Miss by 1

A miss by 1 is when the 3d6 roll results in 1 higher than the skill, which requires rolling equal or less than a success.
Special rules exist for certain hit locations, where sometimes a miss that targets that location will end up hitting a different location instead.
Usually this is the torso:
*B552 note [1] for Eye/Skull/Face/Groin/Neck/Vitals (B398 never mentions it)
*MA137 for Ear/Nose/Jaw which are sub-locations of the face like the eyes
A degree of this also occurs when retreating from an Axe Kick per MA67:
:If your opponent’s retreat bonus makes the difference between a hit and a miss for an attack aimed above the foot, the kick still hits a lower body part.
:Head or neck shots strike the torso;
:torso, arm, or hand blows hit a leg;
:kicks to the groin or leg stomp a foot.
The difference here is that the deciding factor is the margin of the defence roll, not the margin of the attack roll. They presumably could both apply. For example:
*an axe kick to the face misses by 1, causing it to target the torso instead
*a retreating parry against the kick just manages to succeed (MoS 0) because of the retreat bonus, meaning instead of the torso being targeted, one of the legs becomes the target instead
Complications can arise when acknowledging this rule with proposed rules introduced in Pyramid called grazes.
Pg 28 of 3/34 (the Ten Tweaks to Customize Combat by Tbone) uses success by 0 for attacks (failure by 1 is only for defence rolls) to represent a graze.
What this means is that grazes can only happen against the intended target, but it's unclear how grazes would work for secondary targets.
For example, using the above example, if an attack fails by 1 against the face (striking the torso) does that count as a "success by 0" against the torso, resulting in a graze? Meaning it is not possible to do non-grazes against secondary targets?
Category:Rules