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RiskingItAll

(My first contribution to Wushu and wiki in general. Be gentle. -J)

With No Risk, There Is No Reward

Risk Dice

In standard Wushu, the GM sets a cap on dice pools that cannot be exceeded in a scene without special dispensation. Risk dice are one way to manage exceeding such a cap. They are earned via description the same way other dice are, but they are represented by dice of a different color than the others rolled.

If the risk dice are successes, they are treated as any other part of the die roll. If they come up as failures, though, whatever was risked to gain those dice is lost.

What can be risked?

That's up to the GM and players (and the genre) of course. Some ideas include:

• Chi: you take a risky move that might leave you hurt or in a bad position if it doesn't pay off.
• Traits: a failure might hurt you, your confidence, your reputation, or some other ability to use the trait. This lowering would last until you rolled a success on another roll Risking the same thing, or the GM is otherwise convinced that the Trait should be restored. (Example: someone with the Wealthy (4) trait could risk a point of it on a gambling contest, perhaps by throwing a pile of stock certificates into the pot or something similar)
• Secondary Goals: the GM might choose to give a pool of dice (or Chi) to represent a goal secondary to the main goal of the scene. For example, the scene might have the two goals of 'stop the villain' and 'save the hostages'. A hero could choose to get extra dice for saving the hostages at the risk of letting the villain get away, or might endanger their lives in favor of taking down his enemy. (It may also be possible to use the Struggle mechanism for this: Wushu.StruggleTrait)
• Weakness: a failed roll might instead grant the character another appropriate Weakness.

If this variant is used, the pool caps should probably be set somewhat lower, and the players encouraged to make up the difference with Risk dice.