When the player gives the GM Doom can the GM use it in the same turn assuming the GM’s Doom total is zero at the beginning of that turn? It seems kinda dickish but the rules don’t say, unless I missed it, whether new Doom should be used only in turns following it’s generation.
Players can add Doom to the GM’s pool. And the GM can use Doom from their Pool whenever they want (and according to the rules). So the GM can spend the Doom the player just added.
However, the GM should keep in mind the narrative. If a player adds Doom to buy extra dice to climb a tower, the GM should not immediately spend Doom to create complications, unless it drives the narrative somehow.
If you immediately spend the Doom the players add, you might as well play without any Momentum/Doom. Let the players succeed if they invest into something and deal them a blow later.
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To add to Shran’s statement. Doom gained is intended to increase the tension of the moment. The first purpose of the doom generated is to add complication to whatever they are trying to accomplish. Banking it is useful if you are building for a large confrontation but it is usually best to spend at least some of it as it comes in otherwise it loses its impact.
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I think the unwritten rule is always, ‘don’t be a ■■■■.’
I would never use Doom to affect an action that was just taken using that Doom. I generally try to use the doom up in the final confrontation to keep the big bad alive longer and make them scarier.
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Thank you to everyone who put in on this. The answers given were where I was coming from to begin with but it helps to reassure that I was going with the intended flow of the game.
Thanks again.
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Adding a little bit to the thread. I wouldn’t use the doom paid by a PC to climb a tower to make his climb more difficult - but I would have no qualms to use it to either add some trouble at the climb’s end - rational explanation being that a troublesome climb was noisy enough to bring a guard or critter around - or to complicate the next in line’s climb as the first cimber broke some branches/loosened stones/whatever fits the climb.
Paying Doom is at hearth courting trouble later to gain an advantage now. In the climbing case example i gave, that long term trouble would be dealing with somethign extra once on top or making it harder for your buddies to come to your help
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I disagree. I regularly utilize doom to add complications to the results of a roll the moment that it is generated. I have found that simply banking the doom every time it comes up creates two problems the first is that a huge pool of doom amasses that can be difficult to spend without outright killing the party. The second is that it takes away the tension that Doom is itself supposed to create. When a PC rolls doom and you spend even 1 to create some sort of complication, they twist their ankle their weapons slips from their hands, they hyper extend themselves in the strike and are at disadvantage etc… it can take what could easily be a simple dnd style combat into something more cinematic and interesting.
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Taking a page from another system designed by Jay Little, FFG’s Star Wars RPG, if my Doom pool was empty, and a player added a couple to increase their chance for success, I wouldn’t use those Doom points right back at them, for the same action, the very moment they added them I wouldn’t remove them to mess with them - those Doom points are “on their way into the pool” as far as I’m concerned. I would be able to spend them on the next acting character (whether NPC or PC) or for whatever purpose I could think of as being useful to enhance the narrative.
Now, if the pool already had a couple of Doom, I wouldn’t necessarily hesitate to spend those as he adds more Doom to the pool. Technically, they’re not the same Doom points.
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A delay in spending new Doom is a common courtesy. It’s worth noting that on an individual skill test, you should set the difficulty (including spending any Doom to increase it) before any dice are bought for that test, so the order of operations will naturally prevent you using Doom gained from dice bought to push up the difficulty.
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It was my understanding that if you spend doom right when it is generated (which I as a GM mostly just do when it is going to add to the tension of the situation) you do it to alter the affects of the roll slightly or the outcome of it.