News and How to Block an Attack

We’ve been plugging away on bestiaries behind the scenes, but major developments in Real Life (TM) (e.g. 3 months building work on Slev's house) has put us behind schedule.

In the meantime, I’ve been asked about how “block” works. There’s two sides to this, where you get block from, and how to use it.

Using Block

When you use a Block, you reduce all damage from one hit to zero. Just one. Not all of them for one turn, like with a Fate Point. Just the one.

This is useful if there is only one enemy who can attack you, or if every other enemy has already failed to hurt you, since they allow you to preserve your precious Fate Points for other eventualities.

Gaining Block

Block can come from several sources. Here’s the rub, each source can only give you Block once.

Some items grant Block, such as a Lucky Charm. Once that Block has been used, it’s gone for the rest of the Expedition, even if you hand the item to someone else.

Some abilities grant you Block in certain circumstances. Once you’ve used that ability, that’s it. If you gain “Block with Chainmail”, you have one Block point available while you’re wearing Chainmail. Once you’ve used that Block, it’s gone for the rest of the Expedition.

The Tricky Part

Where this gets complicated is where these two rules come together.

Let’s say you have “Block with Chainmail”, and have found a suit of magical chainmail that grants you Block itself. This gives you two Blocks. And if you don’t remove said Chainmail for the entire Expedition, there is no further complication beyond that.

However, if we get to the point where you change and swap armour and other such, things can be complicated. In the above example, the Chainmail is supplying two points of Block. If I use one point of Block from it, and then pass it to another Hero, you chose retroactively how you spent it. You basically have to decide then if you gained the point you used from “Block with Chainmail” or from “this Chainmail has Block”. If the latter, the other person cannot use that ability this expedition.

This may seem like it is open to abuse, but in practice, the player will spend time agonising over the order of spending Block points only when these edge cases occur.