Rules questions

Discuss rule quandaries, supplements, or anything else OVA related here.

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DownwardSpiral
Shelled Plebeian
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Feb 18, 2019 4:35 pm

Rules questions

Post by DownwardSpiral »

Hi, everyone. A group of friends and I just started playing OVA a couple of weeks ago, and I have a few rules questions that don't seem to be directly addressed in the core book. I know this is kind of a rules-light engine, so it may just be that these are supposed to be up for interpretation, but I'd still like to know what everyone thinks, even if there is not a definitive answer.

1) What happens if you counter an attack, and you and the opponent tie on your attack roll? I'm guessing that you both hit and deal damage as if attacking against a defense of 0, but I don't see that it's ever addressed in the RAW.

2) Speaking of counters, can you counter against an Overwhelming attack. I'm guessing not, since it takes your next turn to counter, and defending against an overwhelming attack takes your next action all by itself, but again, it doesn't seem to be addressed in the core rules.

3) When using the "Scaled Cost" rules for character creation (our preferred method), how are costs handled for Transformations? Are those scaled, too? If so, are they cumulative with the levels you already have in those Abilities/Weaknesses, or are they independent?

4) Several Abilities, like Barrier, Incorporeal Form, and Teleport, say that you can roll that ability "as" your defense roll. Am I correct in understanding that this REPLACES your normal defense roll, rather than adding to it? That is, if I have Quick at +2, and Barrier at +4, My defense pool would be 6, not 8, right?
DownwardSpiral
Shelled Plebeian
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Feb 18, 2019 4:35 pm

Re: Rules questions

Post by DownwardSpiral »

I don't suppose there's errata for this game, somewhere? More questions have come up in play, and I don't see any of them addressed in the FAQ thread here in the forum. Am I the only one to ask about these things?

5) What happens when you counter an attack that has Area Effect or Multiple Targets on it? If you win, does it stop the attack entirely, or do the other targets still defend normally? For that matter, what if you counter WITH an attack that has Area Effect or Multiple Targets? Can it hit additional targets besides the one you are countering?

6) With the Boss Ability "Extra Actions," when do the actions actually take place? It seems narratively inappropriate for all the boss's actions to be back-to-back, but the rules don't give any indication. Do they roll initiative multiple times? Act immediately after each PC's turn? Take all additional actions at the end of the round?
Malancthon
Exalted Amphibian
Posts: 279
Joined: Sat Sep 05, 2015 4:55 pm

Re: Rules questions

Post by Malancthon »

Welcome to the forums. Sorry for the late response. As far as I know, there is not a current set of FAQs or errata other than the general questions and answers on this board.

1) There should be no damage, since damage is determined by the difference between rolls. If both of you have the same roll, the difference is zero, and zero times anything is still zero. Even though it is determining who is attacking and not defense to determine damage, I think the logic stands that both attacks negate each other and there is still no damage if you have the same attack roll.

2) Correct, since you have to use your next action to defend, it doesn't give you the option to counterattack an overwhelming attack.

3) This can be determined by the GM, but I would say that Transformation Abilities start at level 1, despite that they can add to your base Abilities. Otherwise, it'd probably make the Transformation abilities too costly. Personally, I don't use scaled costs, except maybe as costs for using xp to level abilities.

4) Correct, you use the alternate Ability dice instead of Evasive/Quick to determine your Defense. Quick and Evasive do stack, though (as do Agile/Combat Expert and Attack/Strong; Attack and Telekinesis also stack to determine DX).

5) That would be determined by the GM/description of the counterattack. But since your attack would hit before the opponent's attack goes off, yeah I would say it would get nullified. And since your attack could use Area Effect or Multiple Targets, if you win, yes it can hit other targets. If you win.

6) Again, generally this would be under the GM's best decision as to what would work best with the story. But the way it looks, it seems that the boss would get all the Extra Actions on their turn. So, against 5 players, a Boss could have 5 actions! However, Boss Abilities are optional, and a Boss does not necessarily need to have any or all of the abilities. So if you're unsure how it works, you don't need to use it- or make up your own Boss Abilities that works how you want it too. Just be sure to not try and screw over the players!

Hope that helps!
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