Old Skool Action: The Hit-n-Run
July 12th, 2013
News, WEGS Old Skool
Great stuff comes out of our WEGS Old Skool convention games; this game’s little 2d6 2d10 heart beats for such occasions! Recently, a Goblin Warrior was faced with a foe (a Wight of all things) who caused enchanted wounds to any one within four squares at the Spante. The player asked if their Warrior could do a reverse Charge. He wanted to attack first and then run away from the Spante damage.
The “Brave Sir Robin” lyrics from Monty Python and the Holy Grail come into mind:
“When danger reared its ugly head, he bravely turned his tail and fled…”
Primarily, the Warrior skill Charge! is used to move a Warrior quickly into combat and attack. It is also used to move about combat encounters without the fear of being swiped from opponents. Most importantly though, it allows the Warrior to position themselves behind their foe to gain a Back Attack (a -20% penalty to the foe’s Invulnerability score). From a game standpoint, it encourages combat to keep chaotically swirling around the battle mat.
In the spirit of WEGS, the answer to the player’s question was “Sure! But if you fail, you get only the Attack, not the Move.” The attack would be skill free, too. Normally, if you fail a Charge!, you get the Move but not the Attack. Needless to say, the Warrior failed the Charge!, failed the attack, stood their gaping at his foe basically, and soaking up some Spante damage. If at first you don’t succeed…
“Yes, brave Sir Robin turned about and gallantly he chickened out…”
The old “Yes/But” is something that folks running the game at home should keep in mind. Always try to see the upside of the rules tweak, but always think of the consequences. The give/take with allowing the Hit-n-Run manuever is that the Warrior cannot move to reap the Invulnerability bonus. Sure, the player could spoint move to gain this, which is even better: any time a player spends spoints it shows the heroic importance of the action. Such allowances keep the game spinning in new directions. Fun wins every time!
