Re: [HOE] Running from a fight (longish)

["Jeff Shoffner" <shoffner@usit.net>]

I would say that if a player decides disengage from a HtH combat, decided to
trick his opponent by means of persuasion or whatever, in order to get a
head start, hey give him a chance to roll!

Case in point, Joe is getting his butt kicked by Jane, so he decides to make
a run for it.  Just to account for everything, Joe has a 10H, 8D, & a
2H--Jane has JkH(sleeved), 10C, 9S, & a 4S.

Okay, with his 10H, Jack says something to the effect of "Hey, is that your
mother or did a dead horse just walked in?" & the marshal decides this would
be a bluff roll.  Jack has Bluff at 3D10, rolls 17.  Jane has a Scrutinize
of 1d4, manages a 6.  17-6=9, divide by 5, & we get a success with one
raise, & almost another.

Okay, so for description's sake, let's say Jane goes, "Huh?" & turns to look
over her shoulder, giving Joe some time to run for it.  For his success,
we'll say that Jane will suffer a -4 penalty to hit Joe as he is leaving on
her next action. However, since Jane is thick as a brick, & Joe gets one
success, we'll give him a head start of half his Pace.  Joe's Pace is 8, so
he has a movement of 4 head start.

Another option for this scenerio is to force Jane to drop her sleeved card
due to Joe's one raise--she did turn to look, so that could amount to a lost
action.  Actually, after typing this, something started to sound familiar so
I actually cracked a book & looked up Tests of Will on pg. 117 in the DL
player's guide.  It states almost what I've said here; for a success, the
loser receives a -4 on the next action, for a success & raise, he receives
the -4 & loses his highest card.  For a success & two raises, same as above
plus a draw from the chip bag.

Now, what we have so far is Joe used his 10H & made a successful Bluff, Jane
went, "Huh?" lost her JkH & now has a -4 to hit on her next attack.  So,
let's say just for arguement we allow Joe to have his 4 Movement allottment
as a head start.  Next action is Jane's 10C; just for fun, we'll let her
take a swing at Joe just as he starts his escape.  (Why? Well because both
Joe & Jane had "10"s for this action.  If Jane's next card was the 9, I
wouldn't give it to her)  Well, Jane has her pigsticker in hand, & makes a
swipe. Jane rolls an impressive 23 with her Fightin': knife skill (4D12),
however she has a -4 from Joe's successful Bluff, & although I just read the
rules about mods to hit, & Joe doesn't qualify for the "Target is Moving"
penalty, (that penalty is actually for shooting folks) I am going to give it
to him because he is running out of range of Jane's HtH attack, so Jane's
effective roll is 23-8=15--a definite hit. Notice I don't add in Joe's
Fightin' skill to this penalty: since he is running like a Nancyboy, he can
not use his Fightin' skill for anything.

 So, Jane hits with two Raises, & jiggers him in the back of his torso,
causing 2 Wounds & 3 Wind.  Joe debates about using his next card in a
Vamoose to attempt to negate the damage, but decides he can live with the
cut, & instead uses his next card to run as fast as he can.  However, Jane
informs him that she still has a higher card, (9S) & thinks of doing some
running of her own, but realizes this brat might get away, so she sleeves
it. Joe breathes a sigh of relief, uses his 8D to finish up his running &
moves an additional 12 (remember, his Pace is 8, that gives him 16 to run in
a round, & he's already used 4). Jane then throws down her 4S, runs her full
amount (Pace 8), & then uses her 9S to tackle him down to the ground, & make
him squeal "Uncle" for saying she was pretty.

I bit long just to give an opinion to running, but I think it works pretty
good.  One thought I had was to give Joe the half Pace head start as a bonus
rather than subtract it from his total running amount, but....

Jeff S