Doubling & Ripostes in Mark of the Odd Games

02 Dec, 2025

A few things I've picked up watching YouTube videos about historical European fencing¹:

• Inexperienced fencers double a lot.
• Weapon length has a big impact on the outcome of bouts between equally skilled opponents.

Doubling occurs when two combatants wound each other, either because they strike simultaneously or because the aggressor does not adequately protect themself from an afterblow. Most tabletop RPGs I've seen treat combat in a turn-based manner and don't account for the simultaneity of battle.

Here is an attempt to add a rule to account for this in Into the Odd and its derivatives, with a special nod to Mythic Bastionland.

The Doubling Rule

Once per melee attack, when the chosen attack dice's result is exactly 4—before being reduced by Armor or modified in any other way—the target may make an immediate free counter-attack. The counter-attack cannot itself trigger another counter-attack. If the attack is made as part of a group, only the combatant whose dice was selected is counter-attacked—unless the target has Blast.

Why "the chosen attack dice"?

Mainly to accommodate dual wielding, the Gang Up Rule, and games like Mythic Bastionland where characters more often roll more than one attack dice.

Why on a 4?

It's a result present on every dice. It's not a bad result, but it's more likely on smaller dice. So, combatants wielding shorter weapons will double more often. In Mythic Bastionland, it's the minimum result needed to discard for a Gambit, so it creates a decision space: inflict harm but take the double, or forgo doing damage to try for a clever maneuver instead.

For Mythic Bastionland: The Riposte Gambit

Discard an attack dice and reserve it until your next action. If a chosen attack dice against you exactly matches the reserved dice—before being Bolstered or reduced by Armor—it does 0 damage to you and you immediately counter-attack with the reserved dice.

#combat #ttrpg #ttrpg design