I am a pretty good grappler. I have an excellent biomechanical intuition, and some training, and so forth. If Luke is trying to punch me, and I’m trying to grab him, I will. I’ll get punched, too, but I’ll grab him. Ain’t really an issue. But if he’s trying to grab me and I’m trying to grab him? Forget it. I’ll get a hold and then he’ll pull some crazy judo shit and use it to wrap my ankle around my shoulderblades (this really happened). That’s because he’s using an actual grappling skill, whereas I’m relying on stats.
Shaun, the examples are great! Don’t forget the +1D to Disengage. It’s a minor detail, but important when you’re at the table. Just ask Zelbinian. 
Jimbo, all I can say is that it works well, feels slick and intuitive in play. Success rates are about the same as BWR, but the timing of the actions is different.
Makes me wish I hadn’t gone ahead and read the BWR Fight! rules and had waited a few extra days for BWG. I got fairly confused by my first read-through. This looks more intuitive, although it could just be that Shaun is an expert practitioner!
Can’t wait for BWG. Should be here by Friday… which is good, as I’m tentatively scheduling a Sword session with friends for Sunday.
Quick question. I’ve not got the book with me, but I remember the Engage section stating that if weapon lengths are the same, then there is no Engage roll.
So in Shaun’s example, if both were wielding (long) swords, even with differing strides, there is no Engage test, both start at Optimal and neither can gain an advantage. Am I reading this right?
John
You’ve got it John. Remember, positioning is only about getting yourself into position to take advantage of your weapon length. So if there is no difference in weapon length there’s no advantage to be had.
EDIT: Of course, that stride advantage is still going to come into play should you want to Disengage/Engage and your opponent is trying to keep you from doing so.
Hope your session went well! My experience with these systems is that just reading them will give you (at least only gave me) just a foggy understanding of what actually goes on. There’s nothing like a playtest to wrap your mind around it–or barring that, reading a playtest someone else did!
In a fight, there seems to be quite a bit of dice rolling. Please let me know if I have this order and number of steps correct:
Assume both opponents are already engaged.
To hit an opponent you script a strike or great strike (or some sort of counter as appropriate)
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Roll the skill to strike the opponent (sword skill etc) lets assume it hits for our example.
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Spend successes to move to hit location or add other qualities to the attack (va etc)
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Assume we have a mark hit, roll power + the weapon’s damage bonus
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Defender rolls armor to avoid damage.
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Apply damage.
So am I correct in assuming you roll to hit the opponent, then roll to damage, then they roll to avoid damage? Is that the basic summary of steps? I have been reading through the Fight section and I don’t normally struggle with reading comprehension but I just want to make sure I have this right.
Thanks,
Mike
You don’t actually roll for damage. If your weapons IMS is 3/6/9 and you get a mark hit, you do 6 damage to your opponent. If their armor roll succeeds, it’s completely deflected.
And your opponent will only test to see if they avoid damage if they’re wearing armor–otherwise the damage is automatic if they’re hit.
That makes so much more sense guys. Not sure how I read it and thought you were supposed to roll successes from the power rating to get damage.
Thank you for the clarification! Much more streamlined that way.
Have a good one,
Mike
First ‘proper’ Fight! tonight, and I’ve got to say, it really went very smoothly. Ourbrave heroes found themselves facing off against about a dozen goblins and their chief in their lair.
Manoeuvres were very intuitive, with the Dwarf constantly trying to disengage to get to the pile of gold he’d spied earlier and continually getting hemmed in by multiple goblins, the elf chasing the Goblin chief around his dais until the wounded chief was able to make his escape deeper into the caves, and the knight/paladin laying waste to all goblins that came within reach.
All in all a very satisfying fight, with the whole process really flowing and moving quite fast. Considering it was one players third session with BW and another’s second game, it was remarkably smooth. In fact during tonight’s 3-hour session we managed two Duel of Wits and a Fight! I wouldn’t have tried that with BWR.
John
If that’s not an indication of a job well done by BWHQ, I don’t know what is.