Newbish n00b questions, MkII

[Zupponn]

So this whole "Guideline-Book" Sub-Forum is really more for arguing about whether or not we should argue about the "rules" in the first place?  

Nope.  It's for discussing how you follow those guidelines.  Some people like to stay very tight to the rules, while others follow it much more loosely.

[stubby]

Your next question will be the 100th question. Choose wisely.

100. You've been keeping track? Seriously?

100. Yes.

[Kirillyos]

101.

If both players roll a one in the Heroic Feat Roll, it's a special case - the Hero has failed to accomplish his Feat, but his opponent has failed to oppose him. Rather than try to unravel this Heroic Paradox, the Heroic Feat is cancelled - the Hero suffers from a moment of uncharacteristic sanity and realizes that whatever he was about to attempt could never work. The Heroic Feat is spent for the turn, but play continues as if the Hero hadn't attempted it.

So then does the Hero still get his regular action for that turn? (This actually came up during a game I ran earlier tonight.)

[stubby]

Yes. He loses his chance at a Feat for the turn, but nothing else changes. If he had an Action before considering his Feat, then he still has it.

[IVhorseman]

If I remember right, a feat is something completely separate that only heroes get, and isn't considered an "action" proper.

Krillyos, worrying about RAW is what's going to prevent you from having creativity in your games. As much as I harp about the proper interpretation of the rules, finding homebrew workarounds is one of the beauties of the game of Brikwars.

And then when I try to find workarounds, you give me flak for that. Can you at least make up your mind which one you're going to ride my ass about? lol

Dude, I'm going to ride your ass either way.


But in all honesty, I'm most critical when I suspect someone's trying to either a) twist the rules to get as much of an unfair advantage as possible, or b) make something needlessly complicated instead of using a simpler rule that already exists.

[Kirillyos]

But in all honesty, I'm most critical when I suspect someone's trying to either a) twist the rules to get as much of an unfair advantage as possible, or b) make something needlessly complicated instead of using a simpler rule that already exists.

Fair enough - but know that I've been around the block long enough to a) know that Munchkinism is highly frowned upon (except in the game Munchkin), and even if there were "rules-twisting" involved, it would be to the benefit of all sides in the fray (besides, sacrificing sportsmanship and group fun for  a cheap advantage is not the kind of person I am), and b) streamlined, intuitive, easy-to-remember ways to handle things are best (recall that several of my questions on here have been about: "hey, I just thought of an interesting tactical application, how do we make it happen in a way that's not a convoluted Rube Goldberg machine?").

[Kirillyos]

If I remember right, a feat is something completely separate that only heroes get, and isn't considered an "action" proper.

102. Wait, so a Hero can use his Feat and a regular action all in one turn?

103. When parrying a projectile/explosive missed shot, what do you roll against? Just the UR of the Parrying Equipment (shield)?
Example (from that same game, which I was refereeing): A Green Team grenadier decided to chuck a grenade at Orange Team's Base, and missed by 10". Orange Team saw that Green Team's Heavy Cavalier was within 10" of the intended target, and decided that Green Team's grenadier should accidentally bean their own horseman. The cavalier had a reaction saved, and elected to attempt to parry the grenade with his heavy shield. At this point, deciding the Skill Roll outcome for the grenade was too muddled, so I just had him roll against the shield's UR.

104. Are horses (and other mounts) treated as "vehicles" for the purpose of Stunt Driving? I assume steel-horse motorcycles certainly are, but what about actual organic horses?

[IVhorseman]

102: yup

103: ranged attacks can't be parried, under normal rules. I make an exception when it comes to beamswords and laser shots, in which case I indeed just use the shield/weapon's UR.

104: Sure, why not?

[Kirillyos]

102: yup
103: ranged attacks can't be parried, under normal rules. I make an exception when it comes to beamswords and laser shots, in which case I indeed just use the shield/weapon's UR.

The lightsabres beamswords/blasters thing makes sense. But in regards to the "block a grenade with a shield" thing...

A Shield can Parry the same Close Combat Attacks and Counterattacks as any normal Close Combat Weapon, but it can also Parry Damage from Joust attacks and Crashes (H.3: Fighting From Horseback) as well as thrown weapons.

17. Do rockets or explosives launched as grenades count as "thrown weapons" for the purposes of parrying them with a shield?

17: Sure, but even if you manage to block the explosion, you get pushed 2"

104: So then if the cavalier manages to parry the grenade with his shield, does he get knocked out of the saddle, or use the horse's 2d6 POP to stay in place.

[stubby]

103: ranged attacks can't be parried, under normal rules. I make an exception when it comes to beamswords and laser shots, in which case I indeed just use the shield/weapon's UR.

Thrown grenades can be parried by Shields (and baseball bats). For that part the rules are clear. For all the rest, I guess I need to write in some clarifications. They will go as follows:

In the event of a Missed Shot, ignore the Skill Roll of the attacker and roll against the Use of the Shield only.

I've removed the rules for knocking minifigs out of saddles and seatbelts, so for the purpose of Explosions they should be treated as "attached" - that is, they're knocked out of their saddle / seat only if killed. In the case of the successful Shield Parry, the Explosion Damage is reduced to 0d10 for the rider, but it's still 1d10 for the Horse (unless the Horse is wearing Heavy Horse Armor), so there's a chance the Horse will be killed and he's knocked off regardless.

The most likely result is that the rider keeps his seat, but both rider and Horse are knocked back 2" together, possibly getting knocked over depending on the angle of the push.

POP has no effect here. Explosion KnockBack is always 2" per 1d10 regardless.

A Horse being ridden can be Stunt Driven, because that's rad. A Horse running around by itself does not have this option.

[Kirillyos]

12. Instead of having to take an action, squads can just form up willy nilly, without officers. In exchange, as long as officers perform a combined action with their squadmates, all squad members have at least 1d8 skill.

There's a few other re-toolings of how squads are gonna work, but most of them are still in the works. It's more-or-less the same as 2005, but squads pretty much consist of simply declaring "these guys are a squad now" and being done with it. Improvise the rest.

105. So are there any size or proximity limits to squads? Can an entire army, spread out across the battlefield be considered a gigantic "squad"?

106. So what's the official word on fire-linked weapons: Both at one target or are separate targets legit? One or two Skill Rolls?

107. Is a minifig allowed to Gather Power for the purposes of firing large weapons or activating large devices?

108. What's a good way to handle snares? (I've got a Spider-man with webbing, and a Wonder Woman with a Lasso of Truth minifigures). Would it be just a 1"x1" "rough terrain" effect generated by the structure of the minifig?

[stubby]

105. Remember that you get a Size bonus for attacking Squads, so they'd all be at +10 to hit or whatever. It used to be that they all had to be on a Squad Plate together; I may or may not reinstate that depending on whether I can find a better way.

I have a funny idea for a rule that you can never give commands to more than 6 units in a single turn, so you're really encouraged to Squad everybody up. This is probably a terrible idea, but I think it's a funny way to keep the game moving.

106. Fire-linked weapons: single target, multiple Skill Rolls.

107. Yes, if the devices run on minifig muscle power - like a giant axe or bow or something. A minifig can't gather power to fire a giant gun.

108. SuperNatural dice for Spider-man, since his webbing has many uses. For Wonder Woman it'll just be a melee attack that results in a Grab rather than damage. I forgot that I was going to add a section on whips and lassos etc. when I finally added the Grab rules. I especially need to make rules for Grabbing weapons out of an opponent's hand, since that seems to come up a lot when you have whips.

[Tzan]

I have a funny idea for a rule that you can never give commands to more than 6 units in a single turn, so you're really encouraged to Squad everybody up. This is probably a terrible idea, but I think it's a funny way to keep the game moving.

There is a set of tabletop rules called "Ancients A to Z".
Player 1 puts 3 tokens in a bowl, Player 2 puts 3 tokens in the same bowl.
We used different colored 1" 1d6 dice.

A token is pulled out
That player moves one unit
repeat until all are used.

Next turn

This worked really well.
You never knew what unit would move next.
One player might get 3 moves in a row, then the other guy knows he would have 3, but the first guy never knew, so couldn't plan for it.
Each unit could only move once in a turn.

Since it was an ancients game using 15mm figures, everything was in a squad.

[Kirillyos]

107. Yes, if the devices run on minifig muscle power - like a giant axe or bow or something. A minifig can't gather power to fire a giant gun.

Not even if the minifig is Iron Man?

[Battlegrinder]

116. If troops are embarking/disembarking from an infantry transport or APC, do they have to spend movement walking from where they are inside the vehicle to the ramp, or can they just exit the vehicle and have the full use of their move?