Heya all.
One of my players told me of something he saw that could be exploited. After hearing him out, I started thinking but I didn't know what to say so I wanted to know what you guys think. Here it is what he told me more or less:
"My character has Brawn 3, Intimidate 3, Panache 2, Convince 1 and Dynamic Approach. Right now the difference is not that big but let's think about the future of my character. If I ever get to Brawn 4 or 5 and Intimidate 5 but I leave Panache at 2 and Convince at 1. I will be throwing 11-12 dice (flair and bonus included) whenever I try to intimidate someone using my strength. Let's say a high standing party is going on and I want to go. That would be a dramatic sequence but I can say: My approach is something like trying to look menacing. I throw Brawn+Intimidate. Imagine I get 5 raises and before doing anything I tell you, hey, can I change my approach? I have dynamic approach so I spend one hero point to change it to what i would be Panache+Convince. Now I have 5 raises instead of 1 or 2 (the result for throwing Panache 2 + Convince 1 plus bonuses)."
We talked about it and he told me that it didn't sound fair that his character, who does not know how to be nice, could do something like this. Even if he has to intimidate the first action to get past the entrance, he can change his approach after that and put on a good face with 1 less raise.
Did you guys stumble across something like this too?
I would say the way to rule Dynamic Approach is that you have to actually spend one raise on the original approach before switching approaches. (Or that a NPC That would prevent it from being gamed in the manner you described above. That would also enable the GM to give the NPCs a chance to respond to the original approach, by, for example, putting pressure on that character.
It's also worth thinking about how an Advantage like Dynamic Approach affects the character. To my mind, a character with Dynamic approach is going to be the kind of person who reacts quickly and thinks on their feet. A good improviser. Think Jason Bourne or even Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Carribean. I would argue that a character with dynamic approach is exactly the sort of person who can stare down the gate keeper and then be charming once inside.
It's also worth pointing out that the player hasn't actually gained anything from changing approach in his example. He's going to have the same number of raises as before, and those raises will be used to achieve an approach, prevent consequences and get opportunities.
final note: if he tries to do this every time, he's not going to get the flair dice..