thread: 2009-07-13 : How About Some Q and A
On 2009-07-17, Vincent wrote:
Anon: No! Oh no! That's not it at all, a WORLD of that's not it.
I'm waving my hands like there's a fire, like maybe my cat is on fire, and I don't know what to do about it. You should see the (comical) look of panic on my face.
Seriously, no, that's not it at all.
itM means that there are still factors to be decided, influences upon the roll or its determination, salient decisions still to be made, after you've rolled the dice. Otherkind Dice are Fortune in the Middle: after you've rolled the dice, you still have to decide where to assign them.
atE means that you establish everything you need to know about the roll before you roll it. The attack roll in D&D is Fortune at the End: you calculate all your modifiers and target numbers before you roll, you roll, and the roll tells you whether you hit or not, with no further decisions to be made about the die.
itM/atE refers to the real-world timeline, not anything in the fiction.
Here's an example of Fortune at the End that comes way up-front in IIEE: Rolemaster's fear check.
GM: Here's a monster! Make a fear check.
Vincent [calculates all his modifiers, rolls, has no more decisions to make]: I fail.
GM: Yep. Your character's intent is: run away [I]. Your character starts running away [I]. Your character is running away [E]! Your character runs back to the previous room [E].
Vincent: Rr.
