When I roll a miss on Enter the Fray, I begin at a disadvantage. Pay the Price.
When I roll a miss on Enter the Fray, I begin at a disadvantage. Pay the Price.
My question is about beginning at a disadvantage: in addition to Pay the Price, do I lose Momentum?
My question is about beginning at a disadvantage: in addition to Pay the Price, do I lose Momentum?
Hi, Richard. "Disadvantage" is just a narrative prompt, meaning you face some sort of situation that puts you in a bad position at the start of the fight. Your opponent has outmaneuvered you, or you suffer some sort of setback.
ReplyDeleteWhen I play, I'll usually reinforce the narrative outcome of Pay the Price with a mechanical hit to one of my tracks. If you're ambushed, maybe you take a hit and Endure Harm right away. Or, you find yourself overwhelmed and Test Your Spirit (now Endure Stress). Suffering a loss of momentum is an easy way to represent almost any situation where you lose ground, are delayed, or put in a bad position.
See page 107 in the book for a walkthrough of the Pay the Price move. Basically, you envision what happens, and then apply any appropriate mechanical cost.
Example:
I enter the Fray against a raider. He's armed with a spear and shield. We're facing off against each other, so I'll roll +heart. Unfortunately, I roll a miss. I envision him charging at me with surprising speed and ferocity, spear leveled. I stumble back a few steps, trying to bring up my guard, and suffer -2 momentum. It's a poor start to this fight. The raider has initiative and I'll need to decide how to deal with his imminent attack.
In rare cases, you might decide that a miss on Enter the Fray means you increase the rank of your foe. There's more of them than you thought, or this seemingly mundane enemy is actually a skilled fighter. That's a cool way to up the stakes, but I'd save it for dramatic moments.
Hope that helps!
The other important part is that "Your foe has initiative". So that, together with "Pay the Price" are the mechanical parts related to your "starting with disadvantage".
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