Rules Q: – As written, what is the advantage of having a weapon using Skirmish?
Is it in setting Effect? (fists Limited, dagger Standard, sword Great?) That doesn’t seem to be the case.
Related – how are folks setting the level of threat of an enemy, like a standard thug? A 2-clock for such an enemy?
Thoughts? And thanks!
As you posited, it’s in effect.
While I might not penalize the effect of a known pugilist for attacking a lone swordsman in light armor with their fists, I would certainly do so if they chose to attack an armored hardened Hull or someone who had been described as wearing barbed spikes as armor or a renowned martial artist.
Similarly, someone attacking without a weapon is essentially attacking with weapons the quality of their tier. To attack above that weight, they would need some fine brass nuckles or similar.
Additionally a weapon might be modified by a tinkerer to perform special actions, be more useful in particular situations, etc.
Like every other item, a weapons effect and utility are largely based on narrative.
Standard thug is a single roll, unless you wanna draw it out with a lowered effect as a consequence. Risky Standard is the baseline.
Skirmish is the main fighting roll; its the one you use if the other person is aware of you and fighting back normally. So lets say you have an angry red sash trainee swordsman running at you, blade drawn:
You want to skirmish him. GM rules that its a Risky position because its a swordfight with a trainee and theres always the risk of being stabbed. Standard effect because stabbing him will hurt.
You draw your gun and say you want to hunt him. GM rules its a desperate position because taking the time to line up your shot may give the sash an opening. Standard effect because bullets.
You want to destroy his sword with a wreck roll. Risky because sword fight, limmited because the sash’s sword is well made.
You want to use your formal dueling skills and roll finnesse. Risky (sword fight) limited (not as effective as skirmishing).
Each way you tackle a problem gives the GM a new position and effect for you
1. The advantage of a weapon is primarily all the in-fiction advantages of having a weapon, depending on how knowledgeable or interested your table is about the issue. So if you have a pistol, you can shoot dudes but then need to reload before you can use it again, which can be a problem that needs to be solved. If you have a cutlass, it might just partially do its namesake and get stuck in instead. The game is not really about exchanging game-mechanics harm (unless it’s level 3 harm, I routinely forget about players being injured, and they do too), it’s about describing the possible advantages and disadvantages in a fictional situation. Intimidating someone when you have a knife to their throat also tends to be easier.
In game mechanics terms, having a weapon, not having a weapon, or having different types or qualities of weapon affect your effect (mostly based on quality or “heaviness”) or position (mostly based on what the weapon actually is).
2. I don’t use clocks that much outside of long-term things, myself. For me, the main dial I work with is position, with the default being set to risky and going up and down depending on the GM’s judgement of the situation at hand. That’s honestly going to be enough for most of your game.
For special occasions only, I employ a few extra tricks.
When they’re facing an enemy group that significantly out-Tiers them, reduce the PC’s default effect. Bluecoats get a lot scarier when you need to push any time you want to have a substantial effect on them.
When they’re facing a special named enemy that’s established in the fiction as a badass, the PCs may need to roll Resistance against what the enemy is doing before they can do anything at all.
When there is a big fight that feels like a capstone and everyone feels like it should last a while, pull out the Clocks. Default 8 for the opposing gang or demon is usually good enough. It basically works, but I would caution against overdoing it – in my personal experience, the more clocks you make, the more clocks you ignore.
That’s pretty much it.
You can see in one of the Rollplay Blades games that Carriless Firm attacks an elite swords woman with his bare hands. His position was desperate and his effect was limited. I suspect that had he used a sword then it would have been desperate and standard.
Mark Griffin I just watched that episode! Thanks. 🙂
And I think Cariless only got limited effect because he had the old Brutal special ability. It would have been zero otherwise (until he closed the range inside her reach).
I’d say it’s a combination of position and effect. Looks like other people have already said this but I guess I’ll pitch in anyway. The GM has to make a judgment call in the circumstances. If you’ve got fisticuffs and no armor, and the guard has a sword and chainmail, you’re in a desperate position, and you’ll have no effect without a crit. If you have a knife and he has a sword and armor, you’ll be in a risky or desperate position depending on his skill with the blade, and limited effect. Fists vs sword with no armor involved, it’s desperate and limited. Unless your character is a kung fu master.