3.5 KiB
Battle
When you fight a battle, and it happens in a blur, envision your objective and roll. If you primarily…
- Fight at range, or using your speed and the terrain to your advantage: Roll +edge.
- Fight depending on your courage, allies, or companions: Roll +heart.
- Fight in close to overpower your opponents: Roll +iron.
- Fight using trickery to befuddle your opponents: Roll +shadow.
- Fight using careful tactics to outsmart your opponents: Roll +wits.
On a strong hit, you achieve your objective unconditionally. Take +2 momentum.
On a weak hit, you achieve your objective, but not without cost. Pay the Price.
On a miss, you are defeated and the objective is lost to you. Pay the Price.
Details
This move is used as an alternative to a detailed combat scene. When you want to zoom out and resolve a fight in a single roll, make this move.
First, consider your objective. Are you trying to defeat your foes? Hold them off until reinforcements arrive? Defend a person or place? Reach a position? Envision the situation, your strategy, and what you intend to gain or avoid.
Then, roll and envision the outcome. A strong hit is unconditional success. Your foes are defeated, surrender, flee, or give up their objectives as appropriate to the situation and your goals for the fight.
A weak hit means you’ve achieved your overall objective, but at some cost. Since this is the resolution of an extended scene, the price you pay should be dramatic and meaningful. This can include suffering a significant amount of harm, failing to achieve a secondary goal, or encountering a new danger or complication. If in doubt, roll on the Pay the Price table, or you may pick from the weak hit options in the End the Fight move.
A miss on the Battle move should have dire ramifications on your character and your quest. This objective is lost to you. What does that mean? Are you captured? Gravely wounded? Have you failed to save a loved one? Is the settlement overrun by raiders? Must you Forsake Your Vow? Consider the situation and the intent of your foe, and Pay the Price. Make it hurt.
Use the Battle move as you like. If your story doesn’t emphasize fighting, or you’d rather generally abstract combat encounters, you can use this move exclusively. You can also drop it into some portion of a larger scene. Perhaps you Battle to quickly deal with lesser foes, then handle the fight against their leader with standard combat moves. The mix of Battle moves and more detailed fight scenes can help you pace your gaming sessions and let you focus on what is interesting or important.
Battling Alongside Allies
When you and your allies fight together, only one of you makes the move. Others can make the Aid Your Ally move, using stats as detailed in Battle. Resolve those moves first, and then Battle.
On a strong hit, all of you benefit from the narrative success, but only the character making the move gains the momentum bonus. On a weak hit or miss, all of you suffer an outcome as appropriate to the situation. When in doubt, Ask the Oracle.