Just curious... in your games, how often do you/your players attempt a called shot? Once per game? Several times per game? Never?

To my memory no one in my group has yet to do a called shot and we have played 8 sessions.

We played for 5-6 sessions and I haven't seen any Called Shots or that thing that halves the damage, don't remember the name of the move right now.

Knockback?

Once my players learned about Knockback, they were all over it.

I've seen them invoke it on 8 points of damage just to avoid Weariness.

As stated in the other game, I have NEVER had a player make a called shot... And not because they don't know about them. They know, they just don't want the risk. And so far disarming or breaking a shield has not been something that is worthwhile or terribly important.

" And so far disarming or breaking a shield has not been something that is worthwhile or terribly important."

Nice to know. Then what makes the Bearded Axe virtue worth taking?

I've ran at least 30 sessions and I only recall a player making a Called Shot once. A Hobbit in Rearward stance with her Bow.

And, since Knockback was also mentioned, I seldom recall any player using it ... maybe twice. They always seem to forget it is an option, despite my reminding them (after combat, though ... I want to see if they remember). "Why didn't you choose Knockback instead of just taking the all the damage?" "Oh ... I forgot."

Same here, they use Knockback from times to times, but never use Called Shot.

Not sure I agree with you about disarming Tensen.

My players have come to the conclusion that 'big critters' are likely to hit you for big endurance damage, no matter what your stance, once they get up to three dice plus the feat die (and that many of them have favoured attribute scores and weapon skills).

They have realised that you may as well fight in Forward Stance against these big guys.

Take a Troll. He's got three dice in club but if you disarm him(a sharp rap across the knuckles causing him to drop the club), he only has one dice with claw. In that event, fighting in the other stances become much more favourable.

If no one is taking called shots, does this indicate a flaw in the system? That it might need a revision? If so, what would you suggest?

I'm not sure I would consider it a flaw, per se. I think it may be a combination of things - unfamiliarity with the system, the "fog of war," and experience of the PCs (or, lack thereof).

As folks have cited, players (especially new ones) tend to either not know the combat maneuver is available or forget to apply it once swords are drawn. Also, my assumption is that we, as gamers, are generally all playing with fairly fresh PCs who may only have 1-2 success dice in their given weapon skills. This, as was expressed above, makes the move much more risky than it might for a character with 4 or more in their weapon.

I would also argue that called shots do not, generally, play a role in a standard vanilla combat encounter. As the flavor text from the AB states: "A fighting character who is feeling very confident - or desperate . . . ." It seems called shots are best utilized in a highly tactical encounter, e.g. Halbarad's example from above describing combat with a troll, and in a tough fight where you really need an edge, say that critical wound due to a piercing blow or that extra edge in reducing an enemy's parry defense.

I kind of view called shots like I do combat tasks, tactical maneuvers that will not necessarily apply to every combat situation.

Maybe give the system a bit further to mature, PCs to advance in their experience, and adventures (both homebrewed and official) to become even more sophisticated and I think you'll begin to see more anecdotal commentary around the benefits of called shots.

Called shots with bows (and spears) are certainly useful against Trolls.

It seems to me that the 'break shield' called shot is a bit less useful. Then again, none of my players are axe men and thus I have no anecdotal events about axes. Any thoughts on when 'break shield' comes into it's own?

I suppose that it drops the Parry down and thus makes the less aggressive combat stances a little more effective.

The called shot achieved by spears and bows is useful against any opponent; but the 'drop weapon' and 'break shield' are useful against only those enemies with shields or weapons. That's a bit problematic in my view, and why I'm trying to expand it a little.

During playtesting I suggested to Francesco that he do this, and he said he wanted the initial set to be very simple for new players, but could see expanding called shots in future supplements. I mentioned the Dragon Age stunt system, and he agreed that was a good model. No idea if anything will happen. Francesco?

Knockback gets used a fair bit but the PCs have never used Called Shots.

I was actually thinking of adopting the rule that creatures have for the PCs where if an Eye (or in this case a G rune) is rolled by the creature when attacking, the PC it happened to gets to roll for a called shot on their next attack if they so wish, with no miss penalty.

I can say for myself, and I think the rest of my group, it is down to unfamiliarity with the rules. I knew that there was probably some rule for aimed shots (there usually always is), but I had no idea about the knockback rule. I can't think of a time when either rule has been used in one of our games. What does knock back benefit a PC in combat?

Halves the endurance damage they take in a hit at the cost of their next action (or change stance). It gets used in my games to avoid becoming Wearied.

I must also say that as a LM, when an enemy is set to roll for a called shot (because his target rolled an eye), it usually means that the enemy will miss this round.

Easy to house rule that so that there is no called shot miss penalty when used in reaction to an Eye of Sauron result.

I made this combat sheet to my players, so they can navigate their combat options. It has been very useful in conventions.

The sheet is in spanish, but I'm sure you will understand the idea (called shots = golpes anunciados).

I've added weaknesses to certain opponents to make called shots more useful. For example, a ghost or wight might be vanquished by disarming it (separating it from its fetter). And I'm designing a one-eyed ogre (Tolkien style cyclops) that can be blinded with a called shot from a bow or spear. Got the idea when I needed to re-balance Of Leave and Stewed Hobbit for a single player and it seemed a bit boring to simply reduce the night-wight's endurance/armour.

I think another substantial reason that Called Shots are not frequently used by PCs is the info is missing on the character sheet. Note that their is several bits of info listed for each weapon. I think the fact that all of the other info is listed, but Called Shots are not, has somewhat implied that Called Shots don't exist within TOR.

With the standard TOR index it's so difficult to re-locate things, PCs and LMs may very well mean to go back and find Called Shots... and completely forget in trying to handle everything else.

During The Marsh Bell, disarming and knockback were used against the Troll to great effect.

I will chime in here that the Stunt System of Dragon age is excellent good stuff with ice cream on top, and I love it. It's the other game system I run.

Reading that stuff in revews led me to play, which led me to run it which led me to narrativist games like One Ring, and Fiasco.

No idea yet how to implement it here yet, I am still learning, and have yet to run my first session 27 Nov 2012.