Can't see the forest for the elves

[hcobb]

How do you handle woodland encounters?

Can you brace a crossbow in a tree? Are you at a minus on the shot if you don't have climbing? (Compare with Horsemanship for mounted combat.)

What is the adjustment for each intervening hex of branches, or do you need to roll to miss each branch?

Do you give bonuses to elves and other such arboreal monkeys?

[Anomylous]

For what it's worth, my real-life experience (with Airsoft battles and the like) is that climbing trees in combat is a BAD idea unless you're literally a squirrel, but hiding behind them is an excellent tactic, and already covered, so to speak, in the rules.

I've also shot arrows through dense brush IRL; I'd assign a "deflection chance" to each hex of brush and thin branches, based on its density. 1d6 would provide plenty enough granularity; so you could assign a deflection chance 1-5. 1 would be fairly thin brush; 5 would be a dense hedge-type situation. Roll over and your arrow went through unimpeded; equal or under and it bounced off something, so you miss your target regardless of what you rolled "to hit." (I'd probably let automatic success ignore deflection chance, though; it would SUCK to roll triple damage and then watch your arrow bounce off a random twig!)

I might let Elves and other woodland creatures ignore movement penalties for dense brush and uneven forest floor, as a "terrain familiarity" bonus. That may actually be part of the Woodsman talent, too lazy to go look it up right now.

[Mike P.]

I would say you can brace the crossbow shot if there is a thick enough limb available that was at the right height. Climbing probably only helps getting up or down from the tree. As far as intervening branches I could see DX penalties ranging from -1 per hex, or mega hex, or maybe even just an extra die or two and normal MW ranges depending on how thick the thicket is.

[Skarg]

Forests aren't uniform, so uniform rules seem slightly inappropriate. ITL says the GM should make up penalties for rough terrain and not tell the players automatically/completely what they all are, which is what I do.

If/when a crossbowman looks for a place they can brace their crossbow, I look at the terrain and invent a chance there is such, then also roll for them to spot one, if there is one. I don't think any old tree trunk would work well enough to get a bonus.

Climbing I would usually only apply to climbing, not bracing a crossbow on a branch.

[David Bofinger]

I think anyone with Woodsman should have an advantage in woods combat. As in positive modifiers to DX and negative modifiers to enemy DX and/or MA.