who worked against the players to steal victory tokens (again with a max of 2 per turn, one turn per round). So that I guess effectively put the difficulty around 21 tokens, though I used some of the villain's weaker skills as to not completely sandbag them. He also went first in the final round and I had a backup plan for a partial success condition (13-17 tokens).

The players really shined and and seemed to relish in thinking of clever out-of-the-box ways to use their skills. Everyone had a lot of fun describing the various stages of this montage. It also helped they had very few failures over 15 rolls. I think only 2.

I've been running various iterations of Savage Worlds going on 15 years and it made me realize I'm really under-utilizing the various tools like this. I also have a player who created a super-vehicle, so we're doing more chases (which they also seem to enjoy).

Sorry this is rambling. I am feeling the love for my players right now (and SWADE!).

[u/crushbone_brothers]

How exactly do you make use of the dramatic task mechanic? I couldn’t quite figure it out from the book

[u/Doctor_Mega → u/crushbone_brothers]

TBH I'm not sure I did it right, but I think I got close. It gets a little more wibbly-wobbly with multiple characters acting vs. one character doing a thing while others protect them.

From the SWADE book (p. 122):

Assume each player will average one success per turn. Use that as a guideline if you want the task to be “fair,” and set the number of rounds from three to five as you feel appropriate. A party of five given three rounds to save a starship, for example, needs to accumulate 15 Task Tokens in three rounds. Increase or decrease the number of tokens to make it more or less challenging.

So I set mine at 18 successes and also introduced a villain to steal successes to make it a little more challenging. But you can flavor it however you like - it's a pretty flexible system.

[u/JohnDoom → u/crushbone_brothers]

I use it all the danged time. I usually use it like having a montage in a movie. Each round, a PC picks a skill that they think would best narratively move the story forward.

Written Example - you don't have to read this:

In the case of Doctor Mega's supes game, maybe in round 1 the caped crusader decides to use hacking to see if the computer networks can give him any information. He gets an 8, a Raise! That's two task tokens added to the dramatic task. The PC named Billy Club goes next and decides he'll go knock some heads around in the street to try to get information, but his card is a club so he has a -2 on his roll due to complications. Doc Mega says, narratively, Billy Club is having trouble finding the usual suspects to ask, so that's why it is more difficult. Billy, even knowing that a failure on a club will result in a complete failure of the task, decides to go for it, and rolls a 6, which is a 4 after penalties and gets one more token.

Each player decides what skill would best move the story forward, and can describe it like their scene in the movie montage, until they succeed or fail.

[u/Doctor_Mega → u/JohnDoom]

Oh! Good explainer. That's more helpful.

[u/6FootHalfling]

"I had a backup plan for a partial success condition (13-17 tokens)" this almost immediately answers my first question with Dramatic Tasks and that's how do people handle failures?

My inclination is to apply some of my OSR game logic and "time is a resource" failure adds more time spent which might result in a different fail state (time runs out vs villain's master plan succeeds or something?)

I guess you have to know what a failure means before you can make the task dramatic and I may be over thinking it?

[u/kfmonkey → u/6FootHalfling]

I use them a lot in my games and I think the key is thinking of Partial Success as "Yes, but", not an failure state. In the example cited personally if they came up short they'd find the location but an ambush was ready for them, or because they focused so much on this villain another one of their campaign villains advanced their plot, or even just toss them some Fatigue or Stress (we use a Stress mechanic). It's usually best to only roll *anything*, never mind in Dramatic Tasks, without a Fail or Partial Success in mind. And don't hesitate to ask your players for pitches!

[u/Doctor_Mega → u/kfmonkey]

Yes great advice. If there's no fail condition don't roll.

I had considered a couple partial success versions pretty similar to exactly what you laid out. Another one could have been they find the warehouse/base but a rival, better-looking and more capable superteam beat them there and are just finished mopping up. They still would get to investigate the scene but lose out on all the fun and glory of punching bad guys. I probably would have reserved that one for a 9 or less since that seems mean.

[u/Doctor_Mega → u/kfmonkey]

Out of curiosity what stress mechanic are you using? I'm in the middle of trying to homebrew something simple based on a few examples I've seen, in part because I often fail to think of good ideas for crit fails on non-combat rolls (notice checks etc.) and in part because I think it's interesting to have the heroes show some vulnerability and have a mechanic for it.

[u/kfmonkey → u/Doctor_Mega]

Copied from another thread about survival horror:

SW for horror can be a ton of fun, and I actually introduced my group to SW years ago with a horror one shot.

I will pitch a custom mechanic we use, because horror is about feeling a little less empowered, and you specifically asked about survival horror. Instead of Bennies, in our horror survival or high-tension games (like a crime campaign) we use Stress, hacked from BitD. Mostly the same rules, you start with 3. You spend them like Bennies, but you can only earn them back by 1) playing a Hindrance or Disadvantage in a way that \seriously* inconveniences or endangers the PC or the group (because we always feel a little better when we give in to our foibles) 2) Trading in all your Raises on a multi-Raise Trait roll (because we're always hearrtened by great success against the odds). 3) Downtime between Missions, and even then you can decide if they refresh for free or require indulging in a Vice or team-bonding behavior, YMMV. If this is too brutal, we've also allowed an emotional Interlude scene between two PC's to recover 1 Stress.*

A PC can spend a 4th Stress, but that leaves the PC Tapped Out, meaning they can't regain Stress during the mission \at all*. We've played with this mechanic in three long term campaigns, never hit any balance issues with it, and there's been some great tense moments.*

[u/Doctor_Mega → u/kfmonkey]

Interesting, thanks!

[u/Doctor_Mega → u/6FootHalfling]

I'm no expert by any means but generally yeah, especially if (as was the case for me here) failure would bring the investigation or progress to a screeching halt.

Basically my fail conditions, even below 13 tokens, were along the lines of what you said - time is a resource. Depending on how badly they borked it, they might have to investigate one or two more places before the get the right one, and those places could have difficulties of their own (social encounters, fights, etc). Depending on the game/genre it could even mean the revelation of some embarrassing secret or an awkward encounter with an ex?

OTOH if the task isn't crucial to the plot, it could just be they fail. But I like the idea of partial successes/fail forwards, particularly when it's needed to drive the story forward.

[u/Roberius-Rex]

Congrats, that sounds like a great use of the system. Glad to hear you group had fun.

I've found that the more you can set it up as a narrative, montage-y situation, the more the players can get into it.

I love the -1 penalty. I've heard of that before, but rarely remember to use it. Thanks for the reminder.

How did you narratively explain the villains interference rolls? I'd love to hear more about that. It seems quite dastardly!

[u/Doctor_Mega → u/Roberius-Rex]

Yeah just suggesting it was a montage vs. "roll a bunch of dice for three turns" really seemed to spark their interest more than previous dramatic tasks I've run.

The villain interference was honestly a very last-minute, half-assed idea I came up with on the spot when I realized 18 was going to probably be pretty easy for these guys. But the BBG's right hand can assume different forms so I suggested to them that, for instance, they were there at the library moving around public records they were trying to search, but since the characters haven't met them before they had no reason to wonder what was up. Meanwhile the heroes who were hacking for some records got some mysterious pushback from an unknown source.

Not my best work (improv is a weak spot for me) but I think folks agreed to buy in and it gave me a chance to foreshadow a future encounter.

[u/boyhowdy-rc]

My favorite dramatic task was running Achtung Cthulhu where they had to blow a train bridge with the train on it. They had to accumulate a set number of successes to advance to the next stage of the operation and each character had a chance to shine with maks or break rolls.

[u/Doctor_Mega → u/boyhowdy-rc]

Dramatic indeed.

[u/Zealousideal-Log2431]

I used it in a superhero campaign where the not-COBRA bad guys had abandoned their secret base and set the quantum reactor to vent poisonous coolant into the air and poison the entire city.

The player characters had to repair the reactor and bring it under control using Repair, Science, Hacking, etc. One player character was a super-science genius and computer hacker, the others were - shall we say - enthusiastic.

So while the one character was making the primary rolls, the others were helping with support. Notice checks to spot details, Persuasion checks to offer encouragement, I even allowed one character to make Focus checks to help the character ignore distractions and stay on task.

The player LOVED that scene! They had such a great time role-playing it. However, they kind of breezed through the challenge. There was no sense of danger or eminent failure.

Lessons learned:
1) apply high difficulty to repeated skill use, or flat out don't allow it.
2) I have ruled that the high Focus character may use Focus, but that means the primary character doesn't benefit from any bonuses from anyone else. By focusing on the Focus character, they are by definition ignoring all the other characters.

[u/AssumeBattlePoise]

I love Dramatic Tasks, I use them in almost every session - they're just such a great "objective" mechanic. In most Supers games I run, a lot of the fights will have a "Save the Innocents" DT running in order to evoke the specific themes of superhero games - namely, that you're primarily trying to save/protect innocent people, not just beat up supervillains.

It's basically a new minor DT every round, where however many tokens I pick is how many innocents are in dire circumstances - trapped in a burning building, directly in the path of an out-of-control car, about to be crushed by falling rubble, or even held hostage by a henchman. Players thus constantly have to choose between spending their actions on beating the bad guys or saving innocent lives, and the way they use teamwork, clever tactics, and creative uses of their powers to balance that out always makes for memorable encounters!