Part 5: The Encounter
Friendly fire
Aiming into melee and firing is perilous; not only is it -2 to -4 to hit, if you miss your target and the target is engaged with another party in combat you must also roll an attack against that party because of them providing partial cover to your intended target. (For example: if Fred the Fighter in your party is fighting an orc and you fire at the orc and miss, you then have to roll to see if you hit Fred instead, since during the combat he is providing partial cover to the orc from your attack. Essentially, you may actually nail Fred instead of the orc.)
Shields shall be splintered!
When a character is hit by an attack, the player can declare that their shield absorbs the blow instead of the character. The shield is shattered and discarded, but you don’t take any damage from that hit.
A magical shield may also be used to absorb an attack, but each time doing so the shield loses one plus of its magical ability. Once it reaches +0 its enchantment is lost and it becomes a normal shield, also losing any special abilities. (Rune-engraved shields do not count as magical shields.)
Special shields made from the the wood of Yggdrasill are not considered enchanted but may be sacrificed to automatically make one saving throw. Few know the true location of Yggdrassill and much care is taken to harvest only enough to not harm the World Tree.
This rule allows for easier survivability of fighting characters because of the lower standards of armor in the dark ages.
This cannot be combined with the two-handed fighting rule.
Adapted from Trollsmyth.
Shield walls
Three or more trained fighting characters forming a shield wall gives an additional +1 AC shield protection to every member of the shield wall. However, while in a shield wall players cannot make use of the shields shall be splintered! rule. Movement is also reduced to one half due to the coordination required to maintain the shield wall.
The shield wall and the attendant bonus is broken if any member of the shield wall breaks formation (retreat, fails a morale check, is felled, etc).
Simple combat maneuvers
Before you roll to-hit, you can tell me what you are trying to do to your opponent in lieu of damage. On a natural 20 you are successful; on a normal hit your foe decides whether to let that happen or just take damage from your attack, in which case you then roll damage as normal.
Possible maneuvers to try:
- Disarm
- Knock Down
- Push Back
- Switch Positions
- Slip Past
Two-handed fighting
A character skilled in fighting may fight with two light weapons simultaneously. They do not take a penalty to-hit, but on a successful hit they may roll damage with both weapons and apply the higher result. There is no armor class adjustment for fighting with two weapons simultaneously.
Of course, this cannot be combined with the shields shall be splintered! rule since a character fighting two-handed cannot use a shield.
Death and dying
Heroic sendoff
When an adventurer dies and the player is making a new character, the other members of the party may opt to give the corpse a “heroic sendoff.” This requires at least 24 hours and an over-the-top funeral such as a funeral pyre, raising of a burial mound or a funeral ship sailed into the harbor and burned (perfect for a Viking!). The corpse must be armed and armored for combat as appropriate for the class of the character.
Each party member may donate up to 100 SP per level of the previous character as additional grave goods, and the amount spent may be converted to bonus XP for the donor and the new character. As well, each party member may also donate one magic item to the grave; one-shot items like scrolls or potions get 250 XP, while permanent magic items get you 1000 XP. The magic items must have been usable by the deceased to count.
It goes without saying that the goods donated cannot have come from the deceased.
