Anyone up for BW Revised duel under 'honor system'?

[Tobias]

Well, obviously these BE duels are working.

So, anyone interesting in a BW Revised fight? Some sorta scene you've always wanted to see happen? I'll have a go!

[Verrain]

I had a Great Spider in the Arena under classic and always wanted to see how he would do in revised. How does that sound?

[Yagathai]

God bless you both.

[Tobias]

Oooh, a spider - that sounds cool! I remember a spider vs. someone (gunner?) fight, ending in a stalemate... Arrakis, was it? That'd be awesome.

Now, I've never fought a BW fight, so I'm looking for a cool experience here, but rest assured I'll play hard.

Sooo... let's say I play a nasty, nasty Orc against your spider... assuming you know more BW than I do, you get to set my number of lifepaths depending on what you think would give an interesting fight against your spider?

And just Black stats, I presume?

I'm in NL and fairly busy, btw, but I always squeeze in some BW-reading almost every day.

[Verrain]

Arrakis is me, yep. :) I beat the gunner and tied the monk.

Well the original rules of the Arena was four lifepath characters but I seem to recall the Orcs need a little more oomph. Why don't you burn up a five lifepath Orc and I'll post my spider and we'll see how they look?

[Tobias]

I've got an idea.... how about I burn up a fighty Orc. If I lose, I'll burn up a Master of Eights Orc after that, and we'll play a duel of wits? ('bad spider!')

(And of course, if you lose, you get to suggest how we follow up)

Suggestions welcome, of course, and feel free to tweak Arrakis to my suggestion.

Hmmm, a 5lp fighty orc, but not just the boring great and black route.... will do!

[Verrain]

At the moment Arrakis is geared towards all fighting. So if you want me to burn up a second spider for a duel of wits afterward, that is cool with me.

Or we can both burn up a fighter geared for both, and have the duel of wits be about setting the conditions for the physical duel. How does that sound?

[Tobias]

That is even cooler. Ok, how about you upgrade arrakis to also be a competent DoW-er, and I'll do the same (say, add 2 none-fighty LPs or something).

I'm not looking for a 'fair' fight as much as a cool fight. So I'm not to worried if the odds wind up being 65:35 or something.

[Verrain]

Done then. I'll play around with things and see what I can do.

[Tobias]

Allright, got my guy burned up. I'm sitting behind my pda with my gf asleep in the getaway hotel we're in, so I won't type the whole damn thing, but I'll reveal some stuff:

Concept: vengeful 'lesser' brother of 2 masters of 8.

Paths: Born Chattel, Forge Slave, Ravager, Night Seeker, Black Hunter, Bears the Lash, Whisperer.

No skills higher than 5. Dwarven sword spoil of war.

[Tobias]

Ok, here we are:

Gorrack, the oft-beaten 'lesser brother'
Vengeful lesser brother to 2 masters of Eight. Vengeance starts now!

Age: 44

Lifepaths: Born Chattel, Forge Slave, Ravager, Night Seeker, Black Hunter, Bears the Lash, Whisperer

Circles: 2
Resources: 0

Affiliations: 1D with the Clan

Relations:

Minor, Hateful, Family: Thormak, Master of Eight, oldest brother
Minor, Hateful, Family: Bhi'skag, Master of Eight, older brother
Minor, Love interest: She Whose Hips have Cast forth Man-Eaters

Wi: 4
Pe: 5

Ag: 4
Sp: 6
Po: 4
Fo: 6

Health: 4
MW: 11 (4,7,8,9,10,11)
Reflexes: 5
Steel: 7
Hate: 6

Skills:

Brawling 3
Intimidation 3
Back-Breaking Labour
Orienteering 3
Stealthy 3
Climbing 3
Bow 4
Black Bile Poison
Command 3
Sword 5
Poisonous Platitudes 4
Falsehood 2
Persuasion 5
Ambition-wise 2
Cartography 2

Traits:
Enemy of the Sun
Pain Life
Numb
Pack Hunter
Tasting the Lash
Where there's a whip...
Forked Tongue
Cannibal
Cold Black Blood
Breeder
Fanged & Clawed
Loathsome & Twisted
Lynx-Eyed
Vile Language

Gear:
Superior Quality Plated Leather
Run of the Mill Bow
Rags, Gear, Boots, Whip
Dwarven sword (Spoil of War)

Beliefs:
I'll destroy my brothers one spider at a time
Once my brothers are gone, they'll need new blood in the ranks of the Servants - that will be me.
Dwarves have what should be ours - Fireforge hold shall belong to my clan.

Instincts:
Vomit on my weapons before the fight
Make my point (always put at least 1 point in each DoW exchange)
Pay them a compliment when they might think they've hurt me

[Yagathai]

Arrakis is me, yep. :) I beat the gunner and tied the monk.


It was a fix! The monk deserved to win that one!

[Verrain]

The only fix I remember was the monk fixed to the floor with Spider Silk. ;)

Gorrack looks great!

Here is my spider for your approval.

Eclavdra, the Untamed
She follows the Masters of Eight on her own terms

Age: 30

Lifepaths: Broodling, Wall-Crawler, Stalker, Strand-Hunter, Devourer, Hunter-Seeker

Circles: 2
Resources: 0

Affiliations:

Relations: Intermediate Thormak, Master of Eight

Wi: 5
Pe: 5(6)

Ag: 6
Sp: 6
Po: 4
Fo: 5

Health: 4
MW: 11 (4,7,8,9,10,11)
Reflexes: 6
Steel: 6
Hesitation 5

Skills:

Climbing B4
Stealthy B4
Male-wise B3
Snares B3
Lariat B6
Brawling B6
Intimidation B5
Interrogation B6
Throwing B3

Gear: Silk Net

Traits:
All Common Spider Traits
Middling Stature
Vile Language
Chitinous
Strand Runner
Single-minded
Patience
Elongated Forelegs
High Speech

Beliefs:
- All but spider kind is prey, I shall devour the Masters of Eight at my leisure.
- My alliance with Thormak is currently useful, I shall dispose of his troublesome brother.
- The path to strength is to cull the weak, I shall hunt and kill all weak males.

Instincts:
- Drop a drag line.
- Always have a lariat ready.
- Always have a net ready.

[Tobias]

Coolness. Tough spider, that.

So, DoW: would you be cool with the following:

"You will desist your service to my brother, and map for me the caverns underneath the dwarven hold instead"

?

I realise those aren't terms that actually set the fight conditions, but I figured we could always run the DoW and then be nice and evil and just pull arms whenever one of us doesn't like the conclusion. If you prefer something more along the lines of duel-settings, I'd suggest the following:

"At night, in the low scrublands, starting ~100 m apart." or "Claw vs. Sword - nothing else." would both be to my advantage, I guess.

[Verrain]

Coolness. Tough spider, that.

So, DoW: would you be cool with the following:

"You will desist your service to my brother, and map for me the caverns underneath the dwarven hold instead"

"You will obey your brothers in all things, and cease this useless vendetta against the dwarves."

I'm at work right now without my books so it might be a bit before I can get actual scripting done. How do you want to handle that by the way. Reveal a full rounds scripting or go volley by volley?

[Tobias]

Excellent - I can live with that!

So I guess I roll my persuasion for my BoA, as it will be my duel skill? That's 5, don't have my books either so assumin no FoRKs, I roll: 5, 4, 3, 1, 1, makes for a BoA of 6.

I have my script ready and we can go a whole echange at a time. You could post yours in your next post, or I'll reveal first, also ok.

[Verrain]

Just realized all the Duel of Wits stuff is available for Download. :)

Oh a point to bring up. One of the standard Spider traits is Alien. It makes any social skill roll against a spider from a non spider at +2Ob.

I roll Interrogation for my BoA. That's 6 dice 3,3,2,3,1,2. 0 successes for a BoA of 5. Traitors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is my first exchange:

Point, Feint, Rebuttal

[Tobias]

yeah, I noticed that alien bit. Strange it only works one way, but neverthemind.

And those traitors really nailed you!

My script is point, point, point. :)

Don't have the rules on hand, but I guess I'd just roll persuasion + forks, right. Forking in Intimidation and Ambition-wise (since that seems appropriate due to your beliefs, if a linked test is better, let me know) for 7 dice.

' You are just an outsider, Eclavdra. you know nothing about our clan and how your ambitions might be best served. Which makes it all to easy to make a miss-step that would bring the clan down on you. You're better off with me than with my idiot brothers and thei insane rambling.'

Rolling gets me: 6, 6, 5 5, 4, 3, 2 = 5 successes! w00t! Hmmm... I guess we work this fight without artha? Can you figure out what my successes actually, especially with that +2 ob on my ass?

[Verrain]

Yeah let's do this without Artha for right now.

I am pretty sure the Alien +2ob just knocks two successes off your point. So three successes knocks my BoA down to 3.

"The Masters of Eight are the keepers of dark knowledge beyond your ken. Be guided by their wisdom lest you be crushed by their power!"

I will use interrogation with intimidation forked in. That's seven dice. 4, 3, 5, 5, 3, 3, 1. Three successes knocking your BoA to 3 as well.

Onto to the second volley, Point versus Feint leaves me flapping in the breeze so roll your dice for the point. Roll badly. :)

[Tobias]

You started at 5, right? so that makes boA of 2 for you?

I'll not fork anything this time,

'Phah - other orcs may be just as good as they. But there's only one hold that's open to our fist!'

Rolling 5 dice, that's 6,5,3,2,2 - no successes after the +2 obf.

(I'm really thinking that +2 each time is not the way that trait should work... any luminaries have any thoughts?))

[Verrain]

Yes my BoA is down to two. My bad.

Re: Alien. Well I am interpreting it this way. Point is normally an Ob1 to knock off one BoA with each extra success knocking off an additional BoA. So with the +2ob from Alien it is now as Ob3 task to knock off one BoA and each additional success knocks off an additional BoA. Mechanically, its the same as knocking 2 successes off your normal roll. Anyone out there DoW a Spider before?

So volley three, point vs Rebuttal.

I get to split my dice into attack and defense pools.

I shall Point with 4 dice and Defend with 2.

"Why waste your anger and power against your brothers or the dwarves when so much tastier prey is near to hand?"

So for my point 4, 3, 3, 6. Two successes which knocks your BoA down to 1.

Make your point and then I'll rebut with 1, 5 a whopping one success.

[Yagathai]

Do me a favour: Next time you guys do one of these, please put it in its own thread? Thanks.

[Tobias]

Yag: we'll make sure to put the actual fight in a seperate thread.

Verrain: Not a prob playing the +2 ob this way, just curious. So let me FoRK in poisonous platitudes:

'I'm sure you're quite the connoiseur of morsels, but I'm afraid that in the real world, bigger goals count. My way gets us there.'

So, 6 dice: 6, 5, 5, 1, 1, 1 = 3 successes.

That gets me nowhere against your defense, so we script another set?

[Tobias]

So, do we wait, or do we script on? I have my next exchange ready.

[Verrain]

I say we script on. One of us will be knocked out in the next volley or two and then we can move on to whacking each other with pointed objects. Should someone give us the corrected form of the Alien trait we can have a rematch some other time.

Rebuttal, Point, Rebuttal.

[Tobias]

I went point, feint, point. This will hurt me, i guess, Interesting to see you now have knowledge on how to distribute your rebuttal split, since you can see you have an opening on volley 2. Is it always this way, or an artefact of how we're doing it this time?

Anyway:

'I'll never just fold to my brothers, but if I give up the dwarven hold and release you from my request on it, surely such a wise seizer of opportunities as yourself can see fit to become independent of them as well?'

FoRKing in poisonous platitudes for the (probably last!) time, 6 dice, 6,5,5,2,1,1 = 3 successes.

[Thor Olavsrud]

Interesting to see you now have knowledge on how to distribute your rebuttal split, since you can see you have an opening on volley 2. Is it always this way, or an artefact of how we're doing it this time?

We always reveal actions one volley at a time, as described under Volley to Volley on page 99. What you're seeing is definitely a result of revealing the whole exchange at once.

[Tobias]

That makes sense. Once I'm home, I'll make sure to re-read the DoW and fight! mechanics again.

Hands-on experience is the best teacher, clearly. as expected.

Thanks.

[Thor Olavsrud]

No worries! You guys are doing fine. :cool:

[Verrain]

Oh I see what you mean. Like I could put all my rebuttal into defense and then hose you in Volley 2. No, this is the honor system. I'm looking at each volley as a separate entity which is why I'm going to split it like last time, Point 4, Defense 2.

So on Point: 3, 4, 3, 2 Which is the one success I needed.

Defense 3,1 No defense love so you knock my BoA down to 1.

Victory for the Spider but at a major compromise.

"You speak wisdom for a Orc. Let us both serve your brothers for now and we shall scout out the dwarves for when we no longer need the Masters of Eight."

How is that?

[Tobias]

Lol. That actually sounds like a good deal! But, the spider is obviously lying (otherwise we don't have a pretext for a fight).

The coolest thing would be for someone to step in at this point, burn up 2 masters of 8, and we could fight them together. :)

But that may not happen, so, what fight conditions would you like, since you did win the DoA?

[Verrain]

Oh she may not be lying. Maybe the Masters of Eight offer her a better deal and she comes back to eat you. :)

Either way, since it was a near thing let's pick a mostly neutral battlefield, say an underground cavern with a few joined stalagmites and stalactites. Basically, I'm looking for an excuse to factor Climbing into my positioning rolls once and a while. :)

[Yagathai]

Oh she may not be lying. Maybe the Masters of Eight offer her a better deal and she comes back to eat you. :)

Either way, since it was a near thing let's pick a mostly neutral battlefield, say an underground cavern with a few joined stalagmites and stalactites. Basically, I'm looking for an excuse to factor Climbing into my positioning rolls once and a while. :)
Cheater!

[Tobias]

Lol. I have climbing too, so sure, go ahead, but I guess after a few tries we can call the orc 'wise' to your tricks.

I'll be re-reading Fight! tonight and tomorrow morning, but I guess you could go ahead and do your position stuff, or other such funky bussiness.

Are we 'obviously' starting close, or a bit further apart? (i.e. which weapon would be logical to start with?)

[Yagathai]

Here, let me do you folks a favour.

[Verrain]

Cheater!

Que? It is cheating to hold to the agreement Tobias and I made about the choice of battlefield being decided by the DoW or cheating to use my Wall-Crawler trait? I'm confused at to what you object to.

Tobias: Why don't we let an initial positioning test decide how close we are?

[Yagathai]

I'm using cheater in the BW-sense, which is half-complimentary. Your spider should rule positioning enough without you needing to use Wall-Crawler.

[Verrain]

Then I half thank you. Besides the operative word is should. Have you seen the way I've been rolling?