I’ve been working my way through the conflict rules of MG and it’s all perfectly simple and straight forward thus far, but something occured to me and it doesn’t appear to be covered in the book. What if you have multiple teams vs multiple teams? Who attacks who? Or more specifically, what do you do if one side focusses on one opposing team in particular. What does the un-attacked team do?
For example. The players have Mouse team A and Mouse team B. The GM has Weasel team A and Weasel team B. Both Mouse teams decide to feint against Weasel team B. As per the rules, one mouse team assists the other in feinting against Weasel team B. All well and good but what does Weasel team A do?
Let’s say Weasel team A decided to attack Mouse team B. Are mouse team B considered to be feinting against Weasel team A for the purposes of resolving the volley, or do the Weasels get a totally unopposed (ob.0) attack?
Not really. It’s page 114 I’m talking about really. It gives the example of two mouse teams teaming up to attack a single opposing team. It doesn’t seem to explain what happens if there’s a second or third opposing team.
I’ll try re-reading it again later once I’m a bit more chilled-out. It’s late in the day and my brain is hurting.
Attack versus Feint means that the attacker gets to roll unopposed. So Weasel Team A can attack whichever Mouse Team it wants at Ob 0. Weasel Team A’s action beats the actions of both Mouse Teams.
As far as Weasel Team B goes, we have no idea, because we don’t know what action it selected. If it chose Attack, then it help Weasel Team A with its Ob 0 attack against whichever Mouse Team it chooses.
If it chose Defend, then the Mice Teams get an Ob 0 attack against it.
If they chose Maneuver, then the Mice Teams get an Ob 0 attack against Weasel Team B, and Weasel Team B gets an Ob 0 Maneuver against the Mice Teams; Weasel Team B may spend its successes to buy effects against either Mouse Team.
If Weasel Team B chose Feint, then it makes a Versus Test against the Mice Teams.
I think I was too specific in saying that the Mice are feinting.
I’m not trying to figure out wether an action is independent or opposed.
I’m not trying to figure out who’s targetting who.
I’m trying to figure out what Weasel Team A does because nobody is opposing them in this specific volley.
The mice are concentrating on Weasel Team B. If Weasel Team A performs an action (nomatter what that action is) against either of the mice teams, do the rules run as normal or do Weasel team A get completely unopposed rolls or independent rolls at Ob0 - depending on their attack?
I appreciate that some actions allow an unopposed roll anyway. I’m more concerned with rolls that would ordinarily be opposed because nobody is actually opposing them in this instance.
Going back to my example, both mice teams are feinting. Let’s say Weasel team B are manoeuvering. We know how to resolve that. Both sides get an independent test at Ob 0. The mice get an extra dice due to being helped by the other team.
All well and good.
That leaves Weasel team A. Let’s say they are feinting against Mouse team B. Do I treat it as Feint vs Feint (remember the mice are feinting against the other Weasel team) and perform the versus test as normal? Or, as the mice are ignoring them, do they simply get an Ob0 roll instead of the versus test?
Attack, Defend, and Maneuver all have independent effects–Attack reduces the opponent’s disposition, Defend rebuilds the team’s disposition, Maneuver successes can be spent on tangible advantages–so the unopposed Weasel team will get the independent effects against whichever mouse team it chooses to target. The only action about which I am unsure in this situation is Feint, but I think the result would be it functions either as an Attack or the team just loses that action (I prefer the latter ruling).
Am I misunderstanding your question or being unclear in my answer?
As I said in the last post, if Weasel Team B is Feinting, and both Mouse Teams are Feinting, then Weasel Team B’s Feint is versus the Feint rolled by the Mice Teams.
In your example, if both mouse teams wish to act against Weasel B, they must help one another – two independent actions. Weasel A has a versus action against the mouse teams, so he must beat their successes in order pass his test. Treat it like Feint vs Feint. He should declare his target before rolling. Successes over the obstacle are deducted from his target’s dispo.
I just re-read page 114. It seems that the weasel team the mice are ignoring gets no advantage in the conflict–it still has to check its chosen action against what the mice have chosen. Is this correct?
We played our first session last night and lo, and behold, this problem came up.
We had two teams versus the Snake in the Grain Peddlar mission.
One team was making a versus test. The other team was making an independent test.
We couldn’t figure out what the Snake does. Does it compare it’s action to both teams (effectively acting against two seperate targets simultaneously)?
Okay, so with that in mind, here’s the example from our first session that broke us.
Players have two teams: Team Saxon and Team Kenzie.
GM has the Snake.
Team Saxon Attacks
Team Kenzie Feints
The Snake Manoeuvres
The Snake targets Team Kenzie.
Team Saxon resolves first.
Attack vs Manoeuvre is a versus roll. Saxon rolls Fighter and gets 3 successes. The Snake rolls Nature and gets 5 successes. Saxon loses 2 Disposition.
Team Kenzie resolve next.
Feint vs Manoeuvre is an independent action. Kenzie rolls Fighter and gets 2 successes. The Snake loses 2 disposition.
The Snake resolves last (it targeted Team Kenzie). Manoeuvre vs Feint is an independent roll. The Snake rolls it’s nature and gets 3 successes, disarming Kenzie.
The Volley ends. The snake has had two actions: Striking Saxon and disarming Kenzie.
Had the snake targeted Saxon, I assume that it would have been a single vs test between Saxon and the Snake, followed by a single independent test made by Kenzie.
If this is right, then it rewards the Snake to always target the team making the independent test because it then gets to perform two actions.
If this is wrong then I can only assume that the Snake, targeting Kenzie would make a single independent test and Saxon would not be able to test because it’s not possible to make a vs test, bringing me all the way back to the point I was making at the start of this thread. If you aren’t being targeted by the opponent, how can you make a vs roll against it?
Here are the actions:
Team Saxon Attacks
Team Kenzie Feints
Team Snake Maneuvers
After the actions are announced, the GM decides the Snake will target Team Kenzie with its Maneuver.
Everyone rolls dice.
Team Saxon gets 3 successes
Team Kenzie gets 2 successes
Team Snake gets 5 successes
Team Saxon’s Attack is versus Team Snake’s Maneuver. Since the Snake’s roll was 5 and Team Saxon only rolled 3 successes, the Attack was unsuccessful.
Team Kenzie’s Feint is Independent of Team Snake’s Maneuver, so Team Kenzie’s Obstacle is zero. The Feint removes 2 points from Team Snake’s disposition.
Team Snake’s Manuever is Independent of Team Kenzie’s Feint, so Team Snake’s Obstacle is zero. Team Snake has a margin of success of 5 with which to buy Maneuver effects against Team Kenzie.
