Okay, I noticed at Archon that several players would fail their role but spend a yum-yum to reduce their role by three. This would change the failure to a high success. Is this permitted by the rules?

As an example, consider the following scenario. My character Saint of Killers rolls to shoot a badguy with his six shooter. Saint has a Gun-Fu Gimmick of 15. I roll a 17, a failure. I spend a Yum Yum to reduce this number by three to 14, a near perfect success!

I can find nothing in the rules that prevents such tactics by players. Am I just missing a rule or have we overlooked something for all these years and its just now being exploited?

It's how I play.

I've seen this tactic done before in games (probably even ianengle's) but I don't think it's actually in the spirit of the rules. Here they are:

From the "Using Yum Yums" section of QAGS 2E, page 38: (Yum Yums can be used..) To ReRoll a Failed Roll: A character may reroll any failed die roll by spending 3 Yum Yums. To Improve a Roll: When a character wishes to improve the final value of a roll (when rolling for degree of success, against a DN, etc.) he may spend Yum Yums to do so. Each YY spent improves the roll by 3 points, up to the characters modified Number for the roll. Beyond the character's modified score, each YY only improves the roll by 1.

My interpretation from your example is that your 17 roll is by definition a "failed roll" and can only be changed by rerolling it with 3 Yum Yums.

Don't even get me started on the 3 Yum Yums to reroll rule, as I feel that is the most ignored one in all of QAGS-dom!

Well heck, y'know what? Ruckus is right. The rules don't actually say anything about using Yum Yums to reduce a failed roll to a success. I'm not even sure where I got that idea from. I'm guilty of that 1 YY to reroll thing, too.

I think a lot of this blind rules-ignoring that we tend to do comes from the fact that (with Con games at least) we tend to run wacky over-the-top stuff where the candy flies back and forth without full accounts. Con Exhaustion probably plays a pat as well.

I for one am going to try and actually follow the rules we wrote once the new con season starts.

Roll-modifying down is probably my fault.

I think I remember that you can use YYs to lower the damage you take and increase the whupass you hand out (I don't keep my game books at work for some odd reason, but I'll check when I get home.) Thence I extrapolated.

I also let the players spend their YYs to influence other players and GMCs. That probably comes from my brother's Matrix Game mechanics.

(I am not responsible for "1YY for a reroll." That was a con game practice that predates me.)

All in all, and I want to reread the pertinent section in the Holy Game Book, I have not found any of this to unQAGSify the game. To the contrary, I find it has helped to promote a sense of collaborative storeytelling. Especially at Fairy Tale/Noir this past weekend (That book is so going to rock.)

I'm a BAD IAN

Actually, the 1 YY for a reroll is from QAGS 1E, if I'm not mistaken.