On Mon, 17 Mar 2003, Ben wrote:

> Morning All!
>
> I ran another session of my Cthulhu/Chill/FATE crossover
> last night (I'm using Chill's setting, adding some Cthulhu
> Mythos and using the FATE rules).
>
> I came across another multidirectional combat that caused
> some puzzlement/irritation for one of the players. He
> (PC1) was trying to shoot this creature in the back whilst
> it was trying to leap at another PC (PC2) and flatten
> them.
>
> I had PC1 throw a firearms check, PC2 throw a wrestling
> check, and I threw a wrestling check for the creature.
>
> Now previously that creature had been attacking PC1 and
> using it's Claw skill of Average. Now it was attempting to
> Wrestle PC2, it had a skill of Fair. PC1's player was
> annoyed that he was now opposing a skill level of Fair
> instead of just Average - he was right when he said that
> why could the fact that the creature is performing a
> different action at someone else make his hit harder? I
> applied modifiers for a flank attack on the creature, so
> PC1 did hit and wound it, but it left all of use with a
> feeling that the mechanics hadn't working properly in that
> case.
>
> I'm wondering if anyone can see how I could have better
> handled this, because the only other way I can see to
> resolve this problem is to switch to a tactical combat
> rules (which I would really not like to do!)?

Well, thinking on my feet, I'd probably have tossed off
some explanation about how when the creature was Clawing,
it was waving its arms around, making itself a bigger
target, and when it was wrestling, it was able to do
things like, oh, put the other PC in the way of the shot.

But some players will look at that and not only properly
detect that as quick-footed bull, but also decide that
they aren't willing to suspend their disbelief enough to
accept that bull. That can be a problem.

Not having been there, I'm not sure I can "directly
medicate" the circumstances (but I'll talk about some
ideas a little further down).

But I will fall back to some more familiar ground with the
discussion of it: I do not see exchanges as a set of
single actions by all the parties involved. What people
are doing when they're selecting what skill to bring to
bear is deciding what the "tag" skill is for the sequence
of events represented by their throw of the dice. The
creature could be running around the room, flashing its
claws, but the wrestling is the "tag" activity it's doing,
and its rating in that skill represents its general
effectiveness under such circumstances.

This still has some rough edges, but when I'm describing
play in such circumstances as a GM, I tend to embellish as
a way of smoothing those over. "Okay, Creature and PC2
grapple with one another, it's a tense moment, and for a
while there, Creature definitely seems to be the stronger
one. PC1 gets into position, takes aim -- it's PC2's head
in the way, hold off -- then there it is, PC2's gotten the
Creature into the line of fire -- PC1 shoots! It's a hit!"

That said, here's a semi-tactical idea.

The "multiple attacker" bonuses are meant as a way to
address the effects of multiple combatants in a single set
of actions. If you're running into problems doing a single
exchange that has two on one, you have the option of
tossing the multiple attacker bonuses and instead treating
the single exchange as two exchanges. This lets you select
appropriate skills in both circumstances for the
creature's actions. Further, it still gives the multiple
attackers an edge in numbers because the single one (the
Creature) is rolling twice, can only consider one of its
rolls to be the one that is an "attack" (all others would
be maneuver results if it succeeded), and has the
"opportunity" to burn aspects twice as fast.

There's another thing that I tend to do as a GM, though,
which helps me avoid this particular discrepancy. I stick
to one skill -- or I keep all "attack" skills on the same
level (Wrestling and Claw at Fair, or at Average -- no
disconnect). And, heck, my writeup for adversaries
often looks like this:

Creature (Competence: Fair)

And I'm done. I save the real detailing for characters and
creatures that have some real recurrence and need for
depth. If they're just there to chew on the characters a
bit and then get driven off or die -- no point in it.

--
Fred Hicks <iago AT iago DOT net>
"Curse you iago and your fast fingers!" - Rob Donoghue
Fate RPG - http://www.evilhat.com/fate/