Double Obstacle Penalty and Versus Tests

Burning Wheel First Reading
1

There’s some covering of my questions in here: https://www.burningwheel.com/forum/showthread.php?8387-Double-Obstacle-Penalty&highlight=double+obstacle+penalty

But I’d like to ask again, because it’s not clear enough to me:

  1. If I roll my stat for Obfuscate vs my opponent’s skilled Point, I’m at DOP. But, how do I count my opponent’s successes that knock out my BoA dice?

I mean, for example, I roll 5 successes, and my opponent rolls 3. So, my obstacle to Obfuscate is 6, so I’ve failed; but what’s my opponent’s Ob (to calculate his Test for advancement), and therefore what’s his Margin of Success?

  1. Also, if I am successful in my Obfuscate, my opponent has +1 Ob to his next test, IIRC. If that is a Versus Test (no DOP anymore, for simplicity’s sake), would it count as +1s to my own roll? For example, I make a Point and roll 2s, and he makes an Avoid and rolls 0s, how many dice are knocked off his BoA?

  2. Talking about DoW as an easy example for my questions, I’ve come to another one: if I give +1Ob to my opponent’s next action, and he chooses Rebuttal, who chooses if the +1Ob goes to the Attack or Defend dice? I don’t remember if it is said in the book, so I’m sorry if it is, :P.

Thank you very much in advance, :).

2

  1. Count half your successes, rather than doubling your opponent’s. In your example, your opponent’s Point would knock off 1 point of your BoA.

  2. It wouldn’t count as +1s to your roll, it would just knock one success off of theirs. In your example, you’d take 2 off of their BoA. With the +1 Ob, they wouldn’t start countering your successes until the penalty was overcome. So, if they’d rolled 2 successes, their Avoid would take away 1 of your Point successes.

  3. I would put the +1 Ob on the defense pool, but that’s just me.

3

Yeah, I think you’re right. But, then again, what if there is also an extra Obstacle penalty? Say, if there’s an extra +1Ob to my roll, is that penalty knocked off before or after my successes are halved? I think before, but I must ask nonetheless.

  1. It wouldn’t count as +1s to your roll, it would just knock one success off of theirs. In your example, you’d take 2 off of their BoA. With the +1 Ob, they wouldn’t start countering your successes until the penalty was overcome. So, if they’d rolled 2 successes, their Avoid would take away 1 of your Point successes.

  2. I would put the +1 Ob on the defense pool, but that’s just me.

Thank you very much! I imagined it, but I had to ask, :P.

4

Ob penalties are added after doubling. So, your Ob in the example would wind up being 7 if you had a +1 Ob penalty. You’d only need a single extra success to beat that, because you don’t double the penalty.

5

And, if I rolled 4s at DOP and +1Ob, and my opponent 2s, I guess my opponent’s test for advancement is Ob2?

6
  1. Personally, I’d apply it to both rolls, but I’m not seeing anything definitive in the book one way or the other.
7

All obstacle penalties are applied to both pools. This is the case for all actions that require 2 pools: Rebuttal in DoW, and Counterstrike/Block&Strike in Fight!

8

@Taelor & gunner6: I see, thank you very much, :).