FASA Games, Inc.

In my own games the decision needs to be made before damage is rolled.

From my experience, that's the way most people play it.

That said, it isn't specified. If you want to wait for damage, you can do so as long as you are consistent. This goes for PCs as well as NPCs.

We also declare Avoid Blow before damage is rolled. In case of successful test, one less roll is needed, so fights are shorter.

Many times my PC fight many weak opponents and after few rounds they know nothing bad can happen even if they are hit, and then suddenly DICE EXPLODE. It gives more danger in fights. Also its more realistic, you know how hard you are hit only when you already are damaged.

Generally speaking, I totally assume you have to decide if you're going to Parry or Avoid a blow before damage is rolled.

...With that said, as I've mentioned here and there, I tend to play by post. I'm in some games that do that, so every time a character who has a defensive skill gets hit, the GM stops and waits for them to decide if they're going to try to defend against it or not, and every time a player hits an NPC with it, we're supposed to stop and wait to find out if they defended before rolling damage. In PbP, this slows things down *a lot*, so while I respect that GM's decision, I don't personally think it's worth it. In my own game, you roll attack and damage together, and then, when the person (or me, as the GM, if it's an NPC) wants to defend, they decide that when they have time to post -- so, in practice, the decision comes knowing the full extent of the attack.

I don't find that it really hurts anything. Generally speaking, the decision is based more on the attack roll than the damage roll anyway ("OK, I'd rather not take these 8 points of damage, but... I'm unlikely to beat that 22 attack with my Step 9 Avoid Blow anyway, so."), so the only place it matters is (being that this is pre-4th Edition) in not picking away at people's Strain defending against attacks that, as it turns out, wouldn't have gotten through their armor anyway.