The Old World Roleplaying Game (OWRPG) offers fast and grim combat, that can turn deadly surprisingly fast. Despite being a fairly easy system to get the hang of on the surface, there is some depth to the builds and strategies you might take to avoid - or at least postpone - taking damage. In this guide, we'll look at the options you have, to help you pick the right defensive strategy for your character.
Attacks in OWRPG are opposed tests, where the attacker rolls an attack, and the defender rolls to defend. The attack itself will usually be done using Melee, Shooting, Throwing or Brawn. Defending uses either Defence or Athletics - or in some rare cases Endurance or Stealth.
Regardless of the skills involved, if the attack scores no successes, the attack fails and the defense roll is disregarded.
If the attack does score at least one success, it is compared to the defending roll. If the defending roll scores more successes than the attack, the defense is successful and no damage is done.
If the attack scored at least one success and at least as many successes as the defending roll, the attack succeeds, and the attack damage is calculated as the sum of the attackers base damage (depending on the weapon used) and the number of successes he scored more than the defender.
Damage is compared to the defenders Resilience (Toughness plus armour). If the damage is higher than resilience (not equal to or higher, it must exceed), a wound roll is made. Otherwise the defender is staggered - which, if they were already staggered, will result in some disadvantage to them, perhaps even a wound roll.
Learning the system
My group got to grips with this system fairly easily, there are just two things that can be tricky to remember when starting out. First, that attacks fail if they have no successes, even if the defense also fails. Second, that tie-breaking is different for attacking-vs-defending and damage-vs-resilience: Tie-breaking favors the attacker in the case of attacking-vs-defending (as long as there is at least one success on the attack, phew), but ties between damage and resilience favor the defender. It works, but they could possibly have made this a bit more consistent.
Terminology for this article
It would be easier to talk about combat if the Defence skill had been named something else, as defending doesn't always use the defence skill. For that reason, this article will use the following terms for opposing attacks and attempts at grappling, pushing or tripping:
- Opposing attacks with the Defence skill will be called blocking. (The rulebook calls it parrying, but as you can block arrows in some cases, blocking feels better in my opinion.)
- Opposing attacks with the Athletics skill will be called dodging. This is in line with rulebook terminology.
- Opposing attacks with the Resilience skill (which is only applicable to unarmed attacks, as well as grappling and pushing/tripping attempts) will be called rebuffing.
- Opposing attacks with the Stealth skill (only possible for thieves and some NPCs) will be called eluding.
Dodging (Athletics)
A glance at the character sheet might make you think that Defence is the main skill used to oppose attacks, but that really isn't true. The default skill to go to for defending yourself is Athletics. It can be used to oppose any sort of attack, and doesn't have any prerequisites - the only situations the rulebook gives where you cannot use Athletics is when you are unaware of the attack, when you are ambushed or when you have the defenceless condition. And in these cases, you cannot usually oppose the attack with any of the other skills either.
You can dodge armed and unarmed melee attacks, ranged attacks, grapples - even some spells, though we won't be getting into the magic system here.
Grapples need special mentioning, in case your GM disagree with me about a certain corner case: The Brawn skill specifically says that Athletics and Endurance can both be used to oppose grappling. But the improvise action only mentions Endurance as a defense against being pushed prone. A literal GM may interpret this as Athletics being usable against being grabbed, but not against being pushed or tripped. I find that a ludicrous distinction, so I would allow Athletics in both cases.
The Athletics skill is awesome in general - you need it for running, climbing, riding, jumping, passing difficult terrain, lessening the danger of falling... And it is the most easily applied way of avoiding attacks. It is likely that dodging will be the preferred way of defending for most characters.
Equipment for Dodging
There is no standard equipment that give bonuses to dodging, but there are significant pieces of equipment that give a penalty: Heavy armor (including Plate Mail assets) gives you a penalty to all agility tests, as does the Barding of any mount you are riding. These penalties are ignored when riding a Bretonnian Warhorse, but that's a bit of an edge case.
Does that mean you shouldn't wear heavy armor if you have invested in dodging (or eluding) as your main way of defending yourself? Maybe. Rolling one less die to defend yourself may be worth it to improve your resilience by one (compared to light armor), especially if you have a high Athletics skill and Agility. It is a tradeoff, which may or may not be worth it. But it does mean that it may be worth looking into blocking if you're planning to wear heavy armor.
Talents for Dodging
Already a good way of defending yourself, dodging can be made even better through some talents.
Lightning Reflexes
Lightning Reflexes is a talent that requires Initiative 5+ and costs 3XP - though elves start with it for free, ignoring the requirement. It states that you can always oppose incoming attacks with athletics, as long as you do not have the Defenceless condition. (It also has other effects.) This means you can dodge even when you are ambushed, and even when you are unaware of the attack. Being unaware of an attack is not the same as being defenceless.
The big question here is what wins when putting Lightning Reflexes up against using stealth in combat as part of the Move Quietly action. The action states that the next attack is unopposed, while lightning reflexes says you can always oppose. The Old World RPG doesn't have any general "use the more specific rule"-rule, and even if it did I'm not entirely certain which of these rules are more general. I would rule that a character with Lightning Reflexes can dodge attacks made by an attacker who is moving quietly, as it seems very similar to an attack you are unaware of.
Also, remember that attempts at grappling or pushing/tripping aren't called attacks in the rulebook, so technically lightning reflexes won't work against those.
Short Size
Short size is a talent that must be taken during character creation, and costs 2xp. Halflings get it automatically and for free. Among other effects (both good and bad), this talent changes the tiebreaker rules when rolling Agility (which is used for both Athletics and Stealth) to oppose enemy actions - including but not limited to attacks. Instead of the attacker winning ties as long as they get at least one success, a defender with this talent will win ties.
For a character who is dodging (or eluding) attacks, this is a huge difference. Play testing seems to indicate that most successful attacks generate between one and three successes, and with such low granularity, changing the tiebreaker rules will stop a significant percentage of attacks. It is likely to get slightly less useful later in a campaign when more dice are being thrown against better target numbers, but I think it will remain very useful throughout a campaign.
Blocking (Defence)
If dodging is the go-to method for defending yourself, blocking is a close runner-up. Blocking has several prerequisites:
- Just as with dodging, you cannot be unaware, ambushed or Defenceless.
- You have to be armed with a dagger or larger weapon, or a shield.
- You can only block ranged attacks if you are using a shield.
Note that you cannot block while unarmed - rules as written you cannot block even other unarmed attacks without a weapon, but GMs may want to house rule that.
This means that blocking in general is mostly useful if you are planning to have a shield, or have some other method of avoiding getting shot. If you don't have a shield, you still need at least some investment in dodging to avoid ranged attacks - and ranged attacks can be very deadly in this game, as guns ignore armor.
That said, assuming you are using a shield (or are at least armed), blocking has several advantages over dodging. The main one is that it uses Weapon Skill, which also governs the Melee skill - which is used to hit in combat. That means that if you rely on blocking, you only need to increase one characteristic to improve both your attacks and your blocks.
There is another downside to blocking: The way the rules are written, you cannot block attempts to grapple or push/trip you. These things must be dodged or rebuffed. Check with your GM if he is house ruling this, as I can see some GMs allowing defense to be used against at least some of these attacks - putting your sword in the way of an attacker moving in to grab you seems like a viable defense. Rules as written, you need Endurance or Athletics to deal with these attacks.
Equipment for blocking
As mentioned a weapon of some sort (at least the size of a dagger) is required to block, and you really want a shield as well if your dodging is bad. Beyond that, the agility penalty from heavy armor doesn't affect blocking, which can make it attractive to a character specializing in this form of defense.
The Foot spear gives a +1 bonus to the Defence skill when blocking charge attacks, and swords, glaives and greatswords all give +1 bonus to the Defence skill when the wielder isn't staggered. Extra dice to defend yourself are always nice, so consider these weapons if you are blocking - though note that glaives and greatswords are two-handed and as such cannot be used along with shields - meaning you will still need to dodge ranged attacks.
While it is fairly obviously worse than using a shield, dual wielding swords would allow you to stack the defensive bonus for a +2 to Defence when not staggered.
Talents for blocking
There are some talents that can make you better at blocking.
Defensive Stance
For only 2XP and requiring WS3+, you can get this talent. When you block an attack, it lets you choose to remove the staggered condition from yourself instead of applying it to the enemy. Considering blocking works well with a shield and heavy armor, it is likely that characters focusing on this method of defense will be staggered fairly often, as they will have a high resilience. Combined with the bonus from using a sword, which only applies when you are not staggered, this talent makes you a lot more resilient in combat.
Riposte
For 4XP and requiring WS5+, this talent lets you force an attacker to give ground, fall prone or suffer a wound when you successfully block. It only works once each round, but can still be a significant bonus - particularly if you have some way of preventing them from falling back, such as surrounding them or having a small-but-vicious dog.
Rebuffing (Endurance)
Rebuffing is never going to be a characters main method of defense, as it cannot be used to stop weapon attacks. It can be used to oppose grapples and unarmed attacks (as per the skill description), which includes attacks made with knuckledusters and those using the hammerhand spell.
Characters with a better Toughness/Endurance than Agility/Athletics (hello dwarves) should remember this if they are attacked unarmed, or if someone attempts to grapple them. Rules as written it is the only defense against being pushed prone - but as mentioned before I would house rule that to be opposable by dodging as well.
Unless a house rule is made to allow blocking to be used against unarmed attacks and grapples (which wouldn't be unreasonable), it seems likely that many characters focusing on blocking weapon attacks will also want to use rebuffing over dodging.
There are no talents or equipment that gives bonuses to oppose attacks with Endurance.
Eluding (Stealth)
Characters with the Thief career get the Without a trace career talent ,which lets them oppose incoming attacks using Stealth. Eluding attacks in this way requires you to either be fighting at night or be concealed by terrain, cover or shadow.
This applies to any kind of attack, though you should note that the wording in the rulebook does not name grappling and pushing attempts as attacks - so there is no eluding those. Dodging or rebuffing is still needed.
Eluding attacks is very situational, and therefore shouldn't be the main method of defense for a character. It uses the same characteristic as dodging (Agility), so it is mainly useful for thieves that have a better Stealth skill than they do Athletics. But as athletics is such a broadly useful skill, and eluding won't always work, a thief anticipating combat should probably still consider dodging their main method for opposing attacks.
Conclusions
Most characters should consider dodging using Agility/Athletics their most important form of defense. With a very literal GM, they also need some Toughness/Endurance to oppose attempts at pushing or tripping them.
There is room in the system for a heavily armored character with a shield who uses Weapon Skill/Defence to block attacks and Toughness/Endurance to rebuff grapple attempts and pushing/tripping. If athletics is completely ignored, such characters need to be careful when encountering difficult terrain in combat. The combination of bonuses from equipment and high resilience means that these characters may be the hardest to harm, while the fact that they can focus more XP on their Weapon Skill to improve both offense and defense means that they can be more deadly in melee for the same investment of XP and downtime checks than their counterparts relying on dodge.
Meanwhile, thieves can be slightly more difficult to hit at night, in fog or with the careful use of cover, eluding attacks by using Agility/Stealth. This works well for them if they have other characters to take the front line in combat, if they also use the Move Quietly system to hide and make unopposed attacks in combat.
A lightly armored fighter with a shield who uses blocking to defend is a valid choice mostly because heavy armor is expensive enough that it may not always be available.
The heavily armored fighter wielding a two-handed weapon and focusing on blocking attacks seems the least supported archetype in this system, as they will be relatively easily picked off by ranged attacks unless they also invest in dodging - which the heavy armor will interfere with. However, for that tradeoff they do fairly significantly higher damage, which funnily enough is mainly likely to be useful against the shield-using tanks described above - who won't be using ranged weapons anyway. Throwing away the shield and picking up the lucerne hammer may be something you only do when you realize you're facing a band of knights with no skirmisher support. Which seems appropriate.
All in all, the game gives a good distinction between heavily armored melee specialists who are both deadly and hard to kill in close quarters, and more mobile skirmishers.
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