Range and Cover Questions

Burning Wheel First Reading
1

  1. Top of page 405 says “any team member can make a maneuver test…” Does this rule trump Slowest and Loudest? I’m especially thinking about Sneak In and Sneak Out.

  2. Regarding Team Hesitation, page 422, tell me if this is true: If at least one character on the team passes the steel test the team can still maneuver normally, providing that only non-hesitating characters make (or help) the maneuver test, fire, use actions, etc.

  3. Again, regarding Team Hesitation, what happens if the non-hesitating person calling the shots scripts a maneuver that’s conceptually inconsistent with what a hesitating character is doing? Like “the team” closes but one hesitating character swoons and another runs screaming? My instincts are that the swooning character has dropped out of the R&C as per the swooning rules, and the running away character is now his own, separate, team.

  4. When trying to close into Too Close to Shoot against a fortified opponent page 419 says you must pay an action to climb or overrun the fortification. Is that one action for the whole team or one action per character? I’m hoping the former as this is simpler; if the latter, and if you pay for only some characters, then you by default I think you have split the team in two.

–Peter

2
  1. In the example on pages 417-418, after the first volley the elf is in optimal range because of his “cheating elven bow,” right? Then in the second volley the elf flanks and wins the maneuver, advancing one range category. Shouldn’t the elf now be Too Close to Shoot? The example shows him as still at optimal.
3

Hey Peter,

  1. The full sentence is: “Any team member can make the maneuver test provided it’s appropriate to the situation and any other rules.” (emphasis mine)

In my game, Slowest and Loudest applies to situations like this. The point though is that the person who wrote the script does not have to be the one that tests for every action.

Note though that generally only one other character can help with a Maneuver test anyway, unless the group has the Skirmish Tactics skill. In many cases, you’re best off dividing into several teams.

  1. Correct.

  2. I think you’re right on the money. I would run it the same way.

  3. As soon as one character moves into Too Close to Shoot, Range & Cover is done and it’s time to move into Fight (after Last Ditch Arrows are resolved, of course). So only one character needs to take an action to scale or overrun the fortification. However! Characters that do not take an action to scale the fortification start on the other side of it. They need to get over it before they can join the Fight.

  4. Looks like that’s a bit of errata. You’re correct.

4

wiki’d

5

Thanks, Thor.

  1. Do the Ob penalties for shooting due to weather, terrain surface, and light as described on pages 422 and 423 apply to spell casting? The Spells as Weapons section on page 515 says to apply penalties for “cover”, which clearly includes the Cover Obstacles defined on page 406. But the weather and stuff looks similar enough I thought it might apply too.
6

Your call depending on how you feel magic works in your campaign. But it seems reasonable to apply those penalties. If you do, I would allow a sorcerer sustaining Magesense to ignore those penalties.

7
  1. If your team charges or retreats and loses the maneuver test, is everyone on your team hesitating for the next volley or just the team leader? If the answer is “everyone”, watch out boys and girls, 'cause if an entire team hesitates within optimal range of an opposing team’s weapon, the team is captured!

Edit: Looks like the same question can come up if you decide to use the option of changing volley 2 after volley 1 and thereby end up hesitating for volley 3.