Re: Rick's comments on the Defend Option

Then in that case, the rules "de jure" take double and triple damage off the table, not "defacto".

And it also makes perfect sense, as I read it, that defending and dodging, even if you are still hit, would effectively remove the possibility of excessive damage from the hit, while simultaneously decreasing the probability of an automatic hit (drops from 4.63% to 0.386%). Similarly, it makes sense that there would be an increased chance of automatic failure (rises from 4.63% to 5.402%), and an increased chance of dropped/damaged weapons (rises from 1.852% to 2.701%).

Which actually tends to strengthen their effect in combat, even against high DX opponents. Put another way, a character with the highest effective DX in a 3/DX (DX 15) roll has a 95.37% chance of hitting his opponent. A character with the highest effective DX in a 4/DX roll under the DEFEND/DODGE rules on page 18 of AM (DX 19) has a 94.598% chance of hitting his opponent. In short, I'm not sure that argument supports the theory that DEFEND/DODGE are necessarily underpowered for high-DX characters.

From: Rick Smith <rick_ww@lightspeed.ca>
To: tft@brainiac.com
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2018 11:16 PM
Subject: Re: Rick's comments on the Defend Option

Hi Jeff,

The defend and dodge rules are an exception to the general

rule that you can get extreme success on more dice. Under the

dodge / defend option in AM, they give rules specifically for

those options.

Warm regards, Rick

On 2018-01-29, at 8:16 PM, Jeffrey Vandine wrote:

It's probably worth pointing out that according to ITL (page 38), great success and terrible failure DO occur with differing dice numbers (it specifically mentions "trying to hit someone dodging," for example), just that the numbers where they occur are also different!

From: Rick Smith <rick_ww@lightspeed.ca>
To: Matt Fraser <mathesonfraser@gmail.com>
Cc: dan nicholson <kootenayvalleydan@yahoo.ca>; tft@brainiac.com; Edward Kroeten <ekroeten@farmersagent.com>; CJ <chrjames@gmail.com>; Alec Morrison <alphaalec@gmail.com>; Jayson Webster <jayson_webster27@hotmail.com>; "gosel@tutanota.com>" <gosel@tutanota.com>; Steve Reinhardt <cpassport@mail.com>
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2018 7:11 PM
Subject: Re: Rick's comments on the Defend Option

Hi Matt, everyone.
When you defend, you can not roll a 3 on 4 dice so triple damage
can not happen. The chance of rolling a 4 on 4 dice is basically
zero (0.08%) so it can not happen. So defacto, the rules take double
and triple hits off the table.

One thing I am thinking of is to use the regular rules for Defend and
Aim, and the extra 1/3 miss rules in Defend and Edge Away. This
makes defending and edging an all out defence. You give ground,
and are not looking for places to attack, which makes you extra hard
to hit.

Rick

On 2018-01-29, at 5:35 PM, Matt Fraser wrote:

I'm OK with the 1/3. Less than that and it's not much of a difference from the current chances.

How about when defending, "special hits" (i.e., triple, double and criticals) are either downgraded (triples become doubles, etc.), or completely eliminated?