Ok I am asking more questions (thanks for any help!)... Is what I am about to say the right way to do combat?

Berac: ST of 6 TO of 4 Combat Pool of 9
Terar: ST of 7 TO of 3 Combat Pool of 9

Berac has Aggressive stance (+2 to CP attack -2 to CP defensive)
Terar: Neutral stance, no +/-

Berac has for attack a Combat Pool of x+2
Terar has neither + or - for Combat Pool due to being neutral stance.

Berac has initiative.

Berac uses 5+2 = 7 dice to attack.
Terar uses 6 dice to defend.

Berac gets 5 successes
Terar gets 6 successes. Combat goes to Terar.

Terar rolls 4-2 dice to attack and gets 2 successes
Berac uses 3 dice and gets full 3 successes. Berac then successfully defends.

Next Combat Round...
Berac has combat round again (since he succeeds in defending himself).
Terar defends.

Both sides have neutral stance so neither + or -

Berac rolls 5 dice to attack.
Terar rolls 4 dice to defend.

Berac gets 4 successes
Terar gets only 1 success...Terar is hit.

A margin of 4-1 equals 3 in favor of Berac over Terar.

Berac had aimed at region VII on Terar. Berac's player rolls a 2, hitting the Forearm. Terar has no armor in that area so all that is subtracted is the TO for Terar which is 3. Berar uses a Bastard Sword which is for damage STR for Berac (which is 6). Sooo.... 3 + 6 equals 9. Terar's toughness is 3 so then that goes back down to 6?

So does that mean, though the outcome is a 6 that is still a Level 5??? Or am I making this way more complicated than it really is??? Which is of course a nasty wound? Thanks!

Franklin11Hour wrote: Terar rolls 4-2 dice to attack and gets 2 successes
Berac uses 3 dice and gets full 3 successes. Berac then successfully defends.

Yeah, anything over a lvl 5 is just a lvl 5. I have taken off both legs for a lvl 10 once, though.

Question--

Why did Terar lose 2 dice in the passage overdrive mentions? He should have had 3 dice, because he used 6 of 9 in his defense.

Jake

Franklin11Hour wrote:
Berac has Aggressive stance (+2 to CP attack -2 to CP defensive)
Terar: Neutral stance, no +/-

Berac has initiative.

Berac uses 5+2 = 7 dice to attack.
Terar uses 6 dice to defend

Berac gets 5 successes
Terar gets 6 successes. Combat goes to Terar

Terar rolls 4-2 dice to attack and gets 2 successes

Berac uses 3 dice and gets full 3 successes. Berac then successfully defends.

Next Combat Round...
Berac has combat round again (since he succeeds in defending himself).
Terar defends.

Both sides have neutral stance so neither + or -

Berac rolls 5 dice to attack.
Terar rolls 4 dice to defend.

Berac gets 4 successes
Terar gets only 1 success...Terar is hit.

A margin of 4-1 equals 3 in favor of Berac over Terar.

Berac had aimed at region VII on Terar. Berac's player rolls a 2, hitting the Forearm. Terar has no armor in that area so all that is subtracted is the TO for Terar which is 3. Berar uses a Bastard Sword which is for damage STR for Berac (which is 6). Sooo.... 3 + 6 equals 9. Terar's toughness is 3 so then that goes back down to 6?

So does that mean, though the outcome is a 6 that is still a Level 5??? Or am I making this way more complicated than it really is??? Which is of course a nasty wound? Thanks!

Instead of using my own examples, I will then use the examples from [shr 79-80.

Geralt: ST 5 TO 4 CO 15
Felix: ST 6 TO 5 CP 12

In the initative phase of the first round...
Geralt tosses out a white dice
Felix tosses out a red dice

Geralt has an Agressive Stance so has +2 to CP Attacking moves/-2 to CP for Defensive moves during the first round only.

Felix has a Neutral Stance so has neither any plus or minus.

In the first round, dice are thrown both times and it is only in this phase that the +s and -s from the stance is used. In Geralt's case, in using an Agressive Stance, when he attacks he has the +2 but when he defends the rest of his CP dice is subtracted -2 from the agressive stance. Felix has no addition or subtraction so he flows with his normal CP of 12. Either way, both sides successfully parried so there was no real combat damage during the first round.

Second round, Felix begins with initiative (since he parried successfully the second half of the last round?...is that right?).

Felix uses 7 dice striking IV region.
Geralt uses 9 dice.

Felix gets 4 successes
Geralt gets 5 successes...Geralt is successful in parrying.

Geralt (who has initiative now in this second round) attacks region IV and uses remaining 6 dice. Felix uses his last 5 dice. Geralt has 5 successes, Felix has 1 success. The margin is 4, for Geralt.

Geralt's combat information is his weapon being ST +1. So... 5 (for ST) + 1 + 4 (from margin)=10. Then there is a subtraction from Felix's TO which is 5. So the final damage level is 5.

Is that right?

here's what I do, if the player is in an aggressive stance and throws red then I stick two dice into the bowl holding his pool. Math is done. He can now dispense with those dice as he wants. once pools refresh then I take those two dice out and the fun continues. This is a great reason for using the bowls... they really help.

So for the first round is where the stance is important. It is in that round that I either add two dice that can be used for combat or subtract two dice from the bowl to be used with defense then? Not sure how that would work?

Then with the next round if neither side did damage or at least two much damage...the dice count of CP for both parties fighting is normal?

Let us say that in the first round one side does the following damage to the second party fighting:

Zone IV Chest/Cross-cut. BL: 2 Shock: 4 Pain 5- WP. How would that damage then transfer to the next full round (of both parties attacking/defending). When it says BL that means Blood Lose 2 I am suppose 1st) add that BL to any other BL in the next few rounds as long as combat occurs as long as it is not in the same section. 2nd, roll EN vs. BL. So does that mean I subtract 2 from the wounded character's EN? If the roll fails, I subtract 1 point from that character's HL?

When it says Shock 4, that means 4 dice are subtracted from all dice pools (CP and Magic Pool and Missile Pool etc.). If the Shock rate is more, let's say its 10, and that is more than the dice in the CP at that appointed time, whatever extra points from that specific round is then taken off from the next round. So if I have 8 CPs in that round and I have to subtract 10. I then have no dice left for that round, and then the next round the extra 2 are subtracted from the 8 that next round.

The Pain points are subtracted every round from the CP no matter what? Right?

I dont know I think or I fear that I am making this combat far more complicated than it is suppose to be.

Franklin11Hour wrote: So for the first round is where the stance is important. It is in that round that I either add two dice that can be used for combat or subtract two dice from the bowl to be used with defense then? Not sure how that would work?

Franklin11Hour wrote: Then with the next round if neither side did damage or at least two much damage...the dice count of CP for both parties fighting is normal?

Franklin11Hour wrote: Let us say that in the first round one side does the following damage to the second party fighting:

think of stances in this conceptual frame work:

Before the fight begins each guy places his weapon in a position that is either more appropriate to striking or blocking, or is favorable to neither. Then one decides to attck (throws a red die) and the other opts to defend. If the attacker's weapon was in a position that makes striking easier he gets the bonus dice, if the attacker was in a position more for blocking he has to transition out of that to strike and loses dice. Vice versa for defending. Now that the two have gone from circling to exchanging blows there is no way to take a stance since combat is fluid and initiative changes. Until tehy break apart there are no stances or associated bonuses.

If one of them is wounded you remove the shock in dice right away along with the pain in dice. If there are not that many dice there then the penalty carries over to when pools refresh. Once all the shock dice have been removed form one round you can put them back in again at the next refreshing. Dice lost to pain stay gone.

ex: hit your funny bone and the shock hits you but goes away. Cut your hand and every time you try to use it it hurts until the cut heals.

I hope that helps.

Frankly, nobody is going to declare an agressive stance and then defend (or visa versa) so your second scenario should never come up.

If one of them is wounded you remove the shock in dice right away along with the pain in dice.

Sorry, been playing it like that since Jake taught me the game, never bothered to read it up in the rules carefully, I just saw "shockan pain are cumulative" and went about my merry way... I suppose we could argue about it but....

ah, fuck it, getting wounded tends to kill you either way.

later.

1) The stance of a character is only important the first bout of round (That is doing 1. Declare stance and 2 Establish aggressor and defender...). The +s and -s are only done in the beginning of the total combat's back and forth and not important after the beginning.

2) Geralt and Felix give blows to one another. As seen on page 79.
Geralt and then Felix pick an area. Roll for attack (Felix) and then Defend (Geralt). Then depending on that situation (from First half of the "Exhange of Blows") then there is a resolution of damage and/or determine new attitude (Number 4 from Chart on page 72-73). If the agressor is still Felix then he can attack again (in the order of steps 5-6). If the agressor is now Geralt then he does the attack.

3) In the example on page 79-80, the Level of the wound was 5 on Felix. If the wound was Level 2 (for example this time) then the information would be Blood Lose of 1. Shock of 7 and Pain of 9-Felix's Will Power. So. The Blood Lose would be 2 for this round. If Felix is hit again later on and has a BL of 4, the BL would now be 4. For Shock, there would then be a subtracting of 7 dice from all of Felix's pools (Combat Pool, Sorcery Pool, and Missile Pool). This Shock that deletes 7 dice will only occur for this time, not something that keeps going (unless Felix is hit again at another area and suffers more Shock that subtracts from the pools). Pain, however, is subtracted each round though. I take the 9 from above and subtract Felix's WP and that amount of dice is taken off each main round.

Hopefully I am getting a hang of this! Thanks for your helping me!

While you all are answering questions about combat.

The following situation happened in my game. A swung at B, B tried to counter. Easy enough, until A fumbeled.

Hmmm... *flips through book* and makes something up.

B wounded and subsequently killed A, but I am curious:

How would you all deal with this?

It says under Duck&Weave that if it's successful, attacker loses dice as if he'd fumbled. Something like half the dice used in the attack. Perhaps some other consequences as well (during our first session, one PC fumbled a terrain roll to draw his sword - he accidentally sliced off a bystander's ear).

That's right Overdrive.

On a fumble, the attacker loses initiative, and loses half the number of dice they had used in the fumbled attack.

Brian.

Thanks, but a counter uses the opponents successes against him. Thus this mean that the countering party, B, also forfits his strike?

If not how do I count the opponents, A's, successes since he obviously had none?

Also, does a counter work if opponent misses?

Ah, *that* was the question :)
This is an unusual thing to happen, but why not go by the rules as written? If he misses, then the counter was not necessary, and depending on circumstances the defender might now be in trouble! Such is life :) (on a fumbled attack, the attacker still loses the dice so in a sense the counter worked)

While we're on the matter, what happens if the countering party rolls just as much successes as the attacking? This means the attacker still holds the initiative, but the counter "worked" since the defender didn't get hit. This happened during one session, and I ruled the defender doesn't get the bonus dice.

Just count all the successes of the countering party as an attack instead. If he fumbled when you were ready to counter attack, he is going to be terribly vulnerable at just the wrong time.