Post originally by Stephenls at 2004-09-25 11:34:43
Converted from Phorums BB System

<i>"They do say that you could add more than one specialty to the same Skill and buy more later with experience, so that indicates they can be cumulative (i.e. if I had Drive with specialty in Stunts AND Motorcycles, I'd get +2 with stunts on a motorcycle)."</i>

Not quite. The actual rule is "Rolls involving a Skill Specialty gain a +1 modifier over and above any other situational modifiers." (Page 54.) This doesn't say either way whether it's cumulative. The consensus on the forum is that specialties don't ever grant more than one die, even when more than one of them comes into effect at the same time -- the advantage of having a Drive Specialty in Stunts and another Drive Specialty in Motorcycles is that you'll get an extra die in circumstances involving either of them, but not that you'll get two dice in circumstances involving both.

<i>"Willpower works differently from the old system. Rather than spending a point to get an automatic success on a dice pool, spending a point adds +3 to a dice pool for "heroic effort" (p.132) or only two dice to make a Resistance roll (p.133)."</i>

Again, not quite. Spending a Willpower for Heroic Effort <i>always</i> grants three dice. The trick is this: "A Willpower point can be spent to add two to your character's Stamina, Resolve, Composure, or Defense to resist mental or social/emotional pressures asserted on him, or to make a concerted effort to avoid being harmed." (Page 95.)

That doesn't mean adding two dice to a resistance roll. This means adding two to the <i>numerical value</i> of a Resistance Trait which is being used to reduce the dice pool of an attacker.

So, when making an attack, you can spend a point of Willpower to increase the size of <i>your</i> dice pool by three dice. When <i>being</i> attacked, you can spend a point of Willpower to reduce the size of your <i>opponent's</i> dice pool by <i>two</i> dice.

Also, I think you're really wrong about the new system not being an improvement over the old system (just look at the chase rules to see an area where the new rules are better), but unfortunately I can't pull up a page number to prove it.
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Stephenls
Geek