Example of Combat

[tannjew]

One question, but first the quotation:

[...]
Tag's Health is now -1 - Hurt. In theory, Tag must make a Conciousness roll but the Difficulty is 1 - an automatic success.
[...]

I thought if a character is hurt (in this case Tag) all general ability rolls get a malus of -1. Thus I would have expected that the conciousness roll has the difficulty 2.

[PelgranePress]

The additional Difficulty does not apply to Conciousness tests.

[Ephemeer]

Thanks for the replies, which kind of explains that combat is not a contest as described on p59-60 (the example, chasing cultist).

I think that using the word "contest" when describing combat (in the sentence "Fights are slightly more complicated contests involving any of the following abilities...") is misleading, as we are actually looking at something that can be best described as a "simple test". The fact that there are also examples on p60 (like Scuffling vs Scuffling etc) is also misleading, as we are not talking about a contest as the one described on p59-60 (the Athletics vs Athletics contest where the cultist is chasing the Investigator).

Thanks for the clarification!

I concur that the passage at the start of the combat chapter seems to imply that fights are contests in the mechanical sense. Something like "Fights are slightly more complicated tests involving any of the following abilities: scuffling, firearms, weapons." would clarify that.

[Tony Williams]

I don't want to appear an ar$e but I think the example combat is wrong in a few places.

The Ghoul
Health 9, Health 7, Scuffling 9

I think that should be:

The Ghoul
Athletics 9, Health 7, Scuffling 9

The Ghoul launches itself at Tag, and makes three consecutive attacks. It could have divided its attacks between opponents if it preferred

Near the top of the third column on page 133 of the ToC rulebook is says:

Ghouls can engage in two claw attacks and a bite against the same target in one round

To me that sounds like the ghoul could NOT have divided its attacks in the example combat ( not that it does anyway ).

Next, from the ToC rulebook under Ghoul Armour:

firearms and projectiles do only half damage ( round up )

So I think the Ghoul damage would go more like:

Round 1
Tag rolls 2 damage ( +4 double-barrel, close range ) = 6 -> halved gives 3 -> Ghoul on (7 - 3) 4 Health
Annabelle does 1 damage with hat pin -> Ghoul on (4 - 1) 3 Health

Round 2
Annabelle does 3 and 1 damage with two pistols but both shots are independent and therefore both are independently halved and rounded up which gives (2 + 1) = 3 damage -> Ghoul on (3 - 3) 0 Health

So the fight ends the same way for the ghoul but the order of its damage is somewhat different.

However there is a mistake with the second round attack on Tag:

As this is is second succesful bite attack, he does double damage (see p. 133 for the ghoul). He rolls a 2, +1 for the bite for a total of 6

Ghouls do not get +1 for a bite ( the +1 is for claw attacks ) so Tag's damage here is 4 ( not 6 ).


If the original post is amended I would also suggest showing the damage die rolls and modifiers to clarify arriving at the damage totals.

I would also suggest this eventually goes into a second edition rulebook if we ever get there ( along with the magnificent weapons table from the Keepers Screen ).

[Tony Williams]

Here's a corrected example ( Sod's Law demands I will have made an error somewhere ):

How to manage a fight between 3 PCs with guns and a ghoul. Which one acts first and the rest of the fight round by round.
A single ghoul won't stand much chance against three adventurers, but might take one of them down. We'll assume it's Pulp rather than Purist:

Dramatis Personae
The brash Tag Hunter ( played by Tina )
Health 13, Firearms 10, Weapons 8, Scuffling 2, [no skill in First Aid]
Weapons: Remington M32 double barreled shotgun +1 (+2 when used point blank, +1 when both barrels are fired simultaneously), machete +0
Hit Threshold: 4 (Tag's Athletics is 8 or greater, see pg. 61)

The zesty Anabelle Swift ( played by Andrew )
Health 10, Firearms 8, Weapons 4, Scuffling 6, [no skill in First Aid]
Weapons: Twin Colt revolvers +0 (you can use two revolvers simultaneously in a Pulp game if your Firearms is 5+ see pg. 42), hat pin (-1).
Hit Threshold: 3

The consumptive Professor Oberon Lankwiller ( played by Larry )
Health 5, [no skill in Firearms], [no skill in Weapons], Scuffling 4, First Aid 1
Weapon: Webley revolver +0
Hit Threshold: 3

The Ghoul ( played by the Keeper )
Health 7, [no skill in Firearms], [no skill in Weapons], Scuffling 9
Weapon: two claws +1 and a bite +0. Two bites in a row means it latches on for double damage (pg. 133).
Armour bonus: Only suffers half damage from firearms and projectiles (pg 133).
Hit Threshold: 4 (5 when underground)

The Scene
The Investigators are cautiously exploring a tunnel which runs under the Arkham municipal burial ground. They disturb a ghoul which is sucking the marrow from some cracked bones, partially concealed behind a stone slab.
They must all make a 4 point Stability roll when they see the ghoul (you see a supernatural creature up close ). After Stability rolls, a combat ensues:

Combat Order
The order of action is determined at the beginning of combat, just once, according to the characters' current pool in their chosen method of combat. This gives us:
1. Tag (10 - Firearms)
2. The Ghoul (9 - Scuffling)
3. Anabelle (4 - Weapons)
4. The Prof (he has no Firearms or Weapons skill so has to decide in advance what to do. He chooses "shoot the ghoul")

Round 1
Tag gives the ghoul both barrels at point blank range.
It has partial cover, so that's +0 modifier to Hit Threshold vs only Firearms attacks (see pg. 64) so the ghoul has a current Hit Threshold of 5. Tina spends four points from Tag's Firearms pool to ensure a hit. She rolls a 2 for damage, +4 for the double-barreled shotgun fired at point-blank range but the 6 total is halved to 3 because of the ghoul's armour bonus rule of half damage from firearms.
The ghoul's Health tumbles to (7-3) 4.
Tag has (10-4) 6 Firearms points left.

The ghoul launches itself at Tag, and makes three consecutive attacks.
The Keeper spends 2 points from Scuffling on the first claw attack and rolls a 3 making 5 which is a hit vs. Tag's Hit Threshold of 4. The Keeper rolls 3 for damage which becomes 4 with the +1 claw bonus.
Tag is now on (13-4) 9 Health.
The Keeper spends 2 Scuffling points on the second claw attack, rolls a 5, another hit, and rolls 4 for damage which gives 5 with the claw bonus.
Tag's Health is now (9-5) 4.
Then it's a bite. A 2-point Scuffling spend gives a success with a roll of 2 and the Keeper rolls 5 damage with no modifier for the bite attack this time.
Tag's Health is now (4-5) -1 i.e. Hurt (pg. 63). In theory, Tag must make a Consciousness roll but the Difficulty is 1 which is an automatic success.
The ghoul's Scuffling is now (9-6) 3.

Annabelle wants to distract the creature from its feast, so she jabs it with her hat pin, spending all of her 4 Weapons points to ensure a hit against the ghoul's Hit Threshold of 5. She rolls a 2 for the damage roll causing 1 point of damage due to the -1 hat pin modifier (you can effectively miss or do no damage with lesser weapons and fists).
The ghoul has (4-1) 3 Health points left.
Annabelle now has no Weapons points left but has not spent any Firearms points yet.

The Professor closes his eyes and squeezes the trigger of the unfamiliar Webley. He has no Firearms skill (see p. 60 sidebar), and unfortunately rolls a 1. The Keeper decides that he shoots himself in the foot. He rolls a 3 for damage but this is modified by minus 2 because of his unfamiliarity with firearms - knocking his Health down to (5-1) 4.

Round 2
Tag frantically wrestles with the ghoul, trying to hold its festering mouth away from his face. That's Scuffling. He spends all his remaining 2 Scuffling points on his roll. The Difficulty is the ghoul's Hit Threshold (5) plus 1 because Tag is Hurt (pg. 63). He needs a 6. He rolls a 2 plus the 2 for his Scuffling point spend gives a 4 which is not enough. It's not looking good for Tag

The Keeper decides to spend 2 Scuffling points on a ghoul claw attack roll to finish off Tag. He rolls a 1, making a total of 3 with the point spend. This is a miss against Tag's Hit Threshold of 4.
He spends 0 Scuffling points on the next claw attack roll and gets 1 again, another miss, maybe Tag will make it after all.
The Keeper spends the ghoul's final 1 Scuffling point on the bite attack, rolling a 6. As this is is second successful bite attack it does double damage (see p. 133 under "Ghoul"). The Keeper rolls a 3 for a total of 6.
Tag's Health tumbles to (-1-6) -7. He is Seriously Wounded (pg. 63) and must make another Consciousness roll. To stand a chance of passing the roll Tina must give up at least 1 Health point for Tag, and even then Tina would have to roll a 6. She chooses not to do this, so Tag automatically fails the roll and falls into merciful oblivion. He is Seriously Wounded and requires First Aid to stabilise his wounds and, if he survives, hospitalisation to recover.

Annabelle opts to fire both pistols at the creature (Pulp rule pg. 42). She must spend a Firearms point just to do this. She spends 3 further points on each test roll (as they are simultaneous Andrew needs to decide before rolling both dice) which gives a total Firearms spend of 7, and she rolls 6 and 2 so both shots hit against the ghoul's Hit Threshold of 5. She rolls 3 and 1 for the damage from each shot. Both shots are independent and therefore both are independently halved and rounded up which gives (2+1) 3 damage.
The ghoul only had three points of Health left, so it is down (3-3 = 0 Health = defeat).
Annabelle only has (8-7) 1 Firearms point left. Hopefully nothing else nasty is waiting in the wings down there.

Larry opts to have the Professor try to stabilise Tag. He must make a successful First Aid test against Difficulty 3 (official rule change from published ToC rules). The Professor only has 1 point of First Aid to spend so Larry must roll 2 or better on the First Aid test roll. Will he make it ?
If the investigators can stabilise Tag and get him out of the crypt he will need to spend 7 days in hospital recuperating (pg. 63).

[PelgranePress]

Thanks, Tony - very helpful.