07-10-2016, 12:47 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Australia
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Mass Combat 4e - Misfortunes of War
I have a question to put to the community which has been something of an uncertainty for our gaming group. This relates to the Misfortunes of War roll required for PCs and major NPCs. The table used to reference the Base Chance for the misfortunes roll is fairly clear, except in situations where the result is 0% casualties.
There are two interpretations and I've found nothing elsewhere to clarify it:
So what are your thoughts, or is this an errata?
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07-10-2016, 02:40 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Nov 2015
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Re: Mass Combat 4e - Misfortunes of War
I think that misfortunes of war should happen only if there are at least some casualties. After all, the major characters would count as casualties if they were knocked out or killed by misfortunes
Last edited by cdru; 07-10-2016 at 02:52 AM. |
07-10-2016, 04:50 AM | #3 |
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Southeast NC
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Re: Mass Combat 4e - Misfortunes of War
On the other hand, in a large enough army, one guy tripping and breaking his neck would still round down to zero.
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07-10-2016, 11:37 AM | #4 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Australia
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Re: Mass Combat 4e - Misfortunes of War
We had a situation in a recent session where the enemy force was totally routed and wiped out. The last two rounds of combat saw the friendly force suffer 0% casualties, but a number of PCs due to unlucky misfortunes rolls got jacked up. This made me raise an eyebrow and question the interpretation of the Misfortune of War table.
Mass combat is unpredictable and dangerous, but when the enemy is routed and in full retreat, having the Force Commander, PCs, and major NPCs potentially all trip and break their necks doesn't quite make sense.
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07-10-2016, 11:46 AM | #5 | |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: Mass Combat 4e - Misfortunes of War
Quote:
I would say the table gives the breakpoints. If you take at least 5% casualties (but less than 10%), then each named character must roll and on a 5 or less, they suffer a Misfortune. Under 5% and no roll is need. |
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07-10-2016, 12:17 PM | #6 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Buffalo, New York
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Re: Mass Combat 4e - Misfortunes of War
Quote:
First, because there is no "target value" to roll against for the zero percent casualties, there is no misfortune of war roll to be made as a result of the zero percent casualties. Second - it is my understanding that misfortune rolls are made every round of combat, not at the end overall (as seemingly implied by what you wrote). Two rounds of combat with zero percent casualties would have resulted in no rolls for the Winning side's leaders/characters - and one roll for each the losing side's leaders/characters. It would be interesting if you were to post your round by round battle and who did what and what happened when, for purposes of this thread's discussion. I'm assuming too that you were using the positional bonus for the respective armies no? :) |
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07-10-2016, 12:34 PM | #7 | ||
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Australia
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Re: Mass Combat 4e - Misfortunes of War
Quote:
Quote:
Yes, we did.
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07-10-2016, 01:54 PM | #8 | |
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Re: Mass Combat 4e - Misfortunes of War
Quote:
But also, notice that those target numbers closely match the casualty percentages. They're the number to roll a 5%, 10%, 15%, etc., chance on 3d6. (Compare with the table on B171.) The chance of misfortune is just the chance that you were a casualty. 0% casualties would mean a 0% chance of being one of the misfortunate people that became a casualty. Even a 3 would suggest 0.5% casualties when applied to the whole army. If you really want a roll at 0%, you could go for, say, two 3s in a row to indicate misfortune -- in this case just some random accident not related to the combat at all. |
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07-10-2016, 06:13 PM | #9 | |
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: T'Pol's Ready Room
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Re: Mass Combat 4e - Misfortunes of War
Ha! I see Ronnke beat me to asking this question.
As the GM of the aforementioned game, we could not quite figure out whether the lack of a reference to no MoW check for 0% casualties was intentional or an oversight, so we just house-ruled that the base target for that was 4. Quote:
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07-10-2016, 07:35 PM | #10 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: Mass Combat 4e - Misfortunes of War
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