Please help with a play example

[Bearclaw]

My group is new to the DFRPG and FATE in general, so we're learning the rules.  I guess I have more free time, so I seem to be leading the effort.  I wrote up a little bit of a play example, and I was hoping I could get some experts to tell me what I got wrong before I show it to the rest of the group.

Eric, Cocky Apprentice Wizard, and Simmons, Warden of the White Court, are facing down Viscount Bernal Diaz del Castillo in the parking lot of the Mission Theater.

Simmons spread his legs, pushed his long coat aside, put his hand on the hilt of his sword and said, "One chance asshole. Portland is a Red Court free zone. Get the fuck out of my town." Eric quietly slid a few steps farther to the left as Castillo smiled and in his rich, Spanish accented voice, said, "I'm sorry my friend. I cannot do that. I have business here that does not concern you or the war. Leave me in peace for a few days, a week at the most and I'll be gone, with no mortals harmed by my hand."

Simmons pulled his sword, and Castillo followed suit. Eric said, "Are you always this stupid, or is this a special occasion". As Castillo turned and frowned at Eric, Simmons attacked. Castillo was distracted and barely managed to lunge out of the way, stumbling before getting his feet back under control.

Eric continued, "Jesus, that was sad. Did your husband teach you to fight like that? Usually guys as short of you have better balance. I guess that explains why you lost your job at the circus." Castillo snarled and came at Eric so fast he seemed to blur, but Eric's shield stopped the blow. "Oh shit, he's got a short temper." And then Simmons jammed his sword about 8 inches into Castillo's back.

-------------------

So, Simmons tried to Intimidate Castillo. The mechanics are the same for any attack.
Simmons' Intimidation is Good +3. Castillo's Discipline is Fair +2. Simmons rolls his dice ++[]- for a total of +4. Castillo rolls ++-- for +2. He's doing something he feels is really important, so he tags an aspect which I'm not going to reveal right now to get +2, spends one of his 3 available fate points and gets a tie. Since Simmons isn't using some kind of mind magic, his intimidation is a 0 power weapon. So no damage.

Castillo tries to reason with Simmons, but without throwing another fate point in, he has 0 chance of convincing a Wizard to do anything the Wizard didn't want to do. While this was happening, Eric fired up a shield, and as a supplemental action, threw an insult.

Pissing someone off is another use of Intimidate. Eric has a stunt that makes him really good at it. Eric isn't trying to do mental stress with this insult. He's using a Maneuver to put a (MUST KILL ERIC) temporary aspect on Castillo.
Eric has an intimidate of Fair +2, plus a Stunt, Infuriate, which gives him +2 for this kind of thing. Making his attack Great +4. He's Great at making people want to choke him. Eric and Castillo both roll even, so Eric wins and puts that aspect on Castillo.

Simmons attacks with his warden's sword. His Weapons skill is Superb +5. He rolls 0. Castillo is also an expert with a Superb weapons skill, and rolls a +1 giving his +6 on his defense roll. Eric passes the free tag on the new (must kill eric) aspect to Simmons who invokes it for +2 giving him +7. With his Warden's sword, Simmons will do 4 points of damage as it stands. Castillo says screw this and does a full defense. Giving him +8 but no action this round.

Eric again insults him, again succeeding and giving Castillo a new temporary aspect (AAaarrrrgggghhhh). Castillo attacks Eric, and rolls even, giving him +5. Eric dodges using his athletics of 4 and rolls 0 giving Castillo +1. With his sword and supernatural strength Eric is looking at 6 points of damage. His shield absorbs 4 points, and Eric’s kevlar lined overcoat absorbs the other 2. So he takes no damage.

Simmons attacks again, rolling even +5. Castillo also rolls even so Simmons hits, and will do the 3 points of damage his sword does. But he tags the AAaaaarrrrgggghhh aspect, saying “I’ve got a clear shot at his back as he’s completely focused on murdering Eric”, and adds 2 more to his roll for a total of 5 points of damage. Castillo has 4 dots, so if he takes it all, he’ll drop. Instead, he takes the moderate consequence “sword through the chest” which soaks 4 points and takes his first dot of damage.

Realizing that fighting two wizards is probably one too many, on his next action, he rolls his Athletics of 5 plus his vampire speed, giving him a sprint of 9, and flees. The Wizards give chase….

[Sanctaphrax]

So, Simmons tried to Intimidate Castillo. The mechanics are the same for any attack.
Simmons' Intimidation is Good +3. Castillo's Discipline is Fair +2. Simmons rolls his dice ++[]- for a total of +4. Castillo rolls ++-- for +2. He's doing something he feels is really important, so he tags an aspect which I'm not going to reveal right now to get +2, spends one of his 3 available fate points and gets a tie. Since Simmons isn't using some kind of mind magic, his intimidation is a 0 power weapon. So no damage.

Tags don't cost Fate Points; that's what separates them from normal invocations. I'm guessing this is meant to be a standard invocation.

Generally not worth it to use an Aspect just to avoid stress, for what it's worth.

Castillo tries to reason with Simmons, but without throwing another fate point in, he has 0 chance of convincing a Wizard to do anything the Wizard didn't want to do. While this was happening, Eric fired up a shield, and as a supplemental action, threw an insult.

Pissing someone off is another use of Intimidate. Eric has a stunt that makes him really good at it. Eric isn't trying to do mental stress with this insult. He's using a Maneuver to put a (MUST KILL ERIC) temporary aspect on Castillo.

Eric has an intimidate of Fair +2, plus a Stunt, Infuriate, which gives him +2 for this kind of thing. Making his attack Great +4. He's Great at making people want to choke him. Eric and Castillo both roll even, so Eric wins and puts that aspect on Castillo.

Neither maneuvering nor shielding is a supplemental action. Both take your turn.

Castillo still gets to take an action, even if his skills aren't good enough to make it worth much.

Also, you generally have to roll to put up a shield. Spellcasting is actually a multi-step process, involving gathering power and then controlling it.

On a tied maneuver roll, the resulting Aspect is fragile.

Simmons attacks with his warden's sword. His Weapons skill is Superb +5. He rolls 0. Castillo is also an expert with a Superb weapons skill, and rolls a +1 giving his +6 on his defense roll. Eric passes the free tag on the new (must kill eric) aspect to Simmons who invokes it for +2 giving him +7. With his Warden's sword, Simmons will do 4 points of damage as it stands. Castillo says screw this and does a full defense. Giving him +8 but no action this round.

Given that Castillo has Athletics 5 and some level of Speed, he'd be better off defending with Athletics. Also, being a vampire, Castillo should have some amount of armour.

Eric again insults him, again succeeding and giving Castillo a new temporary aspect (AAaarrrrgggghhhh). Castillo attacks Eric, and rolls even, giving him +5. Eric dodges using his athletics of 4 and rolls 0 giving Castillo +1. With his sword and supernatural strength Eric is looking at 6 points of damage. His shield absorbs 4 points, and Eric’s kevlar lined overcoat absorbs the other 2. So he takes no damage.

So the shield provides armour 4, with sufficient duration to last through the round where Castillo didn't act? Quite a powerful spell.

Did you mean Inhuman Strength when you wrote supernatural?

Armour usually doesn't stack. Actually can't remember whether armour from an Evocation is an exception; it hasn't come up in my game for quite some time.

Simmons attacks again, rolling even +5. Castillo also rolls even so Simmons hits, and will do the 3 points of damage his sword does. But he tags the AAaaaarrrrgggghhh aspect, saying “I’ve got a clear shot at his back as he’s completely focused on murdering Eric”, and adds 2 more to his roll for a total of 5 points of damage. Castillo has 4 dots, so if he takes it all, he’ll drop. Instead, he takes the moderate consequence “sword through the chest” which soaks 4 points and takes his first dot of damage.

Again, Castillo should have armour and a better dodge roll. And with Toughness, I'd expect him to have more than four stress boxes.

Also, I don't see any reason to take a moderate consequence rather than a mild here.

[Taran]

So the shield provides armour 4, with sufficient duration to last through the round where Castillo didn't act? Quite a powerful spell.

The only way this would 'stack' is if it wasn't armour and, instead a Power 4 block, which would reduce the amount of shifts by which the attack hit.  You could then apply armour to reduce the damage.

Full defense:  it's not that you don't get an action, instead, it uses your action to do a full defense.  So, you can't go full defense in response to an attack.  You have to declare it on your turn and it lasts until your next turn.  (I'm not sure if you did that - it wasn't clear to me.)

Also, I think there was a sample combat somewhere...maybe in the resource section?

Overall, you've got the hang of it.

[Sanctaphrax]

The only way this would 'stack' is if it wasn't armour and, instead a Power 4 block, which would reduce the amount of shifts by which the attack hit.  You could then apply armour to reduce the damage.

If it was a block he'd have to choose between it and his defence roll, though. In the example he used all three of spell, dodge, and worn armour.

Also, I think there was a sample combat somewhere...maybe in the resource section?

Overall, you've got the hang of it.

Here and here.

[Bearclaw]

If it was a block he'd have to choose between it and his defence roll, though. In the example he used all three of spell, dodge, and worn armour.

Here and here.

OK, sorry about that.  It was a 4 point shield, not 4 points of armor.  But still, even if the shield goes down, it will soak the 4 points of armor, right?

[Bearclaw]

Tags don't cost Fate Points; that's what separates them from normal invocations. I'm guessing this is meant to be a standard invocation.

I meant to Invoke not tag.  Thanks.

Generally not worth it to use an Aspect just to avoid stress, for what it's worth.

Yea, I was just going showing the kind of thing you could do with aspects.

Neither maneuvering nor shielding is a supplemental action. Both take your turn.

OK.  It felt wrong when I read over it.

Castillo still gets to take an action, even if his skills aren't good enough to make it worth much.

I said that poorly.  He did try, I just didn't want to spell out the mechanics on that one as I felt his Rapport of 2 didn't have much of a chance to overcome a Wizard's conviction.  The Wizards was there for one reason, and it wasn't to discuss motivations.

Also, you generally have to roll to put up a shield. Spellcasting is actually a multi-step process, involving gathering power and then controlling it.

I skipped detailing that part.  But yes, he rolled, and put up a force 4 shield with 2 exchanges of duration.

On a tied maneuver roll, the resulting Aspect is fragile.

OK, I didn't think about that.  Still get the one free tag though, which is all I used.

Given that Castillo has Athletics 5 and some level of Speed, he'd be better off defending with Athletics. Also, being a vampire, Castillo should have some amount of armour.

I actually did think of that.  He was trying not to use any of his powers, to keep his hunger low.  And he figured he could beat a Wizard in a sword fight without drawing on the blood. 

So the shield provides armour 4, with sufficient duration to last through the round where Castillo didn't act? Quite a powerful spell.

Sorry, it was a 4 point shield with two rounds of duration.  Not 4 points of armor.  That would be powerful.

Did you mean Inhuman Strength when you wrote supernatural?

No, he's upgraded.  That's why he got +4 to his damage.
This is an NPC I'd already made for the groups first adventure.

Armour usually doesn't stack. Actually can't remember whether armour from an Evocation is an exception; it hasn't come up in my game for quite some time.

But a 4 point shield would still soak 4 points before being blown up, and then the 2 points of armor would soak more, right?

Again, Castillo should have armour and a better dodge roll. And with Toughness, I'd expect him to have more than four stress boxes.

I neglected the toughness when I wrote that.  Just a mistake.

Also, I don't see any reason to take a moderate consequence rather than a mild here.

Right.  If he'd already decided he was going to flee, it would be better mechanically to take a mild and 3 dots.  Again, he's trying not to grow his hunger track, for reasons, so if he can avoid using his toughness or healing, he will.  Also, of course, two wizards facing down a 600 year old vampire would use magic.  I mostly just wanted to get in to aspects, and things you can do other than throw a punch. 
Thanks for all the help.

[Taran]

But a 4 point shield would still soak 4 points before being blown up, and then the 2 points of armor would soak more, right?

Shields don't soak up damage, they act as a block.

So, if someone attacks with attack 5 and the person dodges with 3 but they also have a shield block of 4, they would use the 4(the higher of the two values)

5-4= 1 shift of damage.  YOu then add your weapon value of +4 or whatever, for 5 damage.

The important thing is if you had a shield block of 6 and an attack of 5 with the damage 10, you'd still take 0 damage.

If it 'soaked' damage, you'd still take 4 damage because of 10-6 (but that's not how it works).  I feel like i'm not being clear.  I think, maybe you are just confusing terminology.

A shield can be a BLOCK or it can be ARMOUR.  It's important to differentiate.  A block helps you avoid attacks while armour reduces damage after you are hit.  So, they both work to lessen damage and stack with each other.  But damage reduction(armour) does not stack.

[Bearclaw]

So in this case, he's got a good dodge, he'd be better off casting it as 2 points of armor, rather than a 4 point shield. 
Because the shield is a block.  And you can block OR you can dodge.  Not both.
Right?

[Taran]

You can do both but you take the higher value.  The advantage of using 2 point magical armour is it doesn’t go away when you are hit, the way a block dissipates if it is overcome.  That said, the 2 point magical armour won’t stack with Kevlar.  You just use the higher value