Bunch of minor, weird questions

Yo dudes! Just started burning again with some friends online (trying out tabletop simulator - actually quite good for BW because you can do mass d6 rolling fairly easily and everybody can see).

However, lots of small niggles that I never quite pinned down have emerged once again and I want to head them off at the pass.

  1. When doing beginner’s luck on skills rooting from perception, do failed tests still count torwards perception? I have assumed so, but perception usually does not advance through failures.

  2. How should I treat armour when resolving the quick fight (non bloody versus) rules? A single advantage/disadvantage seems somehow not to represent the sheer magnitude of the advantage a platemail wearer would have versus somebody wearing no armour at all.

  3. Might using the armour+damage rules be acceptable to resolve the results of ordinary actions during gameplay? For example, an urchin fires a stone at somebody intending to do as much damage as possible - is this not an action best resolved using the damage + armour rules?

Basically, I like a lot of the granularity you get from using part of the big Fight! rules in ordinary gameplay: thus far it has worked well for my group and it has let me sneak part of the rules into common play so when we hit a full Fight they won’t be so at sea. However, I understand usually houseruling BW is frowned upon so what do you dudes think!

Hey Sir Royalty Chuck

  1. So the basic way that BL works is this: if the Ob of the test would be Routine before doubling the Ob, a test gets logged towards opening the skill pass or fail (but nothing is marked for Perception). If the Ob before doubling is a Difficult test, the roll counts towards advancement for Perception and normal rules apply (ie, no advancement for failed tests).

  2. I’ve noticed this as well, but one thing to consider is that these rules are for quick fights, ie bar fights, an encounter that is not central to the conflict. I could be thinking bloody versus, but doesn’t your opponent get a Steel test? If so, that means there is a series of rolls before the outcome is determined.

  3. I think there should still be a test for the actual action of attacking, most likely a bloody versus.

On #3, they actually sorta cover this in an example. I don’t remember where it is, but it’s the one that involves decapitation and Bruce Lee poses with grunting noises. :smiley: (Really! I only remember those specific details.)

In the case you mention, I would have the urchin roll a test, then use the Die of Fate to determine how severe the damage is. (Or if it’s a sword, I would require a Sword roll, and let them use extra successes to shift it.)

  1. Nope, failed Perception tests don’t get you anything (no Difficult/Challenging advancement, no Routine tests to open Wises*). The basic handling is Beginners Luck on page 37, with the caveat about Perception on page 43. Remember that until you open a skill, Beginners Luck tests (regardless of difficulty) are stat tests. When this was different during playtesting, people ended up with monster perceptions and roughly 35-40 wises each.**

  2. Odds are the simple conflict rules are being used in situations where serious injuries are either not on the line or totally secondary to some other goal. For instance, the example is a two-PC scuffle over a sword. In most cases plate armor is either not going to help (it’s not going to help your scuffle) or it’s going to help as much as any other helpful tool will (to wit, +1D). If injury is any real part of the conflict, use Bloody Versus where plate armor is definitely a factor.

  3. It depends on what your intention with the scene is. If you want to see if you injure a player, than rolling a missile attack and having the player roll armor makes sense (as per Taking a Shot page 409). If there’s something else here other than just hurting a PC, do the above (or not) and then carry on with the real meat of the scene.

  • This is based on my understanding of the classification of Beginners Luck. Luke or Thor: if I’m wrong, please correct me.
    ** 40 wises might be overstating it, 8’s and 9’s on Perception aren’t.

Thanks bros, this perfectly answers my qs!