Hello, i’m new here!
I have to say that i love “The Burning Wheel” with all my heart, it is a great system.
I switched to it because Burning Wheel pretty much does everything “out of combat” better than all RPG’s i know.
My favorite systems before BWG were GURPS/Dungeon World/Warhammer FRP 2nd Edition. I did try many others but i just dabble in them.
Now my question. It’s about conflict resolution of the violent kind against multiple opponents.
First, i know how to use fight, so don’t shoot me! I do not want to use fight for most combat encounters.
I do not know if i just miss something simple or something bigger.
So let’s start.
For example, we have a group of two heroes, a hunter with a bow and a knight with a sword.
They are standing on a bridge, dead guards everywhere, the horses ran away and the carriage with the princess is just standing there.
The goal is to save the princess from five menacing bandits. Combat follows.
Sure, the encounter is important, but i don’t want to use the detailed rules for that fight.
Is there a way to resolve combat against multiple opponents with versus/bloody versus? Or some hack?
I really like how combat works in Torchbearer, but i feel like BWG lacks a quick and simple solution for combat against multiple opponents.
Or like i said, do i miss something?
If the situation is complex enough to allow multiple intents, you can also do “subteams” – for example, the knight tries to hold off a frontal assault by three bandits while the hunter is up against the two who are trying to flank them (the bandits with the same task and intent help each other).
Not quite what you were asking for but that situation might make for an exciting use of Range & Cover… getting off the bridge and away over the hills, etc.
After all, it’s two versus five and the main objective is to get the princess away safely. Would be as involved as a Fight! but might give the story more drive with the stated intent.
Agreed, Range and cover would work flawlessly in a situation like that. If your player would decide to run away.
But in my example they stay and fight.
I am after ways on how fellow GM’s treat a scenario like that in a meaningful way, but not so meaningful that i have to slow it down with the fight rules.
So far the subteams suggested by Alex_P look like a good way to do it.
When I’m teaching Fight! I generally only use one volley at a time ignoring reflexes and vying for position (still roll to engage for the first action). Restrict the options to basic attack and defend actions and let the player know that any move which takes two actions to perform means you strike last.
