Hi folks! Quinn here, the other erstwhile half of Dragon Reactor alongside the inimitable Nova. I've heard that y'all want to hear about the Magnitude system, and I'm gonna tell you all about it.

Whenever you make a Check during Conflict, you're going to work with the Poet to determine the Magnitude of that Check. You can think of Magnitude as representing the actual, physical scale, effect, impact, precision, or power of whatever you're about to do. There are four Magnitudes, so let's take a simple action and run it through each of the Magnitudes to get an idea of what I mean.

For the action, let's use a Wing check. You're trying to move your Dragon quickly - maybe to escape something, maybe to chase something.

Those are some very basic, generic examples. Don't forget that the fiction of the world, the battle, and your Dragon will influence the Poet's suggestions for the right Magnitude.

You might be wondering why you can't just perform a Magnitude 4 every time you roll and finish up a Conflict in a few rolls every time. But the higher the Magnitude you want to perform, the more Hits you need to get in the dice pool. The more Hits you need in the dice pool, the more resources you'll have to spend to even have a chance at success. And the higher the Magnitude goes, the higher the stakes go. This is where the Outcomes, Burdens, and Boons come in.

When you roll a Check, there are four Outcomes: Pitiful, Pyrrhic, Proud, and Pinnacle. (Pyrrhic, if you're wondering, refers to the concept of a "Pyrrhic victory", which means a military victory that costs you so many resources that you are actually left in a worse position despite technically winning.) I want to focus on Pitiful and Pinnacle, because I think they illustrate how big a deal the dice pool is.

On a Pitiful result, your action fails and the Poet can inflict Burdens upon you and your team equal to the number of dice you rolled. Burdens are things like making you or someone else take damage, ticking the enemy's Conflict Clock, giving you a negative Moment with your Anchor, or just plain making the situation worse somehow. What I want to highlight is that last bit of the mechanic: equal to the number of dice you rolled.

For a Magnitude 3 or 4 Check, it's not uncommon to see players rolling between five to eight dice - a number which one only reaches by truly using all the resources available to them. If you get a Pitiful here, the consequences are dire. Pyrrhic results get you what you want, but the Poet still gets to give you Burdens equal to the number of failures you rolled, which can still be a terrible three or four. The more dice you add to the pool, the greater the chances of the entire battle turning against you in an instant - and all because of your failure.

Pinnacle, on the other hand, is what encourages players to build those big dice pools. Pinnacle results let you pick Boons (the positive counterpart to Burdens) equal to the number of Hits you rolled over the target number. So if you rolled four Hits on a Magnitude 2 Check, you'd not only get what you want but take 2 Boons as well. Plus, on a Pinnacle result, the Poet can't give you Burdens at all! Pinnacle results are rare and costly, but just like Pitiful results they can have huge implications for the battle ahead.

But why have this system in the game at all? What does this admittedly ponderous mechanic have to do with mechs? Allow me to explain!

To me, the massive stakes and resource-heavy nature of big rolls really make you feel like your actions have weight and impact upon the world. In some games, rolls are meant to be quick and seamless, allowing you to react to things quickly and feel the excitement of snappy pacing. Dragon Reactor's engine, in contrast, is about committing to actions and taking responsibility for the consequences of them.

You feel the loss of every resource you spend. You pray that this is the right decision, that now is the time to check this box, that the power you wield will bear fruit when you explode it out into the world. You check boxes, and you add dice, and you plan by slow degrees the destruction of your foes, and then you roll.

Friends, it is not hyperbole to say that big rolls in Dragon Reactor are routinely more anxiety-inducing than almost any other game I have ever played. The whole table knows something big is about to happen. The air is electric. And then the potential is realized, the pool is read, and you feel either the elation of pure success or the sinking feeling that, for all your power, War is still bigger than you.

Checks in Dragon Reactor are about trying to change the world to be the way you want it to be. If you fail, the world will change all the same, but it will be in a way that harms you and your people instead. The fun of the game lies in that knife's edge balance: who has the power? Who will wield it more fiercely? When the dust clears, whose boots will mark the sand and whose blood will stain it?

And with that, today's Dragon Reactor update and deep-dive is complete! I hope this has stirred up some excitement for taking the plunge into Conflict.

Speaking of Conflict, Nova's back tomorrow to tell you more about that part of the game - it's gonna rule! Thanks for reading, and be sure to send this post and the campaign to any of your friends that might be interested! Till next time, Dragon Pilots!