I'm a newbie to 3ed but a veteran GM of 1ed/2ed WFRP.

I can't wrap my head around this thing about Encounters.

In a group of adventurers (or monsters). How can an important character be protected? It seems that the enemy can close and engage pretty much anybody they like (because of abstraction).

In all other cases the 3ed seems pretty good!

Yes, unless a character has the Bodyguard action or something like it, monsters can run right up and take out your mage..just another reason not to min-max your mage

D&D4 had that "you can't move" marking, which I never cared for, but yes there are ways in WFRP3 to protect people.

Check the list of special actions from Omens of War for more information on stuff like that.

Was just about to order Omes of War when I saw your answer. Now... a three day wait for it to show up.

Exactly, the fluid positioning system encourages you not to engage in the 5 by 5 square concept. Though people are often more used to it "but Erich is in front of Magnus", it's also just as conceptual as in a fight people are jumping around all over the place.

" My Life For Yours " and such are the actions to take to be able to protect someone.

Also, narratively, corridors, bridges, narrow defiles, alleys justify saying "room for one or two or three (as case may be) abreast. So let Players know to "add to the narrative" and describe the location or seek out a particular terrain.

Similarly foes will choose fights in terrain that favour them. The goblin mage will be up on a rocky ledge, the beastmen will want to attack when in an open part of the woods where they can come from all directions.

I also like One Ring RPG's positioning system. In that system you must have two characters "close engaged" keeping foes busy per each character that is stand back and not be attacked (e.g., in a 4 PC group, only one can do that). And when foes outnumber, that won't work either.

I made up some situations where the party wish to protect some of its members. Do you think they would work (not break any game concepts)?

• There is a Student and a Soldier in a party and the two players tells the GM that they stay close to each other so the Soldier can protect the Student in case of a fight. In that case the Soldier aught to get some kind of chance to step in and stop an would be attacker. Both the Student and the Soldier would have to actively track eachother.
• The party's more melee oriented characters state that they challange the enemy by shouting warcries and banging weaons on thier shields to draw the enemys attention away from the academics, priests and wizards nearby. The GM decides that the attackers ar so worked up and/or unintelliget an/or undiciplined so they attack the melee types first.
• A group of monsters and a group of adventurers face off. The players roll for who goes first and get the first opportunity to act. They decide to send in thier fully protected knight into to group of monsters to engage as many as possible making it hard for them to "counter charge" - and thus protecting weaker party members.

In our game, one's active defense may be used by an engaged ally. I don't know if it's by RAW, but it's fine narratively.

This is where the rules shouldn't get in the way of good storytelling and the GM can use his ability to make stuff up

The best "by the book" way to solve this though, is probably "Perform a Stunt". That card can be used for just about anything and the GM can just make up modifiers that fit how many successes/failures the player rolled.

If you really want to protect someone weak, then you have the weak guy use his improved guarded position, that he made sure to qualify for and buy. Then his kid brother weak guy, also uses guarded position.

Then you stay in their engagement and use all talents and actions that allow you to defend others and soak their damage. It's quite doable,

Guarded position is awesome. Two characters using it in an engagement would mean everyone attacking friendly characters in that engagement would add two extra challenge dice. Using an attack isn't always the best option and guarded position is incredibly strong when used in tight engagements.

If you really want to protect someone weak, then you have the weak guy use his improved guarded position, that he made sure to qualify for and buy. Then his kid brother weak guy, also uses guarded position.

*Slaps forehead*

I clean forgot about Guarded Position also affecting allies. This is the correct answer.

Note there's an improved guard position.

You should try to allow using one's active defense on another engaged ally... He bursts to rise his shield in front of you, parry the incoming attack, or jump and push you out of the attack with dodge.

That favors a full use of cards in short encounters and favor players to stand against an overwhelming bad guy. It also help team play and encourage to not have 3+ in every physical characteristic at creation so as to start with 3 active defenses.

I've used the 'My life for yours' card on the conservative side several times.

There is also one of the dwarf cards, I can't remember the name, but it is basically a hostile redirection card on the conservative side. It is either a Saga, or an Ancester card.

I am playing a Dwarf Ironbreaker BTW. Sometimes I'll go reckless and use some of my better hack and slash actions, but that leaves my allies in a vulnerable place.

Mostly my allies are smart about what to attack and what to avoid. We have a Priestess of Verena who might as well be throwing spitballs at beastmen, but put her in a social gathering and she'll root out all evil. We have a wood elf assassin who likes to shoot things in the eye. We have a drunken outrider who likes to barge into inns on horseback with guns blazing. We HAD a Priest of Moor, he unfortunatly is being slowly devoured by a giant spider in a lost city underground. And then there is me, the Dwarven Ironbreaker who accidentally killed off a vital NPC when he insulted my honor..... That was a funny one.

Like I said, normally everyone knows what their limits are.... Mostly....

Last play session, the Outrider and I were woken up by some noise downstairs and came to find some zombies... I always sleep in my armor, he sleeps nude.... He declared that he was running down the stairs naked with nothing but his sword... <insert sword = manhood joke> The GM said if he made a sudden turn, I'd get something in my beard that I wouldnt want there.... I replied that I have my axe out, if he turns, he's going to be the first guy in the old world to get circumsized.

Needless to say, the Zombies were kicking his naked butt, If it wasnt for me, he'd be dead for a bonehead move. It was funny roleplaying wise, but not the best move. If you are not careful, you can easily be killed for a silly mistake.

Sleep in your armor? :-D

How many misfortune dice do your GM award you the following day for sleeping in plate armor?

That's a bit funny :-D

Your character can afford armor? That means your GM has been to rich on rewards and too stingy on the "Damaged" condition!

jh

Your character can afford armor? That means your GM has been to rich on rewards and too stingy on the "Damaged" condition!

jh

Yeah my rule is three states of equipment condition. Fine, damaged and destroyed. Once destroyed, they need to buy a new one. A person with tradecraft with the proper specialization can repair it though - difficulty depending on the quality and power of the item. That will go a long way to create a more dynamic economy instead of the typical dragons hoarding of wealth. When starting TEW I also expect people to pay for food each passing day