Trophy - Risk roll

#1

As far as I understand, there is a difference in how risk rolls work in Trophy and doing things in Cthulhu dark works:

In Cthulhu dark, you have at least one die when doing things, one could possibly do.

In Trophy it seems, you have either a skill to accomplish something or you have to accept a devil’s bargain if you don’t want to loose your mind?

Is that correct?

Say, I want to enter a closed hut: nobody is able to simply pick / break the lock (afaics there is no according skill) or have I overlooked something here?

Is it handwaved like this?

  • In case you simply want to enter, no risk is taken. Do it!

  • If it is risky (and you are doomed anyways) and bad sh.t is going to happen if you enter (or if you don’t enter this hut silently) of course it is possible you get more ruined or you have to accept a devil’s bargain.

Or is it simply: in this forest, there is no “normal” or “simply”, so everything out of your routine should be dangerous?

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#2

That’s pretty much right, though you only get worse if you use a DARK die fro the result that’s HIGHER than your current Ruin:

You roll a LIGHT die if you are skilled at whatever task you’re trying, from your occupation or background. You can also roll a LIGHT die if you accept a Devil’s Bargain. (For either your first light die or to add a second one)

You MAY add a DARK die if you’re willing to risk Mind and/or Body. You can add extra DARK dice and reroll if you don’t like your result, and a DARK die isn’t the highest result.

Whatever you settle on,if your DARK die is the highest, it counts as an automatic RUIN roll and you go from there.

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#3

Thanks for confirming my understanding :slight_smile:

Which is very likely in the beginning.

That said, I now see, that the rules enforce a tight dramatic evaluation of the outcome and could increase the feeling of being doomed, which in turn demands from me, the GM, setting things accordingly up.

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#4

Yep – you and Jim have got it exactly right. If it’s not risky, you don’t roll. if it is risky, you can either roll a light die by accepting a Devil’s Bargain (which doesn’t automatically risk increasing your Ruin), or you can take a dark die and risk increasing your Ruin.

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#5

Thanks @jesseross for making this great game :+1:
I just listened to the episode of “The hard move” podcast, where you were invited to talk about trophy which was nice.

May I ask an additional question?

What does it mean, when it is says, that if one fights the forest’s monstrosities “in hand-to-hand combat” one is going to die?

This doesn’t imply, that weapons are successful solutions, does it? As with Cthulhu Dark, I think, weapons are of no use here. And there are too no explicit combat rules.

OTOH, I could imagine allowing weapons against monstrosities alongside with a devil’s bargain causing unintended harm to yourselves or the fellow trophy hunters.

What are your thoughts on this?

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#6

Thanks! I was contrasting hand-to-hand combat with rituals or other more creative solutions, which a GM might allow you to attempt. If you face a monstrosity with nothing but a blade, though, you’re dead.

Again, you can roll to try to run past a monstrosity, or fight it just to enough to get away, but you can’t kill it through normal means.

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#7

Thank you very much for your patience and clarification :slight_smile::+1:

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