Hey, just started playing burning wheel, very excited for first session. I did have a few fast questions on Fight! though:
Are there any mechanical benefits to aiming for the head?
When you do the block and strike action, do you allocate the dice like counterstrike, after they announce but before they roll, or do you allocate them before they announce?
Is there any reason to strike if you can block and strike?
What is the base Ob for shooting someone with a crossbow in Fight!? Bows are 1 and guns are 2, but it never says for crossbow.
Does feint count as a strike for purposes of weapon speed?
If you have high reflexes giving you multiple actions in a volley, can you use those multiple actions while hesitating? I.e I have reflexes 4, get hit, and have to hesitate for 3 actions after my steel test. I set up my exchange as V1: stand and drool, stand and drool, V2: stand and drool, V3: strike. Is this valid?
Often the head is more lightly armored than the torso. It’s generally about the same as going for the arms or legs though. If you want more than that, though, you might check out the Argh, My Arm! Optional Rule on pages 489-490. It offers unique rules for arm, leg and head strikes.
Like counterstrike.
Block & Strike is an excellent action and it’s hard to go wrong with it. However! You can Feint through the Block portion of a Block & Strike. You’ll still get the strike portion of your action off, but you might wind up with a couple feet of steel in your gut.
I believe loosing a crossbow is an Ob 1 test in Fight, but not 100% certain. Excellent spot.
No. Feint does not count against the number of strikes you can perform back-to-back in an exchange.
Yes, that’s valid. Keep in mind though that dice lost from wound penalties also come off Reflexes, so if you had Reflexes B4 before getting wounded, it might be Reflexes B3 or B2 now.
Thanks! I think we will treat crossbows as Ob 1, I see no reason it would be harder to hit with than a bow. I will also look at some possible effects on headshot, getting hit in the face with a sword or crossbow should be pretty scary!
One final thing, is there an appropriate forum for posting characters for review? I saw an area for the previous edition but not one for gold. Thanks again!
On the one hand. crossbows were the sniper’s weapon of the time. On the other hand, that was more because they could be kept ready to fire at all times, whereas you couldn’t keep a bow at full draw for an hour waiting for a target to appear.
Because the fire actions for guns and crossbows appear as the same action and bows are separate, I’d expand to “It’s an Ob 2 test to hit with a gun or crossbow (plus disadvantages…)” on p451.
The lack of an ignition lead time (clock work and flint lock) would give a crossbow an edge over a blackpowder pistol or rifle and the bolt travels similarly to the arrow, without the need to compensate for “kick”, so I would treat it like a bow.
Under “Fire Gun or Crossbow” (pg.451) it seems that they are grouped together and as it doesn’t mention anything special for the crossbow it would follow the “gun” rules.
Even though a crossbow doesn’t suffer from the ignition lag or kick of the earliest clockwork and flintlock black-powder firearms, the system uses abstract rules to simulate combat as quickly as possible. They’re not always what I would like, but they’ve never failed to work.
Thanks everyone for the responses, you’ve helped clear up a bit of confusion. And we will treat crossbows as Ob 2 to hit, thanks for clarifying that. We just had our first session and we had a great time and love the system. Looking forward to next weekend!