DwD Studios

I need one example as well. I'm probably being dense (no surprise), but I'm not quite understanding who rolls what. (And mhensley I'm NOT implying you are also dense).

For example, say the Confident Human Ranger (Tia) in the book fights Intrepid Halfling Thief (Bladry).

Tia has Melee 55% and Bladry is 26%.

They throw INIT. Tia goes first.

She rolls against her melee - so she wants to get 55% or less.

However...what are the modifiers here? And when are the modifiers applied? Bladry is opposing her so he can dodge and or parry (or whatever).

Since she's being opposed I'm obviously not clear on what she needs to roll for a success.

And on his turn does Bladr have to say "parry then hit" and the hit is at -20 because he did the parry first. And what if he is hit? Can he still do anything? In other words, exactly what are his options - parry, dodge, parry then hit, dodge then hit, just hit, etc.

I'm sure most of this is obvious so again I apologize for asking stupid questions - perhaps I'm just adding more complexity to the rules than needed. I just think one fairly detailed example would clear this up for me.

thanks!

This might help.
BBF On-Air Game Tutorial

Tia attacks. If she rolls 55 or less she has a possible hit. Bladry can choose to dodge or take the hit. If he tries to dodge he has to roll his dex or less (not his melee). If he misses the roll he gets hit.

Now on Bladry's action (assuming he did try to parry/dodge) he can attack but he takes a -20% because he has already acted in the turn. If he somehow rolls a 6 or less he can hit. Then Tia could try to dodge/parry by rolling her dex-20 or less.

It Tia then wanted to, she could declare another attack at -40 and try to roll 15 or less.

(Some GMs would have wanted Tia to declare both of her attacks and take them on her initiative but it is not a set in stone rule that you have to do it that way.)

Mitch

Was the Example of Play in the book a bit lite for what your are looking for?

The example of play on page 29 does not seem to have a basic "I attack then you attack" exchange.

The example in the book is a player getting captured and smacked around by the bad guys - I need an example of "toe-to-toe" combat.

I'm not clear on when someone knows if they hit, for example.

Tia throws and beats her melee score...so is that a hit?

Or does she have to wait for Bladry to also roll (parry or dodge)?

Is "to hit someone" one roll, or possibly 2 rolls (one by each side)? In the example in the book, we didn't know the bad guy hit until he rolled and then Harim missed his Dodge roll.

And if dodge uses Bladry's DEX roll, does parry use his Melee roll? (Nevermind...see that DEX is also used for parry on page 33).

I currently believe (unlike D20 games) that both the attacker and defender roll so see if the defender is hit, but I may be way off. To me the defender has the advantage if they get to roll too since Melee is 1/2 the STR stat (plus modifiers) while a DEX check for Dodge is against a full stat before modifiers.

And if the attacker gets a critical success, does the defender even get to roll? (I don't think so per the notes on page 26).

Again, I'm sure all this is easy - just need to read or see it once.

I'll finish watching the video and I'm sure that will help.

PS- actually, reading mitchw's response above has clarified some things ...though now wondering why melee is "melee vs dex" and not "melee vs melee" but again probably overthinking it until I play it

Remember though, combat can be a bit of resource management and deadly attrition.

In your example, if Bladry chooses to dodge or parry, he has almost no chance of hitting back (6%). Essentially, he only has a decent chance at one activity in each round.

Tia is a superior fighter and has the ability to take two actions at OK odds,and one at long. This adds up over the rounds.

The approach to combat is as much about managing the available actions (i.e., choice of actions taken each round) to make best use of them as it is about getting into a fight itself.

New players soon realize the concept of Action Management. They can take as many actions on their turn as long as there is a chance of success, however they might want to save some actions for defense. I ask new players, "Would you like to take another action?" and explain that doing so leaves them little chance of resisting some threat to their character. Most players shrug it off and say, "I'll try it anyway!" That's when I smile...

When someone attacks a foe, the foe is allowed a resistance check. You may hit, however the foe may dodge/parry/whatever. For example, if my NPC hits a player-character, I might say something like, "The goblin raises both knives over head head, fainting with the left hand as a diversion, and striking with his right. It will strike you if you don't do something."
Player:
I'll take the blow
I'll resist the blow

Maybe this will help;

1. I roll to hit, cast a spell at you, pick your pocket, talk fancy to you, etc., I'm simply taking an Action. If I succeed.
2. You may roll to resist. You are taking an Action

That's two rolls, the later is a choice decided by the GM or Player (whoever is controlling the npc/pc)
--
A contested action, someone needs to be the clear winner. If two opponents are arm wrestling and both make successful STR checks, the contest continues until someone fails. If I roll a crit success you MUST roll a crit success, otherwise you fail.

--
Melee vs Melee OR Melee vs DEX
As a GM, that is your call. I've had GM's tell me I had to make a warrior skill check to dodge a door that was slammed in my face, I wanted to use my DEX since it was higher. It was his game, :)

Thanks to all for your replies - it's starting to make sense. (Just don't quiz me on it!)

One more question for now...say you're on your 2nd or 3rd action and it's at a very low percentage of success - say 7%. What do you have to lose to at least try it? Is it that you could also critically fail and it's not worth the risk?

The lower the %, the greater risk of a crit fail. Using 7% example;
<07 success
11,22,33,44,55,66,77,88,99 crit failure.

Ah...I'm starting to see the light.

"High percent chance of success good, low percent chance of success bad...very, very bad."

PS- some people are color-blind, I must be captcha-blind...takes me 2 times to get it right almost every time.

Make that 3 times...