Obstacles for Standard Test in DoW

Burning Wheel Subsystem Advice and Guidance
1

I’m a little confused about how to generate the Ob for standard tests in DoW. The key provided in the chapter and on the cheat sheet says, “In a standard test, test the ability listed with the action at the obstacle indicated.” By ability, I assume they mean skill. Do skills dictate the Ob?

Looking at the example used for the Point action, they don’t mention anything about this. The text just says, “Subtract successes from your oppoenent’s body of argument.” Let’s say I script point and roll using my Persuasion skill. Do I count only the margin of successes over my opponent’s Will score, or the overall successes?

Thanks for all your help!

2

By “ability,” they actually mean “ability.” Abilities include skills, stats, and attributes (and Avoid the Topic tests Will, which is of course not a skill but is an ability.) Think of “ability” as meaning “any of those things on your sheet that have “B6” or whatever after them” or “the stuff you can test with.”

Most of the time, when the matrix tells you it’s a standard test, that means it’s an unopposed attack. That’s the case with Point: you test your ability, and if you get three successes, you subtract three from your opponent’s Body of Argument. Some other maneuvers use other kinds of standard tests, like Incite. But it doesn’t sound like you’re having trouble with those.

3

So do the tests count as Routine, Difficult or Challenging depending on the number of opponent’s successes? What about when the opponent can’t do anything (for example they hesitate from Incite/Dismiss, or this is an unsuccessful Feint) - is that always a Routine then?

4

yes it is

5

Yeah, from what I gather, any opposed roll you count the Ob as the number of success rolled by your opponent.

6

Where does it say in the rules that it is routine (ob2)? In the Fight! rules, the standard difficulty for an unopposed check is easy (ob1) right?

7

I think you might be confusing Routine as in the value of a check towards advancement with routine as an example for Ob 2 (I presume the text on page 15 of the BWG rulebook)? A check of almost any Ob can be Routine towards advancement, depending on your actual skill/stat exponent, and an Ob 2 check can actually be Challenging if you are in way too deep…

When it comes to comparing Fight! with DoW, it might help to refer to page 26 of the rulebook and think of the unopposed DoW checks as “Graduated Checks” rather than standard or opposed checks. In this case, each success you roll will remove one die form your opponents Body of Argument, starting with the first one.