My gaming group has recently gotten into Burning Wheel, and we’re learning our way through some of the advanced rules. A couple things have come up that felt a little off/harsh, so I wanted to get some clarification about them.
Surprise - When is it appropriate to roll Steel for surprise? Like in the sort of situation when Han Solo shoots Greedo (first), would Han have to beat Greedo in some kind of Sleight of Hand vs. Observation/Perception test to draw and fire without Greedo noticing? Once he does that would Greedo then have to test Steel (even if Han misses?) because it was an unexpected attack? Right now the game feels like whoever moves first to attack in Fight! has a huge upper hand because of all the hesitation actions for the surprised side. Or, does surprise only come from “ambushes”? Is the Han firing scenario not eligible for surprise no matter what because it’s not an ambush?
Hesitation - In Fight each volley is one action, so hesitating means you lose that many volleys. In Range and Cover there are 20 actions per volley. Does this mean when hesitating you lose nothing (because you can’t fail by more than 9), or you always lose one volley minimum when hesitating, even in Range and Cover or Duel of Wits?
Injury - Do dice penalties from injury apply to Health tests trying to recover from that injury? Can you Grit Your Teeth with the “scene” being the recovery period? (Presumably the dice penalty applies to Grit Your Teeth, so it’s generally better to auto-succeed with Artha if the injury is nasty?)
Help and Injury - Normally skills don’t help attributes. Extra successes from medical treatment give bonuses on Recovery rolls. Can people with medical skills also add a help die on Recovery tests?
Surprise - When is it appropriate to roll Steel for surprise? Like in the sort of situation when Han Solo shoots Greedo (first), would Han have to beat Greedo in some kind of Sleight of Hand vs. Observation/Perception test to draw and fire without Greedo noticing? Once he does that would Greedo then have to test Steel (even if Han misses?) because it was an unexpected attack? Right now the game feels like whoever moves first to attack in Fight! has a huge upper hand because of all the hesitation actions for the surprised side. Or, does surprise only come from “ambushes”? Is the Han firing scenario not eligible for surprise no matter what because it’s not an ambush?
Surprise is really a GM call. I’s say Greedo is an experienced criminal and wouldn’t be so shocked at violence from Han, but you might think otherwise. However, they’re not in Fight! Greedo and Han aren’t scripting. It was just a versus test. And yes, I probably would have called for an Inconspicuous Test as a linked test first.
Hesitation - In Fight each volley is one action, so hesitating means you lose that many volleys. In Range and Cover there are 20 actions per volley. Does this mean when hesitating you lose nothing (because you can’t fail by more than 9), or you always lose one volley minimum when hesitating, even in Range and Cover or Duel of Wits?
Does the section on Hesitation in the R&C section help with this question? Page 419.
Injury - Do dice penalties from injury apply to Health tests trying to recover from that injury? Can you Grit Your Teeth with the “scene” being the recovery period? (Presumably the dice penalty applies to Grit Your Teeth, so it’s generally better to auto-succeed with Artha if the injury is nasty?)
Dice penalties do not apply to recovery because Health is not affected. Page 488.
Help and Injury - Normally skills don’t help attributes. Extra successes from medical treatment give bonuses on Recovery rolls. Can people with medical skills also add a help die on Recovery tests?
Generally surprise is caused by one party making a stealthy test (or tactics test to set an ambush) and the other party failing an observation test. Failing the observation test leads to a Steel test. In general, simply swinging first is not enough to generate a Steel test. In the Han/Greedo scene, sleight of hand vs. observation makes perfect sense to me.
Just to be clear, in Fight, you get a number of actions equal to your Reflexes, which must then be divided across the three volleys as evenly as possible. When you hesitate, you lose actions equal to your margin of failure, not volleys.