The situation: 2 members of the fellowship are engaged in close combat with orcs. A third PC, the Elf, is in rearward stance firing arrows at the engaged orcs. The Orcs have a total parry of 5+2 (say). Is the TN for the elf to hit them 19, or are the orcs too busy fighting the PC they are engaged with to use their shields to defect arrows (so TN 17)? Indeed, are they too busy parrying/dodging the PCs to even use their parry rating to avoid the arrows (so TN 12)? What is the TN for the elf here?

Cheers,

Stu

I believe (and used when I ran TOR) that it's 12+Parry+Shield, so in your example 19.

It is 19.

Thanks Guys, that was how we played it, but a couple of players did ask the question.

For clarification, that is why the base TN to hit from Rearward is so high, a combination of distance, and the assumption that you will be firing into a tangled mess of melee (as you must have at least 2 companions in Forward, Open, or Defensive).

According to the rules, the high target number reflects the fact that it is difficult to hit the enemy engaged in close combat, and not the friend. But what is the TN if the enemy is standing alone? What if the enemy is sitting on horseback?

Let's say an Orc fights against a city guard. The Orc does not want to attack the rearward character since he holds a personal grudge against the city guard (he once said that the sister of the Orc is ugly). The Orc kills the city guard and enjoys his triumph for a short moment. The rearward character fires his arrow at the Orc. At which TN?

TN is 19 as said. Use the Mods on pages 47 and 48 to reflect matters outside the norm.

Honestly, the rules don't really go into this level of detail and I like it. The amount of mechanical detail you need to add in these minor differences is not worth it IMO They slow the system down considerably.

In any case, most of the time that a target standing alone is probably assumed to be much further away and have a similar TN in any case.

Yes, I also like the system since it has flavor, is easy, fast and stylish. I haven't been this enthusiastic about an RPG since.... oh my god, I am old.
But I am a little bit confused about the ranged combat rules. The rules state the difficulty to fire into close combat as the reason for the high TN. So I thought that the "normal" TN might be mentioned somewhere and I overlooked it.

Or the opening volley: why is the target number the same? I would somehow expect that it is easier to fire at an approaching, close enemy.

In the marsh bell adventure for example, a marsh dweller has parry 4 and therefore a TN of 16. Regardless if the character shoots at the marsh dweller from a distance, at the opening volley or in a close combat situation, the TN is always 16. Quite difficult for a new character and this might lead to frustration for players which like to put their focus on ranged combat.

The TN for ranged assumes a difficult target either being in close and in melee or further away and able to move (such as the opening volley). The two situations result in similar TNs. In those rare circumstances where one of these factors don't apply, like an unexpecting or stationary target, use the mods set out.

I know default RPG method is to provide the base line of an easy target and then build it up with modifiers if it's harder, but it's actually a lot less work to assume a hard target and build it down if it's easier, as an easy target is rarer than a hard one. I personally think that this approach is much easier for a new player.

And since this is asymmetrical Monsters using Bows to fire at Heroes do NOT use TN 12 as a Base.... but rather the TN of the Target Hero. So all of a sudden it's not so hard to fire into Close Combat after all... or am I wrong?

/wolf

I used the TN based on Stance in my first adventure for ranged attacks against the heroes, but pretty sure now I was doing it wrong.

Adventurers p159: "The basic Target Number for all ranged attacks is 12." AND "The TN to attack a target involved in a fight using a ranged weapon is equal to 12, plus the Parry..."

Yupp. Found it.

LMG p47

Thanks.

/wolf

After running through some combats and looking at the numbers, I'd advise players wanting to play ranged specialists to spend the points to increase their Bow skill to 3. It nearly doubles your chances to hit most weaker opponents. At Bow skill 2, your chances to hit are well below 50% most of the time, even against Parry 3 & 4 opponents.

Be sure to reduce the TN by -2 for larger than human targets like trolls.