The Soldiers Ability card says " During each Rally Step in combat, recover 1 fatigue and 1 stress". When does the rally step happen durring the combat sequence? The only rally step I seem to remember is the one they talk about happing after major encounters or acts of the adventure, I don't recal any durring combat. Is it refering to that rally step and I am just missing how it works?

Ryath said:

I honestly belive that it's a reference to some old version of the game where "Rally Step" meant something different than it does now. This so called "old version" of a rally step seems to be happening on a regular basis in combat. Perhaps it's a reference to the beginning of each new round during combat (or perhaps the end of each round). Although i guess even if it'd fit pretty well with the class effectively allowing them to take an extra maneouver for free each turn in combat, I think it'd probably be a too powerful ability compared to what the current classes have...?

If it actually means Rally Step as it is explained in the current rule books it is very strange since as you mention... currently, there is NO rally step during combat. Even if it was just once per combat, it seems kind of weak (although, come to think of it.. there are quite alot of pretty weak abilities to be found amongst the Class ability cards..)

This is just my theory however... will be interesting to see what other people think/believe/speculate etc..

Read the demo adventure, it has two rally steps "during" combat. I would saw during is a loose term here as you are not actually fighting during the rally step (which would make no sense), but it is instead a short lull in the battle. I assume the soldiers ability is to reflect his combat training, so he is better at re-focusing as the battle commences once again.

So, just to reiterate, he would regain 1 fatigue and 1 stress in any rally step that happens between two combat encounters. Of course, as with anything else with the game, you may wish to change this to any rally step before/after a combat encounter or something to that effect.

Freiduin said:

There IS a rally step during combat.

Check out the demo adventure, or the combat encounter that occurs early in the adventure in the ToA.

The entire purpose of the rally step is to occur during combat.

Kaptain O said:

Well, to be fair you can have a rally step between two non-combat encounters, but you are correct in the fact that we have seen multiple examples of rally steps between combat encounters.

Kaptain O said:

Well that explains some of it, although to say that the entire purpose of the rally step is to occur during combat doesn's seem to fit with the rules about rally step in ToA (p 13): "A unique element to the episode structure is the link BETWEEN the acts. This interval is known as a rally step."

The examples on p 14 also confirms this idea that rally steps occur between acts , whether or not these acts are combat-acts or not. It doesn't explain what exactly the ability card means when it refers to "each rally step in combat". What does it mean?

"During each Rally Step in combat, recover 1 fatigue and 1 stress." The problem is the word " During ".

• Does it only occur during Rally Steps that occur directly after a combat act has ended?

• Does it only occur during Rally Steps that occur directly before a combat act begins?

• Does it only occur if one combat act leads directly to another combat act, with a Rally Step in between them? (This would be the closest thing to a Rally step actually being in combat i guess).

• Does it occur during Rally Steps that occur between two Non-combat acts? I don't know how such rally steps could even be interpreted as being during combat..?

• Can it only occur once during any Rally Step after a combat act has ended. No matter how many more Rally steps are triggered by non-combat acts, it cant be triggered again until after a new combat act has happened?

The wording is rather confusing, since according to the description in ToA... a rally step during combat doesnt exist... (Unless it means for the special occation for when one combat act leads directly into another one with a Rally step in between. I guess those kind of Rally steps could be interpreted as happening during combat.

Freiduin said:

Me thinks you're overthinking this entirely.

there is a Rally step. It is called whenever the GM feels that there is an appropriate break in the action. If the fight is basic, just one group, then that fight will have one Rally step at the end of the fight. Everybody recovers during the rally step. The soldier recovers a bit more.

The GM is free to call for additional rally steps. In the sample adventure two rally steps are called. One is because the reinforcement beastmen are arriving and it presumes that the players will take a breath before charging in. The second one is because the storm unleashes it's fury on everybody and as such everybody pauses combat. Finally there would be a rally step after combat. In all cases the soldier would recover with his special ability.

Ehm.. I dont really understand what your final conclusion is...

1) Or do you mean that the ability triggers every time there is a rally step, whether or not a combat act is involved? If this one is the way it works, shouldnt the ability have read "During each Rally Step, recover 1 fatigue and 1 stress" rather than "During each Rally Step in combat , recover 1 fatigue and 1 stress". Then "in combat" should at least refer to something.

2) Do you mean that the ability is triggered each time a combat ends (starting a rally step)? I believe that this alternative is the one that is closest to what the ability describes.

And just a side note: The sample adventure isn't exactly the perfect example to use when trying to figure out how this ability works, since every single Rally Step in it happens right after combat (or even mid-combat due to interruptions). Rally steps can happen between any acts though, not just acts that have to do with combat.

FFG made a mistake when they used the word "Act" I think, they should have used "Scene" or something else small scale. To me an Act is a collection of scenes, but thats not the definition used in WFRP. In WFRP a campaign is broken into adventures, which are broken into chapters, which are broken into episodes which are broken into acts - the act is the smallest unit of time in a story sense. Usually a given episode will be combat or not and the action will be broken down by rally steps to give the encounter/episode structure. Now you are right, there may be some episodes where one portion/act is not combat and others are - in that situation you would use your judgement on whether you would consider them "in combat" during the intervening rally step.

Freiduin said:

I would guess it probably means exactly what it says... that during each Rally Step in combat, recover 1 fatigue and 1 stress. Is there any reason to believe it means something else?

The only part I guess might be confusing is that during a rally step EVERYONE recovers 1 fatigue and 1 stress, so I guess the soldier would just recover 1 extra of each.

A few people in this thread have explained that rally steps DO occur during combat (just look at the demo in the Support section), so I'm absolutely not understanding what the confusion is.

Freiduin said:

Ah, I answered too soon. I see what the problem is. You are confusing a Rally with the end of the Encounter. The effects that occur at the end of an Encounter are described on Page 62: Everyone recovers fatigue equal to their toughness and stress equal to their willpower. But that's not a Rally Step, that's just what happens at the end of an Episode or an Encounter. A Rally are those smaller increments that occur DURING an Episode.

Ex, based sort of on the demo adventure as best as I can remember it

Episode 1:

Act 1: Fight with beastmen, horn is blown which ends Act 1 even if combat is ongoing

(Rally Step) Soldier would regain 1 fatigue and 1 stress on top of other Rally Step effects outlined in the ToA

Act 2: Fight continues, or enemies are dead and PCs can start helping the NPCs out. Reinforcements show up either way, and after a while fighting a storm begins to brew....

(Rally Step) Regain 1 fatigue and 1 stress

Act 3: The beastmen start to retreat, and the PC's (hopefully) are all still alive. They can now start their negotiating.

(End of Encounter/End of Episode) Regain fatigue equal to toughness and stress equal to willpower

Episode II: ...