Warcry: Dodge and Defend (An Unofficial Supplement)
Filed Under: Gaming
I’ve written a one-page mod for Warcry! Check it out:
The supplement tries to address a particular criticism of Warcry I keep seeing. On the one hand, the way attacking works is one of the game’s best features: it’s simple and fast, with just enough variables to create some verisimilitude. On the other hand, without a save roll you don’t get the chance to do anything to mitigate incoming damage. That can feel bad.
To fix this, my supplement gives all fighters the ability to react to attacks by attempting to dodge them or deflect them, reducing the amount of damage done. Neither reaction is free - a fighter spends one of their actions when it reacts, and can only react once per round.
Dodge halves the number of attack dice and, if all damage is successfully avoided, lets the dodger make a short move away from the attacker. But you can’t dodge if you don’t have enough space.
Defend reduces the attacker’s damage characteristic by 1. So maybe less good, but you don’t need space to do it.
I haven’t had a chance to thoroughly playtest these rules, I’m afraid. COVID is kicking our butts here in Scotland, so regular gaming is still a thing of the past. But probably I can persuade Nat to play a few games with me, and we’ll see if the mod really does what it should.
