Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Bákte [BAHK-tay] - the Body

In a Band of Joyous Heroes, Bákte [BAHK-tay] - or the Body, is the character stat used to describe the character's physical abilities. It is used in opposed physical challenges such as strength or agility test, and will modify unopposed challenges. It is also the primary stat used for melee combat, where is provides a character's base melee dice.

That is, Bákte 5 = 5 base dice.

In opposed challenges both sides roll dice looking for "successes". A successful roll is a roll of 1-3, with a roll of 4-6 indicating failure. This is par for the course for those familiar with THW rules sets.

If both sides rolled one or more successes they discard the failed dice and re-roll the rest, again looking for successes. In melee, this constitutes a melee round - some Talents allow one to modify the dice based upon melee rounds so this is important to understand. (Perhaps I should call it a "challenge round" as some Talents may modify other challenges. Hmm...)

This continues until one or both sides has zero successes. In general, zero successes for both means the opponents are evenly matched. This marks the end of the challenge for the turn. If only one side has zero successes then this means their opponent has landed a solid blow or gained an advantage. How many successes one has left when the other runs out determines the level of success.

In melee the results are typically: OD (Obviously Dead) or OOF (Out of the Fight), and occasionally ADV (Advantage). The latter gives the victor bonus dice next melee round and usually some other effect like knocking the opponent down or disarming them. OOF means the loser is down and out. He will need to recover before he can fight again, either after the action or by being healed. The nature of the injury is not defined and is as much determined by his recovery roll. OD means that there is a lot of blood and he is dead. Obviously Dead! In the case of Heroes this may not turn out to be the case after all is said and done (but he sure looked a goner at the time!) For ordinary Grunts, however, it is "game over man!" ;-)

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