Run the Game

Run the Game #

GMs running Double Down should keep the following system-specific advice in mind.

Determine Difficulty #

When determining roll difficulty, use the following guide:

  • Easy rolls (difficulty 10 to 12) can be reliably accomplished by the average character.
  • Medium rolls (difficulty 13 to 15) are tougher for the average character but routine for a specialized character.
  • Hard rolls (difficulty 16 to 18) require expertise or a lot of luck to succeed at.
  • Expert rolls (difficulty 19 to 21) are difficult even for a specialized character.
  • Impossible rolls (difficulty 22+) are extremely unlikely to succeed, regardless of who is attempting it.

Remember that rolls can increase or diminish the player’s resources through boons. Easier rolls reliably give players resources, while harder rolls often drain the player’s resources. Try to present a balance between these, and consider giving players easier rolls when they’re struggling and harder rolls when they’re thriving.

Lower the difficulty when players come up with intelligent or efficient strategies in their attempts. The story always takes precedence, and a good plan should make a roll easier.

Select Banes #

When selecting banes, use the following guide:

  • Apply stress when drama is high and it’s appropriate for players to face direct consequences.
  • Complicate the story when drama is moderate and there’s an opportunity to introduce interesting new challenges or obstacles.
  • Build tension when drama is low and you want to build toward a climax.

Sometimes, rolls will result in more banes than is dramatically appropriate at the time. In these cases, build tension or complicate the story. For example, Drevas the hunter is tracking down the dragon Eissun in the mountains, but he’s unsure where to look. So, he visits a goliath’s library to look up useful information. The GM has Drevas roll an Intelligence check and it’s an Overwhelming Failure, resulting in a ton of banes. The GM could technically spend those banes on enough stress to OUT the entire party of players, but that would be jarring and anticlimatic. Instead, the GM can spend the banes on building tension, describing how Drevas only finds vague accounts of local peasants who only barely survived an encounter with Eissun, which contain no useful information but fill his heart with dread. Then, the GM can use all that tension during the fight.

Regardless of drama, the players’ immersion in the story relies on the consequences of their actions being felt. Going easy on them breaks immersion and ruins the game’s challenge. So, you should ultimately pick the bane option that makes the most sense to you in a challenging world.

Distribute Experience #

By default, players receive 5 experience points per session, and play is more rewarding when they receive additional experience as a reward for completing objectives and roleplaying well. When determining how much additional experience to give out, use the following guide:

  • For a slow rate of advancement, give an average extra 1-2 experience per session.
  • For a normal rate of advancement, give an average extra 3-4 experience per session.
  • For a fast rate of advancement, give an average extra 5-6 experience per session.

This results in campaigns that last a maximum of around 18 to 30 sessions. While players can technically play until they upgrade all their available tags to 5✦, it’s unlikely they will make enough rolls in between rests for it to make a difference.

To fine tune maximum campaign length, assume that it takes a conversative 180 experience points for characters to stop being able to meaningfully progress, and divide 180 by your desired maximum campaign length, resulting in the average amount of experience players should receive per session. For longer campaigns, this may require that you lower the base experience gain from 5 experience to 2 or 3 experience. However, part of the design is to let players upgrade the tag of their choice at least every 1 to 2 sessions, so lowering base experience gain may create a less satisfying player experience.