Fine tuning: page 3 of 16
Battles: a fight in a box
Where this works
- Works todayWolfStorm: making a box a fight (Make this a fight…), the Enemies list, the fight buttons for players, and the battle on the Run page for game masters.
- Next WolfViewer releaseWolfViewer: A fight happens here... under a box’s More..., the Enemies and Battles lists on the Lore page, the fight buttons, and the battle on the GM Console’s Rules tab.
- On across Wolf Territories (each region at its next restart)Enemies appearing and the fight itself happen in the world, on any region that has had its next restart.
Some boxes should be a fight: an ambush on the trail, a monster in the crypt, a friend who turns on the players. A fight box starts its fight as soon as the players reach it, and has two ways on: if they win and if they lose. On Your story map it says FIGHT, with the fight’s name.
Make a box a fight
The easy way: tell the helper. Click the box and under What happens here? say: “Three bandits jump them at the canyon. If they win they find the gold; if they lose they wake up in jail.” It makes the bandits, the fight and both ways on.
Or by hand, with no AI:
- Step 1: Click the box on Your story map, press More..., then A fight happens here... (WolfStorm: Make this a fight…).
- Step 2: Choose who they fight: one of your own enemies, one of your characters who turns on the players, or a ready-made enemy for your rules. Then how many.
- Step 3: Choose where winning leads: a box or an ending.
- Step 4: Choose what losing does: they get up and fight again, or the story goes to another box (Wake up in jail).
In WolfStorm the fight form also lets you choose where the enemies appear (the box’s place, a spot, or here where you stand), whether players may run away, and how many healing draughts each player gets. Stop this being a fight… turns it back into an ordinary box; in WolfViewer Change the fight... changes one.
Up to 12 enemies can be in one fight (1 to 10 of each kind), and the region’s limit on characters at once still counts.
Enemies: anything or anyone
An enemy can be anything or anyone: a bandit, a giant spider, a robot, the town’s mayor. Only the name is needed: the numbers start from sensible values for your rules, so you can say Bandit and carry on. Tell the helper about a new kind (“add two giant spiders that run away when hurt”), or add one in the Enemies list.
| What you set | What it means |
|---|---|
| Name and description | What players see, such as Bandit: “A masked rider with a rusty six-gun.” |
| How it looks | An outfit (an appearance notecard, or put the outfit on and use what you are wearing), one of your characters turning on the players, or an object or creature you own, rezzed from a chest bound to the game. |
| Numbers | Health, defence (armour class in the 5th Edition compatible rules), attack bonus, damage dice such as 1d6+1, and initiative. Leave them and the defaults are used. |
| How it fights | Aggressive attacks every turn. Defensive holds back until it is hurt. Flees runs off when its health drops low. |
| Loot | What beating it gives, such as game money. |
Someone they trusted
To make a character betray the players, pick that character as the enemy (“Jed turns on them at the falls”). They keep their name and look and fight in the battle. If they were walking with the players as a companion, they leave the players’ side first.
Ready-made enemies
- Wild West rules: Bandit, Outlaw, Gunslinger, Brawler, Wolf, Coyote, Rattlesnake, Bear and Skeleton, made for Wolf Adventure.
- 5th Edition compatible rules: monsters from the SRD 5.2.1, each with the armour class, hit points, attack and damage from its stat block.
- Other rules: Bandit, Brawler, Guard, Wolf, Giant rat, Bear and Skeleton, made for Wolf Adventure.
What players see
- Step 1: The enemies appear in the world and everyone rolls initiative, which decides the order of turns.
- Step 2: The turn panel shows the fight’s name, the round, everyone in order with a health bar, and a line saying what just happened. A fighter who is down or ran away says so in words.
- Step 3: On their turn, a player picks Attack (then which enemy, when there is more than one), Defend (attacks on them are harder until their next turn), the healing draught (Use item (2 left) in WolfStorm, Heal (2 left) in WolfViewer) or Flee, if the fight allows it. In WolfViewer the number keys 1 to 4 press the buttons. Every roll is shown as a dice card.
- Step 4: Enemies and companions take their own turns by themselves, the way they fight.
- Step 5: When every enemy is beaten, the story takes the if they win way. When every player is down or has run away, the fight is lost.
- Each player has two healing draughts unless you choose otherwise. A draught heals 2d4+2, never above full health.
- Fleeing is a roll: on a d20 of 10 or more the player gets away and is out of this fight.
- A player who doesn’t act in time defends. How long a turn lasts comes from your rules (60 seconds unless they say otherwise).
- If the fight is fight again, everyone gets up and it starts again after 10 seconds, at most five times in a row; after that the if they lose way is taken if there is one, otherwise a game master is asked to help. A fight still going after 30 rounds counts as lost.
Game masters
On the GM Console (WolfViewer: the Rules tab; WolfStorm: the Run page under Advanced editing) a game master can start any of the story’s fights for a party (Start a battle), and see the fight as it goes: the round, whose turn it is, the last line and everyone’s health. On an enemy’s or a companion’s turn the game master can play its move: Attack someone, Defend, or for an enemy Run off. If they don’t, it acts by itself.
How a hit works
| Rules | Attack | Hits when |
|---|---|---|
| 5th Edition compatible | A twenty-sided die plus the attack bonus. A natural 20 doubles the damage dice; a natural 1 misses. | The total reaches the target’s armour class. |
| Wild West | Two six-sided dice plus the shooting skill. | The total reaches the target’s defence (8 is normal). |
| Any other rules | A twenty-sided die plus the attack bonus. A natural 20 doubles the damage dice; a natural 1 misses. | The total reaches the target’s defence. |
Every die is rolled on the grid’s server, as for checks. See Rules: dice and stats.
Ratings
Battles are allowed at every rating. In a General game the story’s own words stay gentle: an enemy is knocked out or runs off. Keep your own enemy names and descriptions gentle too; the Studio warns you about words such as blood or kill in a General game. See Safety and ratings.
Attribution
This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 (“SRD 5.2.1”) by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at https://www.dndbeyond.com/srd. The SRD 5.2.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.