Ran "Blood Feathers" Last Night... Got Some Questions

[selderane]

So I ran a second canvas, "Blood Feathers," for my regular group last night. It went pretty well. In fact, they agreed they'd be up for a regular SoE game if I chose to run it.

There was some worries about understanding what their character was capable of, but that would become clearer with time with the core rulebook and making their own characters as opposed to playing the pre-generated ones from Book 0 Prologue.

There were three hiccups that I hope to get clarification on:

1. How does unarmed combat work? The party was disarmed by the family and went into the fight using only fists (or the occasional rock). One of the Disciplines of "Close Combat" is "Unarmed Combat" specifically, but I wasn't sure if this pre-generated character who didn't have that Discipline could do it anyway. Ultimately I said they could because, well, it only made sense. Was this right? Can anyone make an unarmed attack using "Close Combat," and the "Unarmed Combat" Discipline simply represents specific training in that area?

2. One of the characters has a first aid kit, but not the "First Aid" Discipline. What does the kit do? And can first aid rolls be made even if the characters do not possess "Medicine" or "First Aid?"

3. Grappling. It falls under "Unarmed Combat." Can grappling be done without that Discipline? If so, is it straight opposed "Close Combat" checks? Because that's how I ran it when the Vargial tried to wrest a knife away from her kidnapper.

[Iris]

Hello !

At first, if you have special "Game Leader" questions, thinck of hiding them in the "Secret" section ... But your questions are for the moment only about technical issues, so I'll do my best to help you here


1. Unarmed combat : same as normal combat A special discipline is only used to reach 6 or more with this way to fight. Si you can normaly fight without weapon with 1 to 5 in Combat.


2. First Aid : you can make a Nature or Travel or Science roll (or even Magience or Demorthen Mysteries, it's up to you). All these Skill may be used with a first aid kit After that, you may learn "Medicine" via Science or another Skill. I'm quite flexible with that. I mean : almost every PCs has seen violence by the past, I would be surprised they had learned nothing about how to help a little bit an injuried partner...


3. Grappling : my solution is quite easy. I decide that complex actions a equal to a dommage and remplace them.

Example : Grappling could cost 3 to 5 dammage points. If you choose to grapple, you say it before the action, and if you succeed to make more than defense +3 (or 5) with attack +D10, you grapple.

You just have to decide for your table how much is which kind of action



Hope you could understand me, I'm afraid I could have write in a better english

[selderane]

Thanks for the answers, I understood most of it!

So two more questions:

1. Does a first aid kit actually do anything in and of itself? Or is the equipment simply required to even attempt a first aid roll?

2. Your grappling answer... I am grappling to understand. Why do you have a grappling roll cause damage? And how does one grapple, precisely?

When I did it, I simply made it an opposed "Close Combat" check because neither party had the "Unarmed Combat" Discipline. And they weren't grappling to subdue one another (in which case I could see damage being exchanged), but to disarm.

Oh, and I don't have access to the "Secrets" forum.

[Clovis]

1. Does a first aid kit actually do anything in and of itself? Or is the equipment simply required to even attempt a first aid roll?

As far as I'm concerned, I would consider that a Character without proper healing equipment will have a harder time tending to someone (making such an action Difficult (or even Very Difficult, if they really have close to nothing to work with) instead of just Complicated). So the first aid kit would not actually grant bonuses, but it would spare the PC from a penalty! However, if you want to be nicer on your Players, or simply reward those who thought about packing properly, you might want to warrant a +1 bonus or more for such a piece of equipment.

P.S: I would actually not include "Travel" in the list of possible Domains for first aid-related actions. However, as the GL, t's up to you to decide.

2. Your grappling answer... I am grappling to understand. Why do you have a grappling roll cause damage? And how does one grapple, precisely?

Here's how I would make this work:

Note: If the Attacker simply wants to harm the Defender (by strangling them, kneeing them, biting them, etc.), you can simply resolve the action as a regular attack roll instead of going through the grappling process.

1) The Attacker makes a Close Combat (or Unarmed Combat, if they have the Discipline) roll against the Defender's Defense. If the roll is a success, the two Characters start grappling. Otherwise, the Defender has dodged the Attacker.

2) In the same Round, the Attacker announces what they want to do (pin down the Defender, take something away from the Defender, bullrush the Defender, etc.). Then, the Attacker and the Defender make Opposed rolls. Both can use either Close Combat (or Unarmed Combat) or Feats (with Evasion as an option for the Defender). If the Attacker succeeds, they manage to do whatever they wanted to do. If the Defender succeeds, they can push the Attacker away... or counterattack!

Overall, a simple, straightforward way of dealing with the situation.

[Iris]

Hello !

About the grappling... I meant... ... I'll try to explain is in another way

1. A attack B and wants to grapple him
2. A announce his intention
3. The defense of B is 10
4. His defense is increase by 3 to 5 versus grappling
5. You've got to make 13 or 15 with your attack roll to succeed the grappling action

... is it a little bit clearer ? . ... (you also can do as suggested Clovis )

[selderane]

Why did B's defense increase 3-5?

[Iris]

I propos you to increase the defense against grappling because, if you don't, grappling would quickly become a to powerful action, to efficient

[selderane]

Hm. I'm not sure how I feel about that. It seems very arbitrary. I think it target numbers are to be increased there should be an in-game reason why. Be it situational, circumstantial, or whatever else.

I'm just thinking about it as a GL. If my player asked me, "Why is their defense higher because I'm grappling?" and my answer is, "Because it would be too powerful otherwise," I'm going to have a very annoyed player on my hands.

I think I like Clovis' example best. I think there should be an opposed skill roll somewhere in the grapple.

As an aside, this is making me giggle a little as it brings remembrances of grapple in D&D 3rd Edition.

[Iris]

You can also explain the increase of the defense in another way :

It's far more easy to avoid to be grappled as to be "simply" hit by en weapon


Anyway, you're the Game Leader : you choose what is the more appropriate for your group

[T.J.]

I can see explaining it as "it is more difficult to grab someone than to smack them with a sword" as being a good way around it. I personally hate when you get into the cycle of grappling rules (a la D&D/Pathfinder) so any system that cleans that up is good with me