Has anybody found any rules or steps to having PCs escape combat, in either EotE or AoR? or can they just say "I run away!"?
Escaping combat
Yup. It's called Disengage in the Maneuvers portion of the combat section. 1 Maneuver to Disengage which removes you from Engaged to Short range, and then you could spend the Strain for a second Maneuver and move to Medium range.
p. 215 AoR, p. 202-203 EoE, CRBs.
Edited by 2P51Thanks. I thought i had seen something about it before, but couldnt find it for the life of me this evening.
NP, enjoy.
You can transition to chase rules as well. There's a half-page-long sidebar in the Space chapter, but it says the rules can be used for chases on foot. (AFB, so no page numbers, sorry).
Mechanically, running away is just using Move maneuvers to get away from the enemy.
The bigger picture is the narrative. Will the NPCs chase the party? If so, how far? Can the PCs dart in alleyways and lose their pursuers, or do they simply outrun them, or do they use some sort of trickery to send them down a false trail? I'd recommend Skill Monkey's chase episode on ways to use various skills to get away from pursuing enemies.
Edited by cvtheomanI'd recommend Skill Monkey's chase episode on ways to use various skills to get away from pursuing enemies.
What is Skill Monkey's chase episode? Where can I find it? Search function only returned your post.
Wait a minute...I thought if you ran away from combat you automatically lost the game!
I am not sure what episode it could be. But here is the link to download them, they are worth a listen.
http://www.madadventurers.com/category/field-recordings/skill-monkey/
I'd also give them a mechanical advantage if they did something clever to effect their escape--pop a smoke grenade or toss a stun grenade, etc. One of my NPC's used Advantage to spot a steam conduit, then used their next Action to target it. It gave setback to the PC trying to gun him down before he made it back to his ship.
I'd recommend Skill Monkey's chase episode on ways to use various skills to get away from pursuing enemies.
What is Skill Monkey's chase episode? Where can I find it? Search function only returned your post.
http://www.madadventurers.com/skill-monkey-run-away/
But really, listen to all of them. Fiddy is a beast.
About the disengage. So if I'm engaged with someon who attacks me with melee weapon can I just spend manuver to disengage and then shoot ? Coz than the rule about adding difficulty when shooting engaged is useless, of course only if u are not in situation that disengage is naratively impossible.
It just means that's what you must spend your maneuver doing. That's a maneuver which you don't have available to Aim, use a stimpack, or do any other maneuver-type action.
You can, of course, take one maneuver to Disengage, and then suffer 2 strain to take another maneuver and then Aim from Short Range, and then use your action to fire. But if you didn't have to Disengage, you'd be able to Aim without suffering any strain.
To be honest I'm a fan of the way D&D handles this, where Disengage is an Action, and if you move beyond Engaged range from an enemy you provoke an Attack of Opportunity. I'm considering adopting something like this, but I haven't done it yet.
About the disengage. So if I'm engaged with someon who attacks me with melee weapon can I just spend manuver to disengage and then shoot ? Coz than the rule about adding difficulty when shooting engaged is useless, of course only if u are not in situation that disengage is naratively impossible.
It's limited situations where it's not an option, but they exist. If you've been knocked prone in a previous round, and have suffered a Winded critical, all you'd be able to do is stand up, without being able to spend Strain, you wouldn't be able to disengage. Same situation but lets say you've only got 1 Strain left. So it's not common, but it can happen.
It's limited situations where it's not an option, but they exist. If you've been knocked prone in a previous round, and have suffered a Winded critical, all you'd be able to do is stand up, without being able to spend Strain, you wouldn't be able to disengage. Same situation but lets say you've only got 1 Strain left. So it's not common, but it can happen.
Stand Up as an Action (Action as Maneuver), Move to Disengage as a Maneuver, sure he can't fire, but he disengaged. Also as far as I can tell nothing prevents one from moving whilst Prone.
Granted I just might not be able to find the rule on that. I'm also not finding where we got that being Prone added a Boost die when making Ranged attacks...
My GM might have just added that one in... and the one where we get Boost dice from firing from Concealment (while hiding, first attack only) since I can't find that rule either...
Edited by evileeyoreGranted I just might not be able to find the rule on that. I'm also not finding where we got that being Prone added a Boost die when making Ranged attacks...
No such rule. To get a Boost die you'd need to Aim, or be passed one from someone else's action.
Shooting at a prone character gives the shooter a setback, maybe that's what you're thinking of?
My GM might have just added that one in... and the one where we get Boost dice from firing from Concealment (while hiding, first attack only) since I can't find that rule either...
Also no such rule...and no real point, because if you're acting first and hiding, a great way to maximize the situation is to spend your Maneuver to Aim.
Why?It's limited situations where it's not an option, but they exist. If you've been knocked prone in a previous round, and have suffered a Winded critical, all you'd be able to do is stand up, without being able to spend Strain, you wouldn't be able to disengage. Same situation but lets say you've only got 1 Strain left. So it's not common, but it can happen.
Stand Up as an Action (Action as Maneuver), Move to Disengage as a Maneuver, sure he can't fire, but he disengaged. Also as far as I can tell nothing prevents one from moving whilst Prone.
You're not answering what he asked. I did.
You're not answering what he asked. I did.
Winded says he can't spend Strain for an extra maneuver, it doesn't stop him from spending an Action as a Maneuver. So he could stand from Prone as his normal Maneuver, and then use his Action as a Maneuver to Move to Disengage.
And, again, unless it actually says it somewhere*, he can still disengage with a Maneuver and Attack with an action, he'll still just be Prone, since it doesn't state that you can't move while Prone.
*And I'm just not finding it. If so, please give me a page number so I can get this one straightened out.
Shooting at a prone character gives the shooter a setback, maybe that's what you're thinking of?
He was good about handing out both Boost and Setback a plenty in different situations.
Also no such rule...and no real point, because if you're acting first and hiding, a great way to maximize the situation is to spend your Maneuver to Aim.
When I couldn't find those two things in the rules I decided to spend the last few days reading everything and writing down page numbers for cross-referencing... not that I'm against giving Boost dice for things where they're useful/needed... but I'd like to have a nice base line on what the rules expect to work from.
Yeah, this thread is done.
About the disengage. So if I'm engaged with someon who attacks me with melee weapon can I just spend manuver to disengage and then shoot ?
I bolded for you. He didn't ask about just disengaging, he asked about a situation where he would find himself forced to having to shoot with the added Difficulty of being engaged and not having the option to disengage and shoot from a distance.
Your examples don't allow for him being able to shoot, so they aren't answering his question. So my examples weren't bad information, they were correct. Put another way, I answered his question, you didn't.
[Your examples don't allow for him being able to shoot, so they aren't answering his question. So my examples weren't bad information, they were correct.
Prone, Winded (Can't Spend Strain Voluntarily), he can still Maneuver to Disengage (crawling) and then take an Action to shoot from Prone.
I think you want Winded and Distracted (no free maneuver). That leaves him only with an Action (so he could Disengage or Attack while Engaged). In this case... he need to weigh his options. Sometimes running away is better than standing and shooting.
Put another way, I answered his question, you didn't.
As one of the "RAW Squad" I figure you either know the rules well enough that I was wrong (and I'd shortly be corrected), or you needed to brush up a bit.
As for answering his question:
There are other reasons to not Disengage besides "Critical Injury":
Narrative (Your holding the line, blocking a passageway/doorway/narrow bridge/etc).
You need to spend your Maneuvers on something other moving or Aiming.
But no, otherwise there is no real reason to not just Disengage and Shoot. In fact it's generally better (Difficulty goes down, Enemy doesn't get a Boost die) than remaining and Aiming.
Edited by evileeyore