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« on: January 19, 2016, 11:59:44 AM »
First, some background: Last session, the two PCs in my AW game rode into the desert to face down Dremmer, a warlord who is uniting the clans of nomadic raiders for an attack on the PC's home, a ruined city containing a handful of hardholds. Through some cultural finagling, they were able to challenge him to ritual combat to dispute his leadership of his band of nomads. Here's how the ritual challenges go down:
The two duelists are in the center of a ring drawn in the sand, say 15 meters across. They each have a melee weapon of their choice, or a firearm with a single bullet. Each of them have two seconds fort he duel, their right-and-left-hand guys. The seconds mount up on their offroad motorcycles, the conveyance of choice for nomad raider scum. They're armed as well, with the traditional spear of the nomads, or other melee weapons like chain lengths, morning stars, etc. These spears are often tipped with grenades, but for the purposes of these ritual combats, they're just sharp as fuck. The spears get stuck into the ground at the quarters of the circle. Each rider idles next to his. When the presiding priest gives the signal, they begin to ride around in a circle. As they're passing their spear for the third time, they pull it out of the sand and the duel begins. The riders form the ring of the duel, and are allowed to interfere to help their principle -- part of the strategy is to lure your opponent towards your seconds and avoid the enemy seconds. The seconds are also allowed to interfere with one another, killing or otherwise forcing them out of the circle.
Here's basically how the fight went down, as best I can remember:
-Dremmer had a spear, Shieldbearer had a hand axe, each of which do 3-harm. Each are wearing 2-armor gear. Dremmer has a custom move -- when he deals harm to you, you also take s-harm. His blows keep his opponents reeling and off-balance. He also is tougher than the average mook -- he will go down after 3 harm, not 1-2.
-Dremmer tries to keep Shieldbearer at bay with his superior reach. Shieldbearer uses his axe to splinter the haft of the spear. I rule it a Seize By Force, Shieldbearer gets 10+, I rule the spear is split in two -- haft and point -- and he deals 3-harm to Dremmer, reduced to 1-harm by armor.
-Dremmer rushes forward to get inside hand range with a grapple, striking with his fists at the Shieldbearer's unprotected face. Shieldbearer responds by trying to counter-grapple Dremmer and throw him to the sand. I rule it Act Under Fire (the fire is Dremmer's assault), Shieldbearer gets a 7-9. I rule Dremmer gets a shot in, 1-harm AP, but the Shieldbearer successfully throws him to the ground, and is on top of him. Shieldbearer is now also reeling from Dremmer's strike, which has cracked his cheekbone (s-harm). I forget to make him make the harm move. Derp.
-Shieldbearer now tries to choke Dremmer out with the axe handle. Acting Under Fire (because of the s-harm), gets a 7-9. I rule he chokes him a bit, but then Dremmer throws him off and rolls away. 1-harm AP to Dremmer for the choke.
-At this point, the Shieldbearer's player says "I read a sitch." Technically, not supposed to do that, since you're not supposed to name your moves. I let him roll, though, and he gets a 7-9. Spends a hold to ask "What should I watch out for." I say "Well, while you were getting your bearings, Dremmer picked up the head of his broken spear and threw it right at you, so you should probably watch out for the razor-sharp blade spinning towards your chest." 3-harm to the Shieldbearer, dropped down to 1-harm by armor. He makes the harm move with a 6-. But he has s-harm again.
-Next up, Dremmer charges at the Shieldbearer, trying to push him into the ring, into one of his henchmen. Acting under fire, the Shieldbearer misses entirely, and is shoved in front of a speeding ATV (one of Dremmer's seconds is riding an ATV rather than a motorbike). One of his seconds, The Driver (the other PC), attempts to aid him by stabbing the ATV driver to slow him down or drive him off-course. He succeeds, and the ATV driver swerves at the last minute, clipping the shieldbearer rather than running him down, and dropping his weapon, a length of chain. I rule it 2-harm AP, since being rammed by things is generally AP. He fails the harm move with a 10+, I choose that he looses his footing and drops his axe.
-Shieldbearer gets up, sees that Dremmer has his axe, and has moved near the center of the ring. He picks up the chain length, wraps it around his hand as a gauntlet. Having learned his lesson from last time, he says "I crounch into a fighting stance, move away from the edge of the ring, and get my bearings," triggering Read a Sitch. He gets 1-hold, and asks what he should watch out for. I tell him that Dremmer, in addition to getting the axe, has stuck the spearpoint in the sand and may intend to use it as a surprise weapon if it comes to another grapple.
-Shieldbearer wants to make an end of it, and charges, saying he's going to snatch up the spearpoint as his weapon, and parry Dremmer's axe stroke with his chain gauntlet as he strikes. I call it Act Under Fire, the firing being Dremmer's counter-attack. He hits a 10+, and deals his 3-harm to Dremmer, killing him, and recieving no harm in return. Shieldbearer ends the fight having taking 4-harm.
Overall, everyone was happy with the fight -- it was exciting and dramatic with some twists and turns. The Shieldbearer PC felt a little cheated at two points:
-He felt he should've gotten more advantage from having Dremmer grappled early in the fight, and that Dremmer escaped too easily.
-He was a little put out by the result of his first 'read a sitch,' when he got hit with the thrown spearpoint because he was too busy getting his bearings.
Thoughts on that? Anything else I did that doesn't give with your GMing style? Any advice for stuff like this?
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