Questions on Terrain Rolls

[Callan S.]

The only issue with terrain rolls (for me) is whether to allow them to NPC's as well, and how they may be countered.

If two players are attacking a single NPC, should he be allowed to make a terrain roll to only fight one of them this round? I say "yes" but you should hear the players complain when it happens! :-)

What about anti-terrain rolls? If a player can make a terrain roll to maneuver so that only one of the three NPC's facing him is actually involved this round, shouldn't the other NPC's be allowed to make terrain rolls of their own to counter this? I tend to lean towards "yes" but the problem is that it usually results in the lone fighter dying, since the multiple opponents can afford to spend more dice on a terrain roll than him since they have more "pooled" (if you get my meaning). Players hate this idea until it's three of them fighting a single, powerful NPC...

I know this has been discussed before, but not to my satisfaction.

Any thoughts?

Brian.

I played in a game where the GM used anti terrain rolls. Basically the enemies rolls didn't get to stack. Eg, I choose to use two dice for terrain...each of them choose three dice from their pool. Say I get two successes, now each of them roll individually, if any get three, they get to fight me...otherwise they can't do anything. It seemed to work out well, though I prefer the uncontested book method, even though its kind of unrealistic (though a life saver in mass combat).