Rules clarifications

[Michebugio]

I'm well aware that I'm going against all opinions here, but I'm pretty sure that the absence of statements regarding picking up your weapon just means that you cannot pick up your weapon.

At least that's how I handle it in my games. Opponents who get disarmed don't get to pick up their weapons, nor do players. Opponents who are deprived of all their weapons either run away or attack with a brawling attack (I use the lowest weapon skill in their description and apply the damage described in Brawling for player characters).

This is for a number of reasons: first, already mentioned, because there are no rules for picking up weapons. Second, every Called Shot is a sort of "definitive" effect: Pierce makes you Wounded until you recover out of combat, Break Shield breaks your shield until you can buy a new one out of combat, so Disarming should deprive you from your weapon until you can pick it up again... out of combat.

Third, it would make even more sense to carry a secondary weapon, or to train the Dagger skill. After all, if when you get disarmed all you have to do is to spend a combat action to recover your weapon, what's the point of having secondary weapons (or daggers) at all?

The only thing that upsets me is that no matter the skill of your opponent (or vice-versa), you always disarm him with a successful Called Shot. I would make it at least a contested action in some circumstances, especially to avoid anti-climatic intances (big boss of the campaign wielding super badass sword: Barding swordsman disarms him on the first round, big boss attacks with dagger from now on).

[Terisonen]

Say, you can draw a weapon ready at hand (like a sword in his sheath if you loose your spear, or a dagger when you loose your sword), but when you get disarmed it would be a good assumption that your disarmed weapon has fly away too long for you to recover.

[Hermes Serpent]

I just checked back for the previous thread as many of you seem to have no ability to search for information.

A January 15th 2013 thread entitled "Disarmed, How hard is it to get a weapon back?" from the Forum Archive discussed the loss of a weapon for a number of posts and made a number of suggestions before someone pointed out that the description of the Thick Hide monster trait had the best answer.

[zedturtle]

I just checked back for the previous thread as many of you seem to have no ability to search for information.

A January 15th 2013 thread entitled "Disarmed, How hard is it to get a weapon back?" from the Forum Archive discussed the loss of a weapon for a number of posts and made a number of suggestions before someone pointed out that the description of the Thick Hide monster trait had the best answer.

It seems a little unreasonable to expect a brand-new player to know about the Forum Archive, or search it. The good news is that the suggested answer (one full round recovering the weapon) is in accordance with what we've been saying. I do think Michebugio's points are valid and worth consideration.

[Michebugio]

A January 15th 2013 thread entitled "Disarmed, How hard is it to get a weapon back?" from the Forum Archive discussed the loss of a weapon for a number of posts and made a number of suggestions before someone pointed out that the description of the Thick Hide monster trait had the best answer.

Thanks for the clarification Hermes, so I stand corrected

Though, it seems odd that a Loremaster should deduct this from a monster's special ability description, rather than simply read it under the Called Shots paragraph, but still the answer appears very clear:

"[...] the attacker drops his weapon (under normal circumstances, the dropped weapon may be recovered spending an entire action)."

[zedturtle]

A January 15th 2013 thread entitled "Disarmed, How hard is it to get a weapon back?" from the Forum Archive discussed the loss of a weapon for a number of posts and made a number of suggestions before someone pointed out that the description of the Thick Hide monster trait had the best answer.

Thanks for the clarification Hermes, so I stand corrected

Though, it seems odd that a Loremaster should deduct this from a monster's special ability description, rather than simply read it under the Called Shots paragraph, but still the answer appears very clear:

"[...] the attacker drops his weapon (under normal circumstances, the dropped weapon may be recovered spending an entire action)."

Are you saying that the rule is there, and we are missing it? or that it should have been there?

[Seosaidh]

On page 180 of the Revised Rules, there are some guidelines for non-combat actions during combat (other than the ones tied to stance).

A number of non-combat action options have been presented already, but players will always surprise their Loremaster by proposing unusual or unexpected tasks.
This is a good sign that the players are enjoying the game, and should be encouraged wherever possible. The
factors to consider when resolving these actions are time, difficulty and consequences:
• Time – can the character perform the task in one round, or will it take more? This is up to the judgement
of the Loremaster, but for these cases consider a round to be a maximum of 30 seconds long.
• Difficulty – if the action requires a roll to resolve, the difficulty of the task is assigned as usual, with a default
TN of 14 unless the Loremaster decides otherwise.
• Consequences – as with any task, success or failure should have consequences.

For example, a player who describes his character as leaping from a boulder to reach an Orc-chieftain issuing
orders from the rear of battle could be allowed an Athletics roll (TN 14). As a consequence of success, the character should be able to engage the commander in the following round unless one of the foul creature’s companions can intervene (or might even attack immediately if he scored a great or extraordinary success).
If the character fails, he should lose his next action as he picks himself up from the ground and is immediately
engaged by opponents as if fighting in a forward stance.

For those who want disarming to be more dangerous than simply 'lose the next round of combat', you could always have the player or monster roll an Athletics (or Battle) test at TN equal to 10 plus the highest attribute level of the monsters engaged with that player (or in the case of a monster either an opposed athletics roll or perhaps a TN based on the stance that the hero(s) engaged with that monster take, with Forward giving the highest TN and Defensive the lowest TN). During that round, you don't count the parry of the monster (or player) as they are too busy trying to recover their weapon to adequately defend themselves.

[Michebugio]

Are you saying that the rule is there, and we are missing it? or that it should have been there?

The rule is not there, it's only under the Thick Hide description in Loremaster's Book as Hermes said. My only objection is that it's quite odd that we have to learn this from that description, rather than having an appropriate clarification in the Adventurer's Book

[Hermes Serpent]

With the infrequency of monster Called Shots being effective and very few player characters using them the situation comes up so rarely that the consideration is mostly theoretical and the thick monster hide situation is likely to be more frequent than being disarmed by an orc's bent sword.

[Terisonen]

On page 180 of the Revised Rules, there are some guidelines for non-combat actions during combat (other than the ones tied to stance).

A number of non-combat action options have been presented already, but players will always surprise their Loremaster by proposing unusual or unexpected tasks.
This is a good sign that the players are enjoying the game, and should be encouraged wherever possible. The
factors to consider when resolving these actions are time, difficulty and consequences:
• Time – can the character perform the task in one round, or will it take more? This is up to the judgement
of the Loremaster, but for these cases consider a round to be a maximum of 30 seconds long.
• Difficulty – if the action requires a roll to resolve, the difficulty of the task is assigned as usual, with a default
TN of 14 unless the Loremaster decides otherwise.
• Consequences – as with any task, success or failure should have consequences.

For example, a player who describes his character as leaping from a boulder to reach an Orc-chieftain issuing
orders from the rear of battle could be allowed an Athletics roll (TN 14). As a consequence of success, the character should be able to engage the commander in the following round unless one of the foul creature’s companions can intervene (or might even attack immediately if he scored a great or extraordinary success).
If the character fails, he should lose his next action as he picks himself up from the ground and is immediately
engaged by opponents as if fighting in a forward stance.

For those who want disarming to be more dangerous than simply 'lose the next round of combat', you could always have the player or monster roll an Athletics (or Battle) test at TN equal to 10 plus the highest attribute level of the monsters engaged with that player (or in the case of a monster either an opposed athletics roll or perhaps a TN based on the stance that the hero(s) engaged with that monster take, with Forward giving the highest TN and Defensive the lowest TN). During that round, you don't count the parry of the monster (or player) as they are too busy trying to recover their weapon to adequately defend themselves.

A complete round without weapon will leave you with your Dagger Skill if not able to rearm, wich is in some case very detrimental... Or may be is a good reason to have a good skill in it.