Example Combats

[ReverendCuster187]

I'm hoping to run my first game of TRoS quite soon, but i'm still finding it difficult to wrap my head around how combat actually plays out - any example combats people have written up would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance, RevCuster

[Tash]

Well here's a run down of a battle from our first session:

The setup:  A PC and an NPC are trying to steal some horses from behind an inn garrisoned by enemy soldiers.  They get the horses untied and roped together (the NPC has good animal handling), but then one of their compatriots is soptted and all hell breaks loose.  Two soldiers come out the back of the inn, two from the front.  The NPC is already mounted so he makes a break while the PC covers his trail.

The PC is armed with a greatsword and is wearing hardened leather.  The soldiers are ill prepared: leather jacks and arming swords.  They are both low level mook soldiers, but aren't complete pushovers (CP of 12 vs the PCs 14).

First round setup:  The two enemies charge at the PC.  I have them all make terrain roles (they allocate dice from their CP and roll against a TN of 3), the PC wins with 3 successes so he gets to position himself wherever he wants within his move limit (a house rule we use for handling miniatures).  He sets himself up so that he's on the left side of the pair facing the closest enemy at his optimum attack range.  The soldier takes an agressive stance, the PC goes defensive and they throw initiative (red and white respectively).

First exchange (forgive me if I don't remeber the die values):  The NPC attacks with a good portion of his CP (I'm playing him as an agressive Stahlanish soldier not too intimidated by this ragged Cymry mercenary standing before him).  PC counters with half his dice.  The NPC got 4 successes I belive, but the PC still won.  He put all his remaining dice into the counter (12 total because of the 4 successes the NPC got), rolled for location and ended up landing a really solid blow to the foot, which was severed from the leg.  So the NPC falls to the ground screaming and is out of the fight for the moment.

Round 2: The second NPC gets into the act, but having seen the fate of his friend he is a bit more cautious.  He goes defensive and throws white.  Now I inform the player that at this time two other guards are rounding the far corner of the inn, having exited by the front door to investigate the ruckus.  He decides he needs to end this fight and get out so he goes aggressive and thows red.  Knowing time isn't on his side he puts all 16 dice into a shot to the upper leg, and uses his 2 luck points to reroll two failures.  I think he ended up with 9 success total which blew past his opponents parry and sliced his leg clean off at the hip.

Wrap up:  The PC decides to book before the other two guards can get into range.  All of them make terrain rolls according to rules I came up with on the spot because I couldn't remember the foot chase rules in the book:  each character rolled their move score in dice against the same TN, number of success = number of yards moved.  PC, being quite fast (his move is 8) and also has a head start manages to keep a good distance between them..  Then his NPC friend (who is actually my PC for when we switch GM duties) pulled up his horse and tried a quick shot with his bow, he drops one soldier with a light wound and the other dove for cover.  The PC makes it to the horses, jumps on and they ride for safety.