Blocks against movement in combat?

[Ghsdkgb]

Okay, let's say I have a spell that turns ground into quicksand or causes tree roots to grapple a person. I cast that spell against an enemy and win by 3 shifts, or give the block a strength of 3 or whatever. My ally then attacks him, with a four-shift attack. How does the enemy dodge? Roll once to overcome the block, and again to dodge? Roll once against the +7? Roll once against whichever is higher?

I'm trying to take the writeup for shield spells and adapt it, so I THINK the third option is correct, but I'd like some opinions.

[Sanctaphrax]

Blocks have no effect on defense rolls.

[Haru]

Neither a block nor a grapple can ever reduce the targets capacity to dodge. So in your case, they would have to dodge with their full capability against the 4 shift attack.

If your opponent wants to attack you, while under the influence of the block to movement, they can a lot of times do so without being hindered. If they have a gun, they can shoot at you without having to overcome the block. If you are in the same zone, they can hit you without having to overcome the block.

The block only comes into play, when they are trying to move. If you are in a different zone and they want to get to you, they'd have to do an athletics roll against 1 (to move a zone) + the block against movement or be stuck otherwise.

[Mr. Death]

If you want such an action to have an advantage, make it a maneuver and either tag for the +2, or for effect to penalize the defense roll.

[Ghsdkgb]

If you want such an action to have an advantage, make it a maneuver and either tag for the +2, or for effect to penalize the defense roll.

Perfect. And so much simpler

[InFerrumVeritas]

This is a house rule, but I allow players to "split" maneuvers to attempt particularly effective actions.  Say you get a roll of 5, you could place two aspects.  One would be resisted at 3, the other at 2.  This allows multiple tags and models something like "I grab his weapon and sweep his legs out from under him."  He would be "Disarmed" and "Tripped."  It could also be used to grant +4 to a melee weapons attack against him.

I also allow declarations to grant multiple aspects, but aspects must have at least 3 shifts (so Fantastic could grant 2, Legendary+ could grant 3).

Houserule, but one which doesn't seem to break anything and helps with the verisimilitude of a 7 shift maneuver not granting a better bonus than a 2 shift one, as long as they both succeed.

[Haru]

That's actually a pretty cool idea. It gives you an edge over weaker opponents, while it will pretty much be useless against strong ones. Do you let them decide on the 2 maneuvers before or after the roll? I would have them declare that before the roll, so it has at least some chance of failure, if he has to distribute an abysmal roll between two maneuvers.
I myself like to grant additional tags on extraordinary rolls when placing maneuvers, sometimes with a caveat. For example, a holy man in my campaign rolled particularly high on a prayer aspect before going into battle, and I gave him the choice between an additional tag for himself or 2 additional tags that he could only give to other players.

[InFerrumVeritas]

That's actually a pretty cool idea. It gives you an edge over weaker opponents, while it will pretty much be useless against strong ones. Do you let them decide on the 2 maneuvers before or after the roll? I would have them declare that before the roll, so it has at least some chance of failure, if he has to distribute an abysmal roll between two maneuvers.
I myself like to grant additional tags on extraordinary rolls when placing maneuvers, sometimes with a caveat. For example, a holy man in my campaign rolled particularly high on a prayer aspect before going into battle, and I gave him the choice between an additional tag for himself or 2 additional tags that he could only give to other players.

Nah, I let them decide when the result happens.  But I do a lot to encourage my players to remember that aspects exist.