0149 - Pushing the Roll

A question came up on the FB chat, if we had somehow missed the characters pushing the roll. To be completely honest, I am very reluctant to "push the roll" because of the possible consequences. When you have a hit capacity of 5, the possibility that you could lose 20% of your hit capacity because a bad roll makes you think twice about pushing it. The question is, is my fear realistic of just that "gut feeling"? I thought I would take some time an look back at a few rolls and see if pushing it would have changed anything.

 

What is "Pushing the Roll"?

If your initial skill roll fails, "pushing the roll" allows you, simply said, to re-roll. However, if you fail the second roll you suffer one point of damage (for STR and AGL skill rolls) or Stress (for INT and EMP skill rolls). If you make your skill roll, however, nothing bad happens to you as a result of the roll. In addition, if you suffered a Mishap (two 1s when rolling two or more die or one 1 when rolling one die) during your initial roll, you cannot push.

 

How to "Push the Roll"?

To push the roll, you re-roll your dice pool but there are a couple fine restrictions:

 

• You cannot re-roll any dice showing a 1
• You MUST re-roll all ammo dice
• You can only re-roll active checks. Passive skill checks may not be pushed
• You may only "push the roll" for a skill check once. The second results stand, period.

 

Comparisons

Now, to see if things would have gone different by pushing the rolls. To do so, I will compare the results of rolls made during the Cellar Knife Fight and other postsComap, showing the initial roll with the modifiers and simply rolling again.

 

Comparison #1

First of all, Harris' attempt to convince the Stragglers to join the group (from 0144 - Off We Go Again - Part XVII). The failure here is what started the screaming mess that has been the last four turns.

 

The initial roll was:

 

Task:	Convince the Stragglers to join the cantonment
Ability Die:	Empathy C (D8)
Skill Die:	--
Modifiers:	+1 won't cost the group anything, +1 presents a good case, +1 outranks the opponent, -1 opponent has more people	= +2
Mod. Ability Die:	Empathy A (D12)	[+2 Steps, total = +2]
Mod. Skill Die:	--
Ammo Die:	--
Roll:	5,--,--
Result:	Failure

 

This qualifies to push the roll, as it is an active skill roll and was not a mishap. One the push, Harris rolls a 9, with one success. Since this is an opposed roll, we would have had to roll for the Stragglers.

 

Task:	Opposed persuasion roll
Ability Die:	Empathy C (D8)
Skill Die:	--
Modifiers:	-1 opponent outranks you, +1 you have more people,	= 0
Mod. Ability Die:	Empathy C (D8)	[Unmodified]
Mod. Skill Die:	--
Ammo Die:	--
Roll:	8,--,--
Result:	1 Success

 

So, the roll ended in this case with both sides with one success. The team would not have been able to persuade the Stragglers and nothing would have changed.

 

Comparison #2

 

This one comes from 0145 - Cellar Knife Fight - Part I. In that turn, Harris had the Initiative 1 and got to fire the first shot and he dropped the ball.

 

Task:	Fire at #1-5
Ability Die:	Agility C (D8)
Skill Die:	Ranged Combat C (D8)
Modifiers:	-1 dimly lit room, -2 Quick Shot	= -3
Mod. Ability Die:	Agility D (D6)	[-1 Step, total = -1]
Mod. Skill Die:	--	[-1 Step and removed, total = -2]
Ammo Die:	2
Roll:	2,--,3,2	(5 rounds expended)
Result:	Failure

 

To push this roll, Harris would need to re-roll all three D6 die (Skill and two Ammo die). The push roll was 5,6,6. The skill roll failed again but Harris may have been able to Suppress #1-5 and possibly, with the Panic Spreads rule, also affected others in the same hex. This may have changed some of the outcome.  The straggler moved to cover that round after taking fire from both Harris and Macron. Since the roll failed, Harris would have suffered a point of damage, as he is using an Agility-based skill. High price to pay for a suppression.

 

Comparison #3

This one is from 0134 - Off We Go Again - Part VII. Macron engages a trooper at close range with three ammo dice.

 

Task:	Fire at Soldier #2-4
Ability Die:	Agility B (D10)
Skill Die:	Ranged Combat C (D8)
Modifiers:	+1 Rifleman specialty, -2 Target is prone = -1	= -1
Mod. Ability Die:	Agility B (D10)	[Unmodified]
Mod. Skill Die:	Ranged Combat D (D6)	[-1 Step]
Ammo Die:	3
Roll:	9,3,1,3,2	(6 rounds expended)
Result:	Failure

                        

We can push the roll here too, but we may not re-roll the one. The re-roll is then 9,2,1,3,1. The task succeeded with two successes, which would have caused a critical hit with his AK-74 and he would have used less ammo. The total of two 1s would also result in a Mishap. It would have knocked out another trooper with a critical hit though, which would have been advantageous at that point.

 

So, three examples. In two, the results would not really have changed the outcome, with Harris actually sustaining damage in one of the rolls. The third would have had an influence but also a possible jam. Not really sure it would be worth it. Still a little skeptical about pushing the roll but I think everyone should try it to see if it works for them.