Apologies if this has been covered before, but can PCs resist as a group action?
This came up while I was running the S&V quickstart. The PCs initial reaction to the starting ambush was a group action exfil off the “X.” They got a 5, and so I ruled the complication was that they got off the initial “X” without taking any harm, but ran right into the fields of fire of another ambush element (i.e. right onto a 2nd “X”). Resisting would allow them to get off this 2nd “X,” but they would remain engaged with the enemy and taking effective fire (I ruled the ambush a desperate position, so the resist wouldn’t totally negate the action). This all ran smoothly, and when it came to resist, collectively we were like, “Hmmm, can the PCs also resist as a group?” Any thoughts appreciated.
The resist roll isn’t measured in metrics of succes/fail which is crucial to giving the group leader stress in order to balance group actions as a mechanic.
I suppose technically you could still just count the resist rolls as pass/fail and have the leader take stress based on that and then have all the players take the 6-result stress if they really wanted to. But that’s really risky potentially you’re looking at the leader taking Crew size – 1 stress + 5(6 resist minus worse case scenario 1) in addition to everyone in the crew taking 5 stress. Obvious the flip side could be really good with everyone taking no stress as well.
I don’t think the rules say you can’t. Just like pushing yourself when you resist, it’s a thing you can do but adding stress for the sake of a potential of taking less is generally a bad value proposition that almost not one ever takes.
I had initially thought the same thing with the pass/fail issue. But, when I looked at the rules, it stated, “the character leading the group action takes 1 stress for each PC that rolled 1-3 as their best result.” Since it specified the number on the die, and not an action result, it made me think group actions were intended to be allowed with resisting.
Still, good points about it maybe being ill-advised from a practical standpoint.
Richard McNutt then yeah I’d say they can do it if they really want to but everyone has to resist with the same attribute and everyone takes the stress after the highest roll. At least try it until you know if it statistically ends up skewing things too much.
That was the way I had run it. Thanks for the input!
Group actions are for action rolls only. This is kind of ambiguous in the text. I’ll make it more clear.
Good to know. Thanks!