I just want to clarify about failed Wayfinding and Attack Rolls in advance of eventually running this awesome game. I just want to make sure I understand this right.
So, let’s say we have four players.
Plane 1: Anya (Lead Pilot), Borislava (Lead Navigator)
Plane 2: Katya (Pilot), and Darya (Navigator)
Borislava fails her Wayfinding Roll.
Her choices now are: scrub the mission or attack late and alone. Planes relying on Borislava’s navigation must also choose to either scrub the mission or attack late and alone.
So let’s say she chooses to Attack Late and Alone. What does this mean? She is in the same plane as the Lead Pilot, they were going to have to make an attack roll anyway. Is there any downside to attacking late and alone?
Now there is plane 2. If they are relying on Borislava’s Navigation, they choose to either scrub the mission or attack late and alone. But what would the consequences of Attacking Late and alone be? It seems nothing.
As long as the Lead Navigator and Lead Pilot are in the same plane, a miss seems like less of a bad roll than a 7-9. Because the 7-9 will trigger Enemy Fire and the like while the miss just means they have to attack…which they were going to do anyway.
What am I missing there?
With the failed Attack roll, you have to Temp Fate if you want to attack so there is a negative consequence…but the Wayfinding Roll?
The most obvious downsides to attacking late and alone are:
1. the anti-air defences are awake and alert
2. you are the only target (as opposed to one member of a squadron of planes)
There’s plenty more, but it’s definitely not something with no downside!
Michael Sands Thanks for the reply, I’m really trying to figure this out. Failing the Wayfinder roll doesn’t trigger Enemy Fire…that only happens on the 7-9 result. So…the anti-air defenses don’t seem to be more on alert on that miss. Unless the 7-9 result is cumulative with the miss result? But that doesn’t seem to mesh with the FAQ. Right?
However, the consequences on the subsequent attack run if it fails is good! The plane can trigger enemy fire on the Attack Run and knowing they can’t off load any of that badness onto anyone else is good! Thank you!
TrooperSJP the results on a miss are up to the GM. It could well trigger the Enemy Fire move. Or much worse (such as “you are shot down”).
(I can’t recall the exact wording Night Witches uses, but this is pretty much par for the course in PbtA games with the miss/partial hit/hit mechanics).
Michael Sands The text for a miss on a Wayfind roll, is says, “On a miss, either scrub the mission and return to the airbase in shame, or strike the target late and alone, forcing you to make your own Attack Run. Planes relying on your navigation can choose which miss condition they would prefer.”
It doesn’t seem like triggering Enemy fire in that circumstance is copacetic. The FAQ seems to say the same. On the question, what happens on a failed Wayfinder, the answer is: “You have two options: Scrub the mission and fly home or attack late and alone. Each other plane in your section has the same two options, and can choose however they like.”
It doesn’t seem like triggering Enemy Fire there is called for?
By the way, I really appreciate you chatting with me about this!
TrooperSJP I was thinking more of the results on the attack run roll, but it seems to me that enemy fire is a natural thing that would happen when attacking late and alone.
TrooperSJP Here I would take the advice of the Principles list and let everything flow from the fiction. If it makes sense that they arrive late and end up flying into a wall of flak-fire from alerted AA crews. Then I would make a GM move and bring a threat to bear, having them roll to endure fire. It’s as simple as that.