Question about groups of enemies (in band of blades and blades in the dark) – if you are fighting a gang of enemies – the scale of them is used to downgrade the effect of damage..
is fighting them like a 4-clock or similar? Trying to get my head around this
There has been some discussion about this recently: https://plus.google.com/118133754158345836484/posts/2NmZDpgYiBK
Clocks. Scale. These two are independent of one another.
A clock is for complex tasks. This is not required (unless the GM says it is).4 clocks are nice if you want to track condition levels and add detail, but not necessarily needed. They also line up with cohort harm levels, so they serve as an useful way to add complexity to an encounter. You use a clock for a “big bad” to represent a duelist’s stamina, a vampire’s dark power, or whatever, but a lock with several tumblers and trapped bits inside might also warrant a clock.
What happens with scale is.. during the evaluation of effect described in the section titled Discussion (p.6), the GM decides how much effect might be possible, then reduces it or increases it for the difference in any dominant factor(s) (can be one, or many, of a potential three factors). That decision too is up for discussion, for the GM to ultimately decide.
Note: factors can differ and it not matter because reasons. But assuming that the scale difference present is helpful- it might not count against them (or even increase effect) for certain tasks (disappearing in to the darkness, for example).
So, fighting might not be considered complex enough to warrant the clock. Or even to maintain a fast pace, the GM might just say “normally you could knock out the other group on a 6, or you get knocked out on 1-3. But due to scale, on a 6 you’ll get a near KO instead. Wanna push? Or go ahead and see what happens?”
Hope this helps