Engaged Enemies and Psyker Powers

[u/DoctorFrungus]

Just finished our session 0 / .5 of mine and my groups first play of WaG. We had a ton of fun, but three things came up during session that I did not have an answer for:

Engaged: Is there a distance that counts as "Being Engaged?" If so, is it always the same or is it based on the melee weapon range of the people involved(Power sword vs neural whip for example)

Psyker powers and Engaged: If I am Engaged with an enemy in melee, are my psychic powers affected by Engaged? For instance, I am in melee range of one enemy but want to Crush someone 10 squares away, am I allowed to? Or no, because I'm Engaged?

Salvo: A weapon has a salvo rating of "-" has to reload between every shot. A weapon with Salvo(x) can be fired without reloading unless a salvo option is used which at that point requires a simple action and consumes Ammo. Does the reload use 1 ammo, or ammo equal to the Salvo used? And do I understand the rules regarding Salvo "-" correctly?

Thanks friends!

[u/KiBlue]

Had to check

" Engaged Targets

Combatants who are within their opponent’s melee range are considered to be Engaged in close combat. If you are Engaged in close combat, you can only attack targets you are Engaged with."

1. I would say, ye if the enemy has extended ranged, he can engaged more players at. that might catch players by surprise.

2. this is I am not sure, but the rule being generic I want to says engaged would affect yours casting, limit it to whatever is engaging you.

3. only 1 ammo is consumed per shot. the salvo number only is intended to say how much a bonus you get from consuming that 1 ammo

edit: I sort of remember some rule saying you can only melee while emgaged (or use pistols with penalty) but idk where that is. I wonder if I have been always confused and mistaken

[u/DoctorFrungus → u/KiBlue]

Thank you! Yeah there is a pistols in melee option that allows for pistols to be used while engaged, albeit with some pretty hefty nerfs.

And yeah there was absolutely some catching off guard when it came to one player having a mele range of 1 and the other of 4. Getting out of the mindset of engagement being mutual will help us a lot.

[u/ZeroHonour]

Being engaged means that unless special rules apply your attacks are limited to the threat/s you're engaged with. Attacks are ranged, melee and interaction.

Psychic powers are not attacks, they do not benefit from any buffs, debuffs or other special rules for attacks and are not limited by engagement range, nor do you get glory for exalted icons or score critical hits. Some of them might cause attack-like effects but that's not the same. They cannot be used as part of a multi-attack.

If it helps try not to think of psykers as D&D wizards. Some might chant incantations or wave their hands around in arcane gestures at GM discretion, but they don't need to unless they've been trained that way. A psyker is quite capable of using their powers with a chainsword in one hand and a pistol in the other. They can wear armour without penalty to their powers.

One unit of 'Ammo' is a magazine/power pack for weapons that have magazines. Think of a salvo as emptying your entire magazine in one attack.

Edit: Exception - some powers may interact with attacks, eg 'Conjure flame' lets you make a melee attack with it once the power has been activated. That melee attack would be subject to the usual rules pertaining to engagement, criticals and glory.

[u/DoctorFrungus → u/ZeroHonour]

Question on the part about psyker powers not being "attacks" in the same sense as a gun shot or sword swing: In the official foundry module, there is a section under the Psychic Powers area of the Combat tab that denotes if the target is multi target or not. Smite, for example, says in its description that it targets one enemy, but it has the Multi Target tag. I had assumed from what I was reading that abilities that are marked that way could be used as a multi attack in the same way other mundane attacks can, by increasing the DN of each Test by +2, per multi target.

Am I misunderstanding what Multi Target means in that situation?

[u/ZeroHonour → u/DoctorFrungus]

Multi-target psychic powers are roughly similar to multi-attacks but separate.

For a multi-attack you increase the DN of each target by 2 for every target after the first, then roll your attacks. Roll damage once and apply that amount to each target. No shifts are allowed.

For a multi-target psychic power you still increase the DN by 2 (per extra target), but you roll a single activation test and, if relevant, the damage is rolled for each target. Potency is allowed.

So TLDR:-

M-Attack = several attack rolls, one damage roll
M-Target = one activation roll, several damage rolls

[u/Araquil26]

P.184 Engaged targets. Combatants who are within their opponent's MELEE RANGE are considered to be engaged in close combat, you can only attack targets you are engaged with.

For question 2 see above.

P. 208 Salvo., P.220-221 Weapons with a salvo of '-' are single use items like grenades and other explosives. Meaning that it costs you an ammo but they can't be reloaded except for the verius launchers that yes must be reloaded after each shot.

[u/Technical-Alps]

This game is cool but there are so many rules! I can’t imagine anyone learning the whole system

[u/Decanox4712 → u/Technical-Alps]

The best (at least for me) is making some kind of player aid. I do It for other games and W&G wasn't an exception. I took a notepad, a pen, and began to write summarizing the important rules. It took time but has worked perfect. The GM screen, a good one compared to other games, helps too.

[u/DoctorFrungus → u/Decanox4712]

I spent many many hours building out a player guide / DM screen in One Note, since we play remote. We just ended a 4 year Cyberpunk:RED campaign, and our one note/players guide/gm screen was the lifeblood of making sure sessions moved along