Out Numbered and Out Classed

Out Numbered and Out Classed

This optional rule corresponds to fighting more individuals than you can manage. Any time there are more individuals (not appropriate for ‘grunt squads’) engaged in a conflict with you than you have cliché dice, you automatically receive one die of ‘damage’ to represent being outmaneuvered, flanked, and outclassed.

A ‘Barbarian (3)’ would be out numbered and outclassed when facing 4 ‘Burly Dock Hands (2)’ and would take the penalty die to his cliché. If the same Barbarian faced a ‘Gangly Mob of Goblins (4)’, he would be right at home and not suffer the die penalty. Though there might be actually more Goblins present, they are a ‘Grunt Squad’ and not as inclined to take advantage of the situation as would 4 individual ‘dock hands’.

It may be acceptable to your gm to allow you to turn the 4 individual ‘Dock Hands’ into a grunt squad if you beat all 4 of them in a singe round and chose to do so rather than inflicting a ‘wound’, assuming you describe it suitably. The newly formed grunt squad might then become ‘a hostile band of dock hands (4)’. A rule of thumb might be to turn the ‘grunt squad’s cliché value into the number of individuals there where.

Original Author: Manu, cthulhu risus (slightly modified).

John Risus