I see the influences of PBTA for how task resolution is handled, but my question is in relation to “fighting”. Since NPCs don’t have stats or anything like that, how would you, the GM, handle a more extended fight? Using a clock? One hit for mooks, 4-piece for a tough guy, 6-piece for a real tough guy, 8-piece for a boss?
Been really enjoying the system and how it works…I can’t wait to really start a session with it.
Yep clocks. You basically got it but I think you’re getting to granular with them. One big clock for the mooks including some of the tough guys and one for the leader, and maybe one for the leader’s elite guard.
You can actually handle varying levels of strength of fighters all within the same clock but just through the fiction. If say you have a 8 piece clock for the guards and you see a bunch roaming the courtyard. One of them is a big guy let’s say the crews choose to target him first. They roll and get one tick of the clock, so the guy is hurt but keeps going at them until they get another tick on the clock. Whereas if they choose a less tough looking guy then you could say the guy was taken down fast but there is another guy coming around the corner. See? Either way they accomplished some of their objective but there is still more to do. It really doesn’t matter how many guys or how tough they are, just sort it out in fiction.
Also note that you can make toughness a factor through effect difference. That same tough guy guard might be minus one effect to any rolls because of the serious armor he’s wearing or maybe he’s got special actions which cause problems where the other guards don’t like the smoke bomb he drops or something.
So what I’m saying is don’t feel like even though you have one large clock handling a bunch of guys (or traps or wards or door locks or other obstacles like trying to escape) don’t think that every guy (or trap, ward, etc) has to be the same in that clock.
Ah, thanks for the education. I figured the clocks are used as the secondary difficulty for actions and stuff. It got a little confusing because I’m learning more about PBTA stuff and running into this, it’s hard to prevent the comparisons.
Yeah BitD is really it’s own thing. There’s some PbtA in it’s bones but it’s gone it’s own direction and evolutionarily become its own species.
You can also show how tough someone is by decreasing the effect of rolls. You try to stab the demon Setarra? 0 effect. Looks like you’ll need to find a weakness, push yourself, try a setup action, or negotiate.
I agree with Colin. Combat is an abstraction moreso than skills generally are in other RPGs (e.g. you roll to hack in cyberpunk, you don’t make 20 rolls to do the various programming tasks to achieve the same end result).
It’s working out the outcomes wanted by both sides, and breaking the abstraction into granularity with fiction. The tick of a clock could be taking down one mook, or wounding a major NPC, or just getting into a good position. It could even be taking down a hundred mooks depending on the scale.
Another point on clocks: They don’t really map to health, it maps to complexity. A big 8 piece clock for the Mooks? You could take care of that clock by taking them all down with attacking using Skirmish, or Hunt. Or you could use stealth and subterfuge to get past them all using Prowl and Sway, and maybe with a bit of confusion using Wreck and carefully placed explosives. Or use a combination of both. Same with the leader “boss monster”. Let’s say he is 6 point clock, again the crew could attack him but he’s got serious armor so -1 or -2 effect. Or you could try to trap him somehow by locking him in a room or just try to avoid being noticed by him. He’s good so it takes a bit to avoid him — still need to get past that clock — but likely won’t be any lesser effect for your rolls.
Also don’t be afraid to throw a bunch of different clocks at your players, and also throw out clocks if they don’t make sense anymore. You might have a separate clock for the leader and their elite guard, but if the fiction leads to the crew getting in and out without attracting much attention then maybe the elite guard and the boss never shows up. I’ve totally had my players throw me a curve ball by coming up with an idea that let them completely skip the adversary that I had set up. So I just ditched that clock and set up a new one which mapped better to the complexity of their new plan.
I sort of abstract it then reverse that process. I describe a number of combatants according to what makes sense, and figure out how many clocks I think makes the most sense based on the level of detail I want (if lots, maybe two clocks for minion groups), or their willingness to fight (if high, maybe 6 or 8 ticks, otherwise 4 for them). Then, I use 4-clocks for most named NPC combatants. Occasionally, I use longer clocks for well-armored, large, or demonic creatures, but I find the “hurt, impaired, broken, dead” thing is usually enough granularity for most NPCs so I tend to stick to that.
In addition to clocks, use the factors (scale, potency, and tier/quality) to highlight power scale differences and add bite to the fiction
An interesting way to highlight the impact of a broken leader is when they go down (and they will); make a fortune roll (based on the minions’ loyalty to their gang, or hatred for the PCs) to see if the remnants stay and fight, flee, or freeze.