Confused about terain rolls.

[ulfhiden]

im acctualy so confused i dont know what questions to ask!!
i guess first is when and how to use them.
Roll them everytime you move in combat so that the combat pool works as "action points" or is it something else completly.

[Tash]

Basically you can use terrain rolls to handle any kind of movement that doesn't fall under normal combat actions (such as Evade or Duck and Weave).  Moving around an enemy to flank them, moving behind cover to avoid arrow fire (not evading already fired shots), disengaging from a fight to run for higher ground.  All of these would be resolved with a terrain roll.  

The CP doesn't work as action points, ala Fallout or a simillar game, you can move your max move value per round with only 1 CP die.  More dice spent on the terrain roll just gives a better chance of succeeding.

Oh yeah, the obligatory FoB reference: I think there will be more clarification on terrain rolls in Flower of Battle.

[ulfhiden]

is there any guidlines for assigning tn's

[Starshadow]

On page 77 in the Book there is a table with TN's.

Also, on pages 77-78, there's a short text describing the use of terrain rolls.

[Alan]

is there any guidlines for assigning tn's

TN table is right there on page 77.

Movement and Combat is on page 86.


Characters get normal movement at no CP cost, though charging  or sprinting is considered Offensive Stance.  

Here's a bunch of rules I've had clarified by Jake and Ben about Terrain Rolls:

- Terrain rolls only come into play when the terrain is treacherous in some way, or when outnumbered in combat.

- When on treacherous ground _and_ outnumbered, you spend cp separately and roll each separately.

- Terrain Rolls are made only once every round, not every exchange.

- Only the outnumbered combatant rolls terrain dice to maneuver his opponents.  (Some disagree on this, but I don't recommend allowing opposed outnumbering terrain rolls because the person outnumbered is already at a disadvantage and allowing opponents to spend cp to counter their maneuver reduces the usefulness of maneuver a lot.)

[Lance D. Allen]

Then there's the Valamir Factor, which suggests that terrain rolls can be taken to be other, non-movement actions taken in combat which can have essentially the same effect. The classic example:

Character A is poaching king's deer. Character A has deer C half field-dressed when NPCs B and D happen upon the scene. This is bad, because B and D are king's rangers. Character A decides to distract NPC B by throwing half of deer C at him while engaging NPC D. Seneschal E declares that this is a terrain roll, and history is made...

Then there's also the Clinton R. Nixon Factor, which brings forth the suggestion that terrain doesn't necessarily mean rough ground, and may not, in fact, mean ground at all. He describes one of his players using a terrain roll to do the classic swinging from the curtains, to reach his enemy on a distant balcony (or something similar..).

Terrain is probably the second most universally useful and cool thing about TRoS. The first, obviously, being SAs.