Clarification of some rules....

[mrashes]

What abilities stack together? i know it's been stated that a hobby, such as Kenjitsu, does not stack with something like combat ability, but does things like defense stack with quick or does the highest score between the two win? Also does defense win all ties, and if characters roll the same roll on a counter do they BOTH get hit or do you do the same as initiative and roll a single dice and see who wins? Does Smart, stack with hobby computer use?

I get how martial arts , weapon and power move work. Ill keep them they way they are stated in first edition for now, as I want to really have the revised edition in my hands before making a change I commit to.

Thanks for the help.

[Joe_Mello]

Hobby abilities do not stack with attack abilities because Hobbies lack the proper context. For example:

-If you take Fencing as a Hobby, you know about the sport of fencing, the equipment used, and possibly some of the history as well. When going against a fencer, you could be able to identify his techniques and what techniques might be best to counter.
-If you take Fencing as a Combat Skill, you know how to fence, both for sport and for combat. When going against a fencer you could identify his techniques, avoid them, and be able to counter those with strikes from your style.

To put it more simply, Hobby is more "I read it in a book once" whereas Combat Skill is more "I used it in a match once."

Quick can be a combat-related skill and thus does stack with your defenses where applicable.

[Oni]

Hobby abilities do not stack with attack abilities because Hobbies lack the proper context. For example:

-If you take Fencing as a Hobby, you know about the sport of fencing, the equipment used, and possibly some of the history as well. When going against a fencer, you could be able to identify his techniques and what techniques might be best to counter.
-If you take Fencing as a Combat Skill, you know how to fence, both for sport and for combat. When going against a fencer you could identify his techniques, avoid them, and be able to counter those with strikes from your style.

To put it more simply, Hobby is more "I read it in a book once" whereas Combat Skill is more "I used it in a match once."

This is not correct.

Hobby and Combat Skill do not stack, however Combat Skill applies equally to all forms of combat, whereas Hobby is used to model a specific form of combat.

For instance if you have Combat Skill +3 it applies equally whether you are in kung fu battle, a gun fight, or a fencing match. If you had Hobby: Fencing +3 it would apply only in a combat situation where your fencing skills could be put to use, that is to say if you're fighting with a foil, a rapier, or something that could be a reasonable stand in like a cane, but it wouldn't help you in a gun battle or if you're empty handed. If you have Combat Skill +2 and Hobby: Fencing +3, you would have a +3 in situations where fencing was applicable and a +2 in all other combat situations.



Anyway on to the original questions. If you check Quick and Smart you'll see that they both specifically say that they stack, with dodge attempts (which Defense is described as) and knowledge based Hobbies respectively.

With attack and defense think of it this way, in order to dodge an attack an attack must first be made. The attack roll basically sets the TN for the defender, if the defender meets or beats they succeed and get out of the way, if they don't they fail and get hit.

Countering is different it says highest wins (since it's not an attack/defense situation, but an attack/attack situation). To the best of my knowledge the only mention of how to handle ties occurs in the section on initiative. So you could use that methodology to resolve the situation, or not, it isn't really covered. In my personal opinion I think ties can be a good thing sometimes and they match the source material, I think it's perfectly reasonable not to do a roll off or even count the next lowest die (depending on how often you want ties to occur) and then either rule that it's a double hit, or the attacks nullified each other, which ever is cooler based on the situation. I think this is a fairly common thing to happen in anime. (I've always thought it weird that a lot of rpg's go out of their way to exclude tie results).

[Clay]

Hey everyone. Here's the official take on these questions.

The distinction of Hobby and Combat Skill not stacking is no longer made in the Revised Edition. Why this was ever done, I'm not entirely sure. I guess to keep people from absurdly buffing their attack roll with the "cheap" Knowledge: Attack Type. But since there is a rule at character creation discouraging rolling more than seven dice anyway...it's an exception not worth making.

To decide whether Abilities stack or not, the basic rule of thumb is this: "If you can justify an Ability helping with a task, you can add that Ability to your roll." Yes, this means if you're a ninja chef, you can theoretically add "Cooking" to your attack roll. You know, as long as your attacks consist of fine sauces and dicing vegetables.

As for countering, in the case of tie, neither attack has any effect. This is stated in the revised edition.