Let's Read Best Left Buried, part 3

Part 1 covered some basic mechanics, and Chapters 1: Introduction & 2: Making a Character
Part 2 covered Chapter 3: Advancements

Note that the Best Left Buried pdf has been updated since those posts, so some earlier comments may no longer apply. I'll go back and revise once I've finished the book.

Chapter 4: Playing the Game

While I've already covered much of this chapter in Part 1, there's still a lot to elaborate upon. Hopefully this doesn't read too redundantly.

Stat Checks

Remember a Stat Check is 2d6 + relevant stat (Brawn, Wit or Will), trying to roll equal or greater than 9. This covers both active checks (picking a lock) and passive "saving throws" (resisting a poison).

Observation Checks are a special kind of Stat Check with no associated Stat (i.e. just roll 2d6). There is no instruction for the GM to secretly make this roll. It's 2018, players know not to metagame. I like how there's no associated stat. Perception usually becomes a skill tax in other systems, but if that's the intent, it gets undermined by the Advancements that improve Observation Checks (Ears of the Owl, Eyes of the Hawk, Nose of the Dog).
 
Now the rules say "a Stat Check is required when a PC, NPC or Monster attempts to do something that has a chance of failing." This is a pretty standard, 5e-style approach. Compare this to some storygames, that tell you not to roll unless failure is interesting. Or to Into the Odd, which doesn't require a roll to walk a narrow ledge when there's no pressure, and which instructs the GM to automatically mention presence of traps/hazards, unless the character is running, visually impaired, or somehow distracted.

If you want to use Into the Odd's approach (and it is one of the games that the free sample chapter suggests you kitbash with), then you probably want to either buff the aforementioned Advancements related to Observation Checks, or remove them.

The Upper Hand and Against the Odds are this game's equivalent of advantage/disadvantage. I like the attempt to rename them to something that has more natural language, though I've found in the course of this Let's Read that it's harder to construct intelligible sentences with those phrases than it is with the 5e terms. I suspect most players will revert to calling it the latter as well.

Unlike 5e D&D, multiple sources of either AtO or TUH can stack, and only cancel each other out one-for-one. So if there's three separate factors giving me TUH, and one making the situation AtO, it's 3 - 1 = 2, not the normal roll that 5e would have you make.

If you have one or two net instances of TUH during an attack or stat check, you roll 3d6 and use the best two dice. Same for AtO, only you use the worst two dice.

But if you have a net three or more in either direction, the roll either becomes an automatic success or automatic failure, as appropriate. The game calls these Trivial and Impossible tasks.

Now on paper this is more complicated than, say, Maze Rats's approach. But Maze Rats puts a lot of weight on GM fiat in determining whether an attempted action will auto-succeed, auto-fail, or go to a roll. This is an approach I'm comfortable with, but not everyone is. Basically this takes that tacit GM process of deciding "is the players' plan good enough to skip a roll" and adds explicit guidelines.

[I may edit this to insert a flowchart later]

It is also because of this approach that Best Left Buried uses a lower Target Number of 9, compared with Maze Rats's 10. Here's some probabilities in case you're unfamiliar with the amount of difference this 1-point shift makes.

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In Maze Rats, a starting character making a Danger Roll with their best stat will still fail more often than not. Danger Rolls by design are the unreliable safety net for when the players fail to be sufficiently clever. In Best Left Buried, Stat Checks are more forgiving and an unsure GM can feel comfortable calling for them without screwing over their players.

It bears note that while this system is more complicated than 5e's advantage/disadvantage system, the target number for a stat check never varies. If a lock is particularly challenging to pick, that's an instance of Against the Odds, not a higher target number.

So if you want to run this game (or lift its ideas for another game), decide for yourself how comfortable you are with GM fiat. Simpler mechanics doesn't always mean easier to run, if those mechanics rely on a strong internalised sense of what makes for fair adjudication. Both Best Left Buried and Maze Rats stress the importance of players trying to set up unfair advantages for their characters as opposed to a "fair/heroic fight", they just do the accounting for that in different ways.

Combat

The overall structure of combat is similar to 5e D&D. Every PC rolls their own initiative, the GM rolls initiative for the monsters (using the same roll for multiple identical monsters), and then the combat proceeds in rounds, with characters/monsters acting in order of initiative.

Initiative is rolled on d3 + Wit, adding modifiers from certain Advancements or currently-held weapon types (i.e. Heavy and Long weapons give -1 to Initiative)

There is the suggestion of rerolling Initiative every round to shake things up, but no alternate initiative methods presented (e.g. group initiative like BX D&D, Maze Rats or Into the Odd, The Black Hack's simplified individual initiative, popcorn initiative, or Troika's token bag). The Black Hack's method is most compatible with the weapon modifiers, so I hope the Deluxe version includes that as a variant.

Surprise functions similarly to 5e. A surprised character can't act on their first turn, but isn't easier to hit unless the attacker has something like the Knife From The Shadows Advancement.

The field of combat is represented with Zones instead of a grid. If you're familiar with Fate Core or The Black Hack, you know how these work. You can move one zone each turn, two if you spend your action to move again. Most melee weapons require you and the target to be in the same zone, Long weapons can attack from 1 zone away, and Ranged weapons from up to 5 zones away.

Zones may vary in size by how easy they are to traverse -- there is no separate Difficult Terrain mechanic. For this game's focus (dungeoncrawls full of cramped, pokey corridors) this is fine, but above-ground adventures will require GM rulings about whether a bog that's multiple zones to traverse may count as fewer zones for the purpose of a ranged attack.

Actions

During your turn you get one action. The examples provided are fairly intuitive.

Attacks

You have to see your target, which may require an Observation roll for a hidden/obscured creature. Presumably you don't miss your turn if you fail the roll, you just have to do something else.

Attacks use a more complex roll than Stat Checks:

• The Target Number is variable (7-11), depending on enemy armor. The default score is 8, which I think is also the case for unarmored player characters. The rules could be more explicit and state this earlier in Chapter 2.
• 3d6 are rolled by default. If attacker has The Upper Hand (1 or 2 instances), roll 4d6 and discard the lowest. If they are Against the Odds (1 or 2 instances), roll 4d6 and discard the highest. If it's Trivial or Impossible, the attack auto-hits/misses, as with a Stat Check.
• Any two dice can be used with the appropriate Stat to see if an attack is successful. The unused die is used as the damage roll. This die may be adjusted by weapon type or by Advancements. A natural result of 6 on the damage die indicates a Critical Hit. This doesn't result in extra damage, instead it forces a roll on an Injury Table.
• If the attack is Trivial, to determine damage you roll 2d6 and use the highest die.
  

e.g. I have Brawn +2 and attack a ghoul with 8 Armour, after entangling its limbs in a net. The GM has ruled I have The Upper Hand, so I roll 4 dice, getting 1, 1, 5, 6. I discard one of the dice showing 1. Obviously the 5 and 6 beats 8 Armor, but 1 and 5 with my +2 Brawn will also equal 8 Armor, leaving the 6 left over. So I can deal 6 damage if I want, a Critical Hit!

The game text provides three examples of making an attack roll, which is good for understanding how it works. However this is still one of the fiddlier parts of the game. I would still use the rules-as-written for one session to check if my intuition is correct, but I suspect this is the first thing I would houserule away (probably for Maze Rats's attack rules)

Escaping

If you move out of a Zone with a monster in it, you risk it attacking you outside of turn order, somewhat like 5e D&D's Opportunity Attacks. The wording is unclear whether the same is true for a monster moving out of your Zone.

You can either play it safe and spend your action to safely Escape (no roll needed) or you can make a Wit Check. If you fail this check, you can choose to stay put, or move and incur an Attack from one of the monsters in the Zone. Note you don't incur an attack from every monster in the same zone, instead multiple attacks are handled by the Ganging Up rule.

Ganging Up

Only identical monsters (never PCs) in the same Zone can Gang Up. Basically, if a bunch of monsters attack the same thing, instead of rolling each attack separately, every monster past the first one is treated as an instance of The Upper Hand, and a single Attack roll is made. This means if 4 monsters attack you in melee and there's no mitigating factor, you're automatically hit regardless of how much armor you're wearing.

I really like this rule. I also like how there's a "Horde Killer" Advancement specifically for countering this Gang Up tactic, and that this section points players to it. I would rule that non-identical monsters can gang up though.

Unconsciousness, Death, and Finishing Him!

Damage is deducted from a creature's Vigour score. If a monster/NPC reaches 0 Vigour, it dies. If a PC reaches 0 Vigour, they immediately flip a coin. Tails, they die. If they survive, they're Unconscious for 1d6 hours.

A monster can spend its action to "Finish Him!", i.e. kill an Unconscious character without rolling. The monster doesn't have to be in the same Zone or use a melee attack, though I'd only have a monster Finish Him! at range if I'd established them as being dangerous at that range. A dragon might barbecue a fallen PC, a tarantula-man might fire a volley of hairs, but a troll isn't going to suddenly whip out a sling.

There's no rule for nonlethal damage/subduing a monster. Decide how you want to handle this, because odds are the PCs will want to interrogate a shadow cultist at some point.

Heroic Rescues

Finishing Him! can only be blocked if another character performs a Heroic Rescue. The rescuer can't be further than 1 Zone away, and must make a Wit Check to leave a monster's Zone, as normal. The intent of this rule is unclear and could use. I assume it happens outside of initiative order, interrupting the monster's turn, with the rescuer forgoing their next turn? And can the rescuer jump in to, say, block the monster's attack with their shield, thus staying in the same Zone and avoiding the Wit check? Or is it only meant to be dragging your ally to safety, i.e. there's no way to avoid the Wit check?

Regaining Consciousness

A character recovers from unconsciousness with 1 point of Vigour, but can spend Grip 1-for-1 (up to 6), to wake up with more. Given how hard it is to regain Grip, I don't see players doing this much?

They also wake with one random Injury and one random Madness.

Exertion

You can spend Grip to reroll dice after seeing their results, but before the GM narrates what happens. You can reroll multiple dice in a roll (1 Grip point per die) but you can't reroll the same die multiple times.
You can do this for any roll you make, or for attack rolls an opponent makes against you. So obviously it covers Stat Checks and Attack rolls, and I assume Lay on Hands, but does it cover Initiative rolls or the coin-flip to see if you die upon reaching 0 Vigour?

Grip Checks

These are special Will checks the GM might call for whenever a PC encounters a terrifying, sanity-warping monster, environment, or event. Success on this check earns 1 XP. Failure causes loss of Grip, usually 1 point, but possibly more.

Resting

You can regain Vigour by resting. The amount regained is GM-determined, with suggested amounts depending on quality of food and shelter. I really like this over a more static amount, e.g. the 1d3 healing per full day of rest in BX D&D.

You only recover Grip by resting if it's in a tavern or settlement away from the dungeon, and even then, slowly if at all. The main way to recover Grip is by voluntarily taking Consequences (Injuries, Insanities, or if playing with the forthcoming Deluxe rules, Corruptions).

The text suggests that if the "main" party members head back to town to recover Grip, the focus of play doesn't follow them. Instead, continue the dungeoncrawl with backup characters from the same expedition camp. I like this. The players presumably signed up for the dungeoncrawl experience over a broader urban/wilderness game, so going back to town is for wusses.

Levelling Up

It's totally up to the GM when XP gets awarded, and how much, with only the "1 XP for every successful Grip check" rule being a firm guideline. Other suggested times are overcoming obstacles, surviving combats, and recovering treasure. 8 XP = 1 level.

Whenever you level up, you get +1 Vigour, +1 Grip, and choose an Advancement.

Status Conditions and Weird Rules

These rules cover various edge cases: being blinded, deafened, restrained or immobilised, darkness, encumbrance, drowning/suffocating, falling, starvation/thirst, climbing/swimming/crawling, and overland travel. They're all pretty straightforward. 

Encumbrance is left to common sense, exceeding it will probably slow a character or impose Against the Odds for some checks. I know the OSR stresses inventory management, but I don't think that necessarily means strict encumbrance rules. If you prefer more rigid rules, you probably already have a subsystem in mind. Personally, I'd crib from Knave and give each character inventory slots equal to 10 + Brawn.