Deliberate Assault and Breaking Down Doors

Discussion on game mastering Earthdawn. May contain spoilers; caution is recommended!
Tattered Rags
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Joined:Mon Nov 28, 2016 12:04 am
Deliberate Assault and Breaking Down Doors

Post by Tattered Rags » Mon May 17, 2021 6:54 pm

Oof, I just reread the barrier section in the GM book and found my answer there. However, for posterity, and to answer the question for anyone else, or to generate discussion, I'll leave Ye Olde Poste here.

The answer is that attacking barriers just have players roll damage tests; attack tests don't happen so things that improve attack tests don't help. Just Body Control for the Gauntlet here. I think my thought process around Deliberate Assault was screwed up; it's about taking a single strike at the perfect moment when the enemy is most vulnerable. Doors don't get MORE vulnerable by you waiting.
However, handling people who don't generally get initiative probably should be done by granting a number based on what they are (e.g.: bystanders aren't quick, so maybe a 4 or 5 based on what their Dex step likely is).

Ye Olde Poste
Or just breaking other things, actually. Mainly, how to arbitrate when a Gauntlet punches things (1) out of combat, (2) during surprise rounds, and (3) punching things without an initiative?

(1)
Extremely thirsty Gauntlet stands there and focuses his power to strike a keg of high quality beer. Does he get a bonus to his attack using his Talent for this purpose? It's not like there's initiative going on here. You could make the case that he simply waits 6 seconds and punches the keg. Obviously he should get Body Control (BC), but Deliberate Assault (DA) is a weird one. Considering there's strain, most of the time he wouldn't want to use it, but if something is quite hard to break, he may want to use it.
This could generally be waved narratively, considering it's out of combat. Given enough time, most people can get through anything. Narrow situations where doing it in one attempt is important (e.g.; intimidating the bandits by punching a boulder) may have the player really wanting to use DA.

(2)
Group ambushes some pirates who have been preying on people along the Serpent River. It's a surprise round, and the pirates failed to notice the ambush, so they get no action. For simplicity, one might simply not have them roll initiative that first round. However, to evaluate the use of Deliberate Assault (DA), perhaps they should still roll, but do nothing on their turn. Alternatively, just give the Gauntlet max value on the attack. Hey, they did surprise the enemy, so why not let them have a little fun?

(3)
Not everything in combat has initiative. Bystanders (horror-tainted Gauntlets, anyone?), walls, hulls, etc., really don't act in initiative order. But savvy players may want to attack them anyway. And punching through them as quickly as possible is important. Do they get to use Deliberate Assault against these things?
Adventure I'm running:
Under the Stars

Adventure GM post-mortem:
Under the Stars Postmortem

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