Halp Plz. (Newbie here)

[Amelia Crane]

Some math nerd can tell you exactly how much of a better chance you have hitting a difficulty in this game when you increase your rating by just one point...

Okay.  You asked for it.  There are 4 dice, each has an equal chance to display +, - and blank (3 options).  So there are 81 possible rolls (if the dice were distinguishable).  Run through the permutations and figure out how many configurations give each result.

So the table just shows the possible results.  The chance of rolling that result, which is also the improvement you get from increasing your skill by one to the value on the left.  And the chance to roll at least as high as a needed result, which tells you what your chances to succeed are on a given roll.

Result	Chance of Result	Chance of Result or Better
-4	1/81 or 1.2%	81/81 or 100%
-3	4/81 or 4.9%	80/81 or 98.8%
-2	10/81 or 12.3%	76/81 or 93.8%
-1	16/81 or 19.8%	66/81 or 81.5%
+0	19/81 or 23.5%	50/81 or 61.7%
+1	16/81 or 19.8%	31/81 or 38.3%
+2	10/81 or 12.3%	15/81 or 18.5%
+3	4/81 or 4.9%	5/81 or 6.2%
+4	1/81 or 1.2%	1/81 or 1.2%

The good news is, there's really only the one chart needed for the entire game.  Well, opposed rolls will change things slightly.  Maybe you'd want a second chart for that.

[Lancer]

Thanks alot guys, the explanations and the sample combat were huge helps.

I think I have a decent grasp of combat except for knowing what to roll for. I'm a little confused on how you roll for dodging/blocking. How is someones block or dodge calculated and how do you decide to use one over another?

As a secondary question, how do you figure out how many foci a wizard gets, and how powerful they are and how many uses they have?

[Nyarlathotep5150]

Thanks alot guys, the explanations and the sample combat were huge helps.

I think I have a decent grasp of combat except for knowing what to roll for. I'm a little confused on how you roll for dodging/blocking. How is someones block or dodge calculated and how do you decide to use one over another?

As a secondary question, how do you figure out how many foci a wizard gets, and how powerful they are and how many uses they have?

   Blocks and dodges are "Skill checks" just like attacks, but theres many different skills you can use. The base skill is athletics (the player dodges out of the way), But you can also use Fists (you block with your arms) against other fist attacks, or Weapon (you parry with your weapon) against both fists and weapons attacks.
   Basically, it boils down to, the player describes how he plans to avoid being hit, then the group makes a consensus of what skill best suits the described action. Then the player rolls that skill against the attack roll of his enemy.

   Focus Items are built using the focus item slots you get from the Evocation, Thaumaturgy, Channeling, Ritual, and refinement powers.
   The rules for how you use the slots to build items are pretty involved, but they start on page 278 of your story.

[crusher_bob]

In regular physical combat, you normally have 3 defensive options
Fists, which can defend other unarmed attacks
Weapons, which can defend against other Fist and Weapon based attacks
and
Athletics, which can generally defend against anything

Very rarely (mostly because it's actually quite powerful) an attack will require an alternate skill to defend against.  For example, earth magic evocation used to cause earthquakes and similar tricks are tagged as defended against with might.  (Or, we'd assume, just finding some way to get off the ground.)

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Social and Mental combat have different defensive skills (Usually rapport for social combat and usually discipline for mental combat)  See the appropriate sections of the book for them.

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The defenses are just normal skill checks (e.g. roll the 4 fudge dice and add the result to your skill).  Note that ambushes can reduce your effective skill to 0, but you still get to roll the 4 fudge dice and add.

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When people refer to 'blocks' as a defense against attacks, they are almost always referring to defensive blocks put up by evocation (or enchanted items).  Note that evocation blocks aren't 'rolled' after they are put up, you just use their fixed value.

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You get 2 focus items slots from any of the following:
ritual
thaumaturgy
channeling
evocation

You normally get 4 focus item slots from sponsored magic (which is really ritual + channeling + some special effects).  However, if you already have full thaumaturgy and/or full evocation, the amount of 'free' focus item slots you get from sponsored magic is reduced.  (i.e. you can only ever get 4 free focus item slots).

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You can also spend refresh on 'refinement' which, among other things, can get you 2 more focus item slots.

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You can trade out a focus slot for two enchanted item slots.
So, for example, a basic -7 wizard (the sight, evocation, thaumatrugy) gets 4 focus item slots.
He could then trade out 2 of his focus item slots from 4 enchanted slots.

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Foci don't have limited uses, they just power up you thaumaturgy or evocation when you have them.  It's enchanted items that have a limited number of uses.

The basic enchanted item starts with a strength equal to your lore, and has 1 use per game session.

You can increase the base power and/or number of uses by taking crafting related thaumaturgy specialties, having crafting related foci, or by using more than a single enchanted item slot on a single item.

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Other enchanted item notes:
It's frowned upon to make an enchanted item with more power than twice your lore.

You can gain an additional use out of an enchanted item by paying one mental stress at the time of the use.

Enchanted defensive items cost no action to use and can generate either a block at their base power, or armor at half-power (round down).