LifeLines

Hi guys

We have played a few sessions now and when the players are facing off against casualties I find that the same thing tends to happen. Exciting fight happens then followed by a long boring retreat/escape scene.

 They always engage in fights were they have an objective otherwise it would descend into hack and slash pretty quickly and you do simply not have ressources for this in Red Markets. So last time they were to defend a medic NPC while performed surgery on a soldier in the middle of the street and they 4 mobs converging on them. They did pretty well and after the soldier was stable they wanted to flee the incoming Mobs attracted by shooting and explosions. How do you play this?

I ruled that if they got further away than 10 Shambles they had left the fight and could get away safe. But that leads to a really drawn out sequence of players rolling Athletics and burning rations which was rather boring.

This has been the case in the last few battles. Any recommendations to make it more exciting?

I have been thinking about making it a Skill Challenge (if you do not know what it is check it out right now https://critical-hits.com/features/skill-challenges/ . It is a very cool mechanic for making awesome scenes in DnD and I find DnD games without them rather boring). Maybe just a S6F3 (I have 6 players and I want everyone to contribute) to escape and on a faiure they end up in dicey situation where they have to fight to get out.

I have not noticed that you first get the will AFTER you survive whatever trouble you stir up.

It makes sense.

Thanks for all the answers. As it is not specified in the book I will play it your way.

I think we are on the same page about when the attack happens just not when Shambles goes down. I just let it follow the round number.

But it plays the same way.

This part of the rules actually makes okay sense, at least when you have heard a bit of actual play Podcasts. It breaks down like this.

option A/RUN AWAY!
According to Market use Tactic and Twitch to roll two Athletics to move SPD away. Or Market can make it a Task (consuming Tactic + Twitch) to roll a Athletics check to move SPD away, if he wants failure to be less likely,costly and minimize dice rolling for the Taker. Note that there is no attack on failed Athletics checks but you have wasted rations and are still in the grip of the mob, so you will be attacked at the end of the round.

Then comes the more risky options, as the book says: Attacking and then running is riskier than focusing entirely on escape.

Option B/ I CAN DO IT ON MY OWN!
Best case scenario: Make a succesful attack (reducing mob by 1 or more) and succesful Athletics check to move SPD away.
Worst case scenario: Attack fails, Twitch must be used to dodge with an athletics check. Succes means you do get bit by the mob BUT stay in place, failure means you get damaged.

Option C/WITH A BIT OF HELP FROM MY FRIENDS I CAN SHOOT THEM IN THE FACE AFTER I RUN AWAY:
Assumes: Someone before your initiative has reduced Mass by one or more this round either by joining you at Shamble 1 or shooting into melee.'
The checks works similar to option B but the other Taker has freed up your attack action, so you can use your twich first, to roll Atheltics to move SPD away on a succes. On failure you get damaged and stay in place. But you can try again with your Tactic.
If you succed however with your Twitch you can use your Tactic to attack the mob with a ranged/reach weapon.
-->So only chose Option C if you absolutely need to attack the mob otherwise take the safer option A.

Option D/KILL THEM ALL!
You have killed them all. You are safe for now. But what was the cost?

To answer your questions:

1. Even if a taker is not trying to escape, will a missed attack against a mob lead to an attack of opportunity?
Missed attacks do not lead to damage. You must fail a dodge (Athletics roll eating rations and Twitch) to get damaged.

2. If someone else reduce the mass of the mob by 1, does the taker trying to flee get hit in the face by failing to flee? Does he actually, by failing both his tactics athletics roll and his twitch athletics roll, get hit twice?
Yes, I would say so. From option B I think we can be quite certain failed Athletics rolls (dodge) leads to getting damaged. And yes, you can get damaged twice if you fail both Atheltics checks to run away.

3. Does this mean that by using option a, you are safeguarded against getting hit on failures?
  Yes it does. Option A is the safest thing you can do in the short term. As the text mentions:" Attacking and then running is riskier than focusing entirely on escape." Only use option B if you are alone or option C if you are not alone.

4. using option a, if the taker fails the first check granted by the tactics, does that mean he would have a twitch left to do something else with, or was that spent as well?
I would say it is spent. I think you declare at the start of your turn ( like Full Offense/Defense combat maneuvers) that you are going on full defense and trying to get away from the mob. So your Tactic and Twitch are dedicated to that goal. If the Market called that it was a Task there would be no problem, as a Task consumes both Tactic and Twitch.

Under Casualties in combat on p. 297 it says that when a Mobs Shamble reaches 1, they attack the character they just reached.

What if there are more than one character?
Is one chosen at random?
Or can a mob attack all characters they reach?

Essentially, how many attacks does a mob have?

@Dadalos nice to see you also got to the same conclusion.

When we start playing next week I am going to play that Spray requires a Twitch, and see how it works out in real play. So you can not do a full offense AND spray on any of the Tactics. Teapot would probably have died if they played it this way

It makes going action hero shooty a bit more dangerous though so the Takers has to consider it carefully.

As my players and I are preparing for our campaign start next week a flurry of questions has come in. The latest is the Riot Shield.

It has the armored quality so it can absorb damage from all hit locations (except head) for a charge.

So  it can basically remove 10 hits from casualty/vector combat. Thats seems reeeeeeeally good!

It costs 8 Bounty so it is pretty expensive though. And with a helmet you have reduced your risk a lot for going into combat for 10 bounty.

What is your experiences from play? Is it too good?