Post originally by James_Nostack at 2005-01-07 15:13:28
Converted from Phorums BB System

I haven't received word on how to edit my own review yet, so here's a quick run down on Bringing Down the Pain, an important sub-system that I described inadequately in the review proper.

<b>Bringing Down the Pain</b>
Even with all the bonus dice in the world, you can't always get what you want. If the player gets stymied, he can Bring Down the Pain on whatever obstructs his character. It works equally well for combat to political
negotiations. This is one of the game's chief sub-systems, and apparently
has been imported from "HeroQuest."

Here's how it works:

Let's say you're playing a haughty swordsman and you want to impress some effete fop (played by the Storyguide) with tales of your exploits. You roll the appropriate skill... but fail. The noble is unimpressed. That
stinks! So you decide to Bring Down the Pain.

Immediately, every participant involved declares their intentions. Your intentions: boast enough to make this guy respect you. His intentions: laugh at what a bombastic boor you are. Each participant then rolls the appropriate skill, and the "success level" gets converted into contextually
appropriate harm. Depending on the context, the characters may have "weapons" (or tools, or zingers, or whatever) that inflict additional harm: in this case, the urbane aristocrat has a +2 "weapon" of Contemptuous
Sarcasm against Bumpkins.

You make your roll to brag and boast, but fail: I guess you've had too much wine to pronounce "eviscerated" properly. The aristocrat, however, rolls his Court Etiquette skill and gets a 9. This would be Success Level 1, or a mediocre success, except his +2 conversational weapon upgrades this to 3: you are now dealing with 4 points of harm. Narratively, this guy has impugned your mother's hygenie. You must now roll to shrug off 4 points of damage... but the dice aren't with you tonight, and you fail to become "bloodied": nobody talks smack about your mother! (Bloodied and broken,
the two damaged states, impose penalty dice on your actions, and are defined as contextually appropriate.)

In the next round, you've had it with being polite. This guy doesn't believe you're a great swordsman? Fine: he'll just have to deal with your broadsword in his belly. Normally, changing your intention like this would involve forfeiting an action this round but since you've been bloodied you get it for free. So you roll your Stab Total Jerks skill, plus your +1 weapon (a High Quality Sword), for a total of 3 points of harm despite your penalty die. The noble succeeds in his roll to resist damage--you've nicked him, but he's not badly injured. However, he's not willing to make this conflict physical. It's time for him to skedaddle.

In the third round, you continue your assault, but the noble tries to change intentions to run away. Because he's not "bloodied" in game terms, this costs him a full action... while you wallop the bejeezus out of him.