Blocks

Sometimes, your character might want to keep something from happening rather than make something happen—to do something more preventative than proactive. This type of action is called a **block**. Examples include:

* Shooting covering fire at an open doorway to prevent someone from escaping

* Protecting someone else from attacks

* Making sure no one gets their hands on an object your character is guarding

To perform a block, declare what *specific* type of action the block is intended to prevent and roll an appropriate skill. The total of that roll is called the **block strength**. During the exchange, any time a character wants to perform the action that’s covered by the block, he must roll against the block and meet or exceed the block strength to be able to perform that action. If he fails, he cannot perform the action in question. If he meets or exceeds the block strength, the action resolves normally, with benefits for extra shifts if the roll beats the block strength by a wide margin.

Typically, a block action lasts until the player who initiated the block takes his next turn. At that point, he must choose whether he wants to take another action or if he wants to maintain the block. There are no special rules for maintaining blocks. Just roll the action again and take the new result as the block strength for the next exchange.

One advantage of a block is that it allows two players to “stack” rolls to prevent something from happening. If your character is protecting someone from attacks, that person technically gets two chances to resist an attack—their own automatic defense roll and the block strength. If either one manages to beat the attack, that person suffers no stress. If neither roll beats the attack, the higher of the two totals may mitigate the effects somewhat.

### **Resolving Blocks**

Sometimes blocks are a little trickier to resolve than other actions because they seek to *prevent* an effect rather than *create* one. When you create a block, the block has to be specific and clear in two ways: who it’s intended to affect, and what types of action (attack, block, maneuver, move) it’s trying to prevent. Generally speaking, if the block can affect more than one person, it can only prevent one type of action. If the block only affects one person, it can prevent several types of action—up to all of them—as context permits. You can’t use a block to prevent someone from making a defense roll.

For example, if your character is in a gunfight against a group of goons, you could say, “I want to pepper the exit door with gunfire and make sure no one leaves.” That is a block against multiple characters, so it can only prevent one type of action, which in context is any move action—no one can leave without running up against the block.

On the other hand, suppose your character is in a gunfight with a single, determined opponent. You could say, “I want to keep this guy busy while my friend gets away.” The block is focused on a single person, so nearly anything that person might do has a chance of running up against the block, except perhaps for attacks against the blocking character.

If this sounds powerful, that’s because it is—you can effectively paralyze a target in place using blocks. The thing to keep in mind, though, is that a block action is your character’s action for the exchange. You don’t get to attack anyone, change position, perform a maneuver, or anything else. And it’s never a sure thing— it’s still possible for the intended target to roll higher than the block and perform an action anyway. Also, a block must be rerolled from exchange to exchange, which means its effectiveness doesn’t remain consistent over time.

Keep in mind that there are some blocks that just won’t work in some situations. (Trying the “keep them pinned down with gunfire” trick on a loup-garou isn’t going to really help you much, given that they’re immune to bullets.)

### **Grapples**

One of the most common applications of the block is to perform a **grapple**, essentially a close combat action which involves restraining the opponent more than causing damage. Because the main intent of the grapple is to prevent the opponent from doing something, it’s regarded as a block action in the game. However, there are some additional guidelines applied to grappling that help make it a more effective combat tactic in its own right.

In order to do a grapple, you have to:

* Tag or invoke an appropriate aspect on the target to justify the grapple. This can come from a maneuver to get you into position, a consequence you’ve inflicted, or even an aspect you’ve assessed. As long as it clearly communicates some combat advantage that would allow you to try a grapple, it’s fine.

* Roll your Might skill (unless you have a stunt that allows you to use another skill). The result establishes the block strength of the grapple.

When you successfully grapple a target, you establish a block against *all* actions he might take in the exchange. The target is also prohibited from **sprinting** or **supplemental movement** until the grapple is broken. You must reroll every exchange in order to maintain the grapple on your opponent, as per the normal rules for blocks. However, you some additional options in every subsequent round you’re still holding onto your opponent: *if you so choose, you can freely make an unopposed attack, movement, or maneuver on your opponent as a supplemental action, which has a value of 1 shift*.

In other words, whenever your turn to roll the grapple comes up again, you can automatically choose to inflict a one-shift hit to the target, drag the target with you one zone, or inflict a maneuver (like Tangled Up), and then you must roll the grapple at –1 (the other action you take is considered supplementary because it doesn’t require a roll).

Finally, you can also release the grapple if you want to roll a standard action instead, like making a full attack, performing a maneuver, or throwing the opponent (basically forced movement, to a maximum of one zone). The target gets a defense roll, as usual. In this way, an effective grappler can eventually whittle someone down to “taken out” status in a series of subsequent exchanges.

However, the target is not lacking in options when he gets grappled—he can still roll to attempt any action. If the target cannot beat the block strength of the grapple, it’s assumed that the grappler is still holding onto him, giving the grappler his entire set of supplementary options next round. If the target beats the grapple strength, however, the action succeeds. Additionally, if the action is something that could reasonably break the grapple—an attack, a spell, even a threatening look—the grapple is automatically “released.”

The GM might rule that someone who is grappled cannot perform any actions that require a great deal of clearance (such as swinging a sword) or complex articulation (such as lockpicking or spellcasting). She might also rule that some actions aren’t blocked at all by a grapple (such as perception rolls, academic insights, and so on). The group should talk about its expectations here before engaging the grapple rules.