The Riddle of Steel: why not using all dices to attack ?

[Lacco]

I approve of this. No more random fights.

It's actually a bit like going OSR: you did not want to fight the random encounters, because they had little value.

Yeah, in this case I assumed Oscar tried to get the book with diplomacy first, but failed and thus resorted to arms.
The book is actually an handbook to build advanced weapons that would be useful against the titans.
Oscar wants to bring it to his father, so that only his family can produce such weapons and then sell them to the military. The captain, probably, won't accept to limit the access to a tool that could help all of humanity.
It doesn't help that Oscar is in a precarious mental state for seveal reasons, so he doesn't have the patience to hear the captain's argument. He wants the book and he wants it now.

Hope Oscar did not mention the reason he's trying to get the book. Otherwise captain's Conscience could fire up

Let's see: Oscar main goal is to be forgiven by his father for certain things happened in backstory.
This could be a passion or a drive. Given that he's willing to go against his comrades and superiors to accomplish it, I will consider it a passion, although at the beginning of the campaign I didn't think he would have gone so far.
His second goal is to become a great soldier and fight against the titans. This is a promise he made to a friend who died years before.
I'm not really sure about this last one. It could be an oath, but also a drive. Considering the promise is his main motivation for accomplishing this, I think oath is the best fit.

A promise "I shall become a great soldier!" would be an oath.
Oscar's main goal = Drive
Passions are irrational - meaning they are feelings. Love for his father, his country, friendships or family ties can be Passions, but if they are specific goals, they go into Drive.

Also: Drive is internalized (I want...), while Oath is given to someone else (I promised...).

Passions are feelings. They are not goals.

When Oscar sees the captain's move he panics and training kicks in: he steps sideways and swings towards the head, striking to kill with all he has got.
It's a feint and cut in zone 5 with 8 dices, so 4 dices gets added to the previous 13, for a total of 17.
Results are: 1, 3, 3, 10, 6, 7, 1, 1, 9, 5, 6, 9, 10, 7, 3, 3, 9.
With an ATN of 6 there are 9 successes.

Captain's schiavona swings around as she tries to counter the attack - the blades hit each other, as she catches Oscar's attack, but Oscar's skill with blade proves to be superior. He manages to avoid her parry and transfer the cut to a quick slash from above, hitting captain right above her eyes, drawing first blood.

She winces, giving him a precious moment of advantage.

OOC:
Roll: 10, 1, 9, 10, 8, 5, 9, 8, 1, 1, 9, 2, 2, 9
DTN 6, 8 successes. Extremely lucky roll.
Zone: V (overhead swing)
Hit location: 3 (upper head)

Damage: ST 5 + 0 (cut & thrust) + 1 net success = 6
Resist damage: TO 5
Damage level 1

Blood Loss 3
Shock 3
Pain 4-WP

Scalp cut. After 2 exchanges (roll of 1d6), blood seeps into eyes, CP reduced by 1/3 until wiped away (giving another full exchange).

Captain has no dice left this exchange, will start at disadvantage next round.

Second exchange: you have initiative. Choose your maneuver and allocate dice.

Comment: when I saw the 14 dices counter I was like "OMG, I'm ****ed. Use feint! Use all dices you have!"
This tanslated nicely in Oscar starting the fight with the idea he could disarm or lightly wound the captain without much issue, then losing his coolness when the captain showed her skill, thus forcing him to rely on what he had learned to save his life.

See? Going in blind is a different animal. And if you do this at table, live, remember my advice. Show, don't tell. Show them how you attack, swing/thrust. Stand up, gain energy.

Players will react.

Still: had you stayed with the original attack, she would have at best 10 dice to work with. Still a winnable thing, considering her ATN 7.

Actually in Dark Sun Defilers are more powerful than Preservers, because they exploit the environment.
This can be easily modeled by allowing to move Taint to the environment, causing the destruction of vegetation and fertile ground.
This way a Defiler can cast without worrying about containment, while a Preserver needs to balance spellcasting and containment.
But it also allows a preserver to match the power of a defiler, at the price of getting tainted...

What I meant by "Preservers can cast more spells on average" was that Preservers, if we use BoIT magic system, will most probably balance containment with spellcasting which will allow them to cast more spells, but less powerful (like 50% less powerful).

For Defilers it would be possible to use the original mechanic for removing Taint using rituals - usually you have to use Faith + appropriate ritual, burn incense, sacrifice something... in line with this, Defilers could "unload" Taint to environment using a ritual. They will get clean, but the environment will get corrupted.

Every character in Dark Sun has a psionic talent. This could be modeled with gifts, but it would require to create those gifts. Each psionic gift could give access to a power (a spell) that doesn't cause taint.
A psionic pool would also be needed, maybe from (WP + MA)/2. I divide by 2 because otherwise psionic powers would be too powerful, given the lack of taint.

BoIT has a "Power" stat IIRC. You could use that one and model the psionic talents as proficiencies. I was playing with an idea for elven magic in the past and came up with something that could be adapted:

You have a "Mana" pool (or psionic points), which you refill via meditation or resting. This consists of Power attribute and "Psionic Power" (I used "Kaa") proficiency. You then have psionic powers, which have their own proficiency each. You do not buy specific powers, but either roll randomly or improve the one you already have.

You have to spend Mana to cast a spell (if you fail, you lose 1/2 the mana). You gain d10 per mana burned + your proficiency in the psionic discipline, roll against base TN.

Example: you have the "Disintegrate" proficiency at 1 (wild talent). Your Power is 5, your "Kaa" is also 1. This means you have 6 mana points.

You decide to explode someone's arm with sword. You burn all 6 mana points, get +1 for your proficiency. Roll 7d10 against TN of 7; if you overcome opponents' roll, their hand is history.