I have (surprisingly) received a few e-mails about my Transformers post of a few days ago. Nothing from Hasbro begging me to sell the idea to them, but from a few people in the gaming community interested in some of the things I put down oh so long ago.
The biggest question has been “what is dire circumstance?” So right here and now I will attempt to explain the idea that never became realized.
During play all transformers are placed in situations that may look bleak, hopeless, or down right suicidal. A single Autobot versus a legion of Decepticons or free-falling through the Cybertronion atmosphere toward the planet itself with a busted “t-cog”. During such circumstances and right before death the transformer is allowed to roll his courage against a number predetermined by the situation. If successful that transformer manages the impossible, and while they may die, does so in a spectacular and truly memorable way.
That Autobot manages to hold off the Decepticons (alone) until his companions evacuate, making sure his name lives on in the fear of Deception warcamp tales.
In purely game terms the following happened:
The autobot rolled a 15+ his courage of 6 for a 21. The Referee set the difficulty of this action at 20, so the autobot succeeds in his dire circumstance roll. Being that the autobot succeeded he is allowed by the referee to continue actions until he reaches negative the double of his hit points and automatically hits all Deceptions with equal or below hit dice to his own and receives a bonus to hit equal to his hit dice on all Deceptions with greater than his hit dice.
Again I must remind everyone that everything I did for the failed Transformers game was way early draft. I’ve been re-examining “dire circumstances” of late for my Eira setting, but as of yet nothing is in final determination.
Anyway, I hope that answers the question about “dire circumstances”.
