I am confused on Volley as well. you get a +d20 and +d6 damage. Is that for the rest of the fight or just that one effect? If it is for effect it happens after you have already rolled the damage dice to find the effect or is it anytime you use that weapon, not needing an effect?
Ah, yes, another area in which the rules arenât very clear. For me, the greatest confusion occurred when somewhere in the book it talks about recovering Shots (if memory serves) on a roll of anything other than an Effectâotherwise they are lost or damaged beyond repair (123). Of course I imagined arrows here.
But this is not the case. They are Shots: âa hurled weapon like a dart, a heavy projectile like a crossbow bolt, or even a loose rock.â Or a melee weapon; so notice that, when thrown, a melee weapon becomes a Shot and therefore can become broken.
What we typically think of as âRangedâ are Bows and Arrows. All of these (with the exception of Arbalest) have Volley, and this does ânot expend any Shots; the user has enough ammunition to last the fight, barring Complicationsâ (154).
At this point I might be getting into some interpretation, so let me break it down.
Shot. A single piece of ammunition, one Attack. Example, a thrown Spear. (Arbalests appear to launch Spears, which are single Shots, i.e., tracked ammunition.)
Volley. A whole bunch of ammunition, fire away indefinitely. Example, a quiver full of arrows. The ammunition is not tracked.
Load. All of your ammunition at once, add 1d20 and 1d6 to a single attack and damage. If the character does not have another Load, then the character is out of ammunition. Example, firing an entire quiver full of arrows in a single round.
Notice that Loads can be recovered in the same way as Shots. Example, one goes looking for undamaged arrows, enough to refill the Load to be able to fight again.
It is amazing how arcane and disparate, requiring deep study, this Rulebook is. The rules are all over the place, just like gamebooks of yore! 
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I am interpreting Load as enough arrows or whatever for the entire action scene. So after reading âvolleyâ isnât triggered by an effect. Volley is a different ability like two handed. So the +d20 and +d6 are used for the entire fight, then you can try and recover them.
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I would agree with you: a shot is not even a single piece of ammunition, a shot is âwho cares?â. Now a Volley, you are talking business: you are willing to deplete your ammunitions by using a load (a bunch of arrow, bolt etc). We are still okay for this combat (unless some Complication gives the GM the right to say âyou ran out of ammoâ) but you lost a load. At the end of the fight you might make an Observation roll to retrieve a Load or more/
@Gandalf970 I am curious how you read it to mean you spend one load at it lasts the whole combat? I always read it as one combat check.
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BTW thank you for this posting. This has been one of the most useful posts in the forums (among a host of other useful posts). I had just been scratching my head about how to tackle ammunition and such.
Iâm taking a stab at explaining this interpretation. You can see my original thoughts, above. If Iâm wrong in that interpretation, then I believe itâs because other games have conditioned me to think of ammunition in terms of finite units.
Here, again, is my reading: expending one Load uses up all of that Loadâs ammunition in one Volley in one combat round. If the character has only one Load, at the end of that round, that character is therefore out of ammunition.
This new (to me) interpretation, however, states that the benefits of an expended Load last for the entirety of the scene. I believe this is justified through strict adherence to the logic of the rules language.
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The Volley Quality is basically persistent. Itâs not triggered by the Effect. Itâs something like Parrying (which always reduces the Doom cost of Defending by 1âitâs inherent).
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Therefore the benefits of the Load expense last for the entire scene, because this is an additional, minor quality to the overarching quality of âVolleyâ (which states that, with the exception of a Complication, ammunition never is expended). Or, in other words, the description doesnât say that the Volley quality is nullified for the scene if all Loads are expended.
I still suspect that, though linguistically correct, this second reading may not be in accordance with the intent of the rules design. Iâm still not sure which interpretation I want at my own table.
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Stokar
It says on page 154 under Volley, third sentence, "An attack with a Volley weapon does not expend any Shots; the user has enough ammunition to last the fight, barring Complications.
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Loads are your ammunition for ranged weapons.
Non-Volley weapons:
- A Load equals a single Shot
- You track individual Shots
Volley weapons:
- A Load equals a bunch of Shots
- You donât track individual Shots
- You basically have infinite ammunition (barring Complications)
- You can voluntarily spend a Load to get +1d20 and +1[CD]
Itâs important distinction since any weapon can be a ranged weapon. If you throw your sword, you obviously have only 1 Load (= one Shot). But if you have a bow, it is very boring and not very cinematic to track ammo.
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The Modiphius concept is to not track individual arrows or bolts etc. In most Fantasy games the players and GMâs eventually stop tracking that stuff and Modiphius just threw all of that superfluous stuff out the window. Even your equipment is very generalized with Survival Kits etc⌠As another poster mentioned, the LOAD is just many at one time and not necessarily a full quiver. Just as a round in Conan is not a defined set of time such as in D&D or other Fantasy games. In a way, Conan is a very GM friendly game with a lot of decisions left up to the GM and common sense. I hope this explanation makes some sense.
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I treat a load as more than 1 arrow and less than a fnrknw of arrows.
[a nonsense word thatâs not really important, like the number of arrows in a volley]
Itâs enough arrows. More arrows than when they didnât use a load to volley. A reasonable number of arrows. Any given arrow attack, regardless of whether a load is spent is more than zero arrows, but not specifically 1 arrow.
I donât care at all how many arrows they have until their out of loads and I spend a complication at a reasonable and dramatically appropriate time for them to have fired their last arrows.
As far as carrying capacity a load should have an encumbrance if I recall correctly. If they donât carry any loads theyâre just more vulnerable to the previously mentioned âno mo buwwetsâ complication.
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Another complication I like on Movement heavy actions (IE jumping across a gap, climbing etc) is to have archers lose a Load or 2 as several arrows fall out of their quiver. Out of combat, I consider permanently losing a Load to be a 1 or 2 Doom spend depending on context.
I allows you to set up for running out of arrows at a critical later stage and forces your player to start to worry a little about their supplies.
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Yes yes yes. Yes and yes.
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All of this is fine, but it doesnât really address the OPâs original concern, namely, that spending a Load gives just +1 Momentum and +1 CD. Everyone is clear that we are not counting individual arrows. The problem the OP seems to have (and I confess that I share this to an extent) is that benefit is not really offset by the cost. Especially considering that many common weapons already have a base CD in excess of a âLoaded Volleyâ. So your Hyrkanian bow now does 4 CD instead of 3 CD⌠FOR JUST ONE ROUND, and then you are done. Well your broadsword starts out at 5 CD without any Momentum spent or qualities used, and you can keep on using it. I agree that on the other hand it cannot be used at range. But why would anyone specialise in archery under the current rules? It seems only to be useful as a one-off starting attack before switching to a weapon with better stats. Personally, I would like to see bows get a little more love. For that matter, in a previous reply on this thread, I think Ogedei painted a scene of a mounted archerâs devastating effect with his bow⌠Well there is none. At least according to the rules as written. What advantage is there, as per the rules, of using a bow while mounted? In fact itâs worse as it incurs a +1 difficulty penalty. The mounted combat rules state that a mount may Assist its rider in melee, but not archery.
Youâre exactly right. And, to clarify, at my table I have ruled that expending a Load with Volley Quality confers benefits for the entire Scene (not just for a single Round).
Additionally, I have determined that a Hyrkanian Bow reduces Ranged Difficulty from horseback by D1. (Someone else on these forums recommended this change.) Iâm sure not having this in the book was an oversight on Modiphiusâs part. Otherwise the Hyrkanian Bow is precisely the same as a Hunting Bow. I see no rationale for two identical weapon listings outside of a name difference. (If this were the case, it could be listed as Hyrkanian Horsebow or Hunting Bow, with one set of stats.)
I think a Hyrkanian mount reduces difficulties to ranged attacks as long as you can shoot from its back. They are specifically trained for that sort of warfare. Not at my books but check the Wanderer or Brigand for the horse.
I love volley for minions! Several minions can fire their first shot each with 2d20 instead of the regular 1d20 then you can have them group up. However may resident archer player rarely uses it even though he carries 3 reloads.
I think that detail is actually in the book. I specifically remember a reviewer pointing that out as an example of the books âtreasure huntsâ as you put it. But maybe they were referring to quick start rules or something. Iâve tried to find it in the rules but couldnât.
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I take that back after a search of the .pdf. I thought I remembered seeing a sidebar detailing the advantages of different types of bows, but this does not seem to appear in Core. I have been working under the same assumption as you, that the bow itself is designed for special use from horseback, which is why itâs been named Hyrkanian Horse Bow (alternatively, âHyrkanian Riding Bowâ in some places, such as on pg 150), and therefore provides some benefit to attacking from horseback. This should simply have been a weapon quality. Or, rather, since Cavalry is already a quality for melee weapons, including a clause stating âranged weapons with this quality instead do not add a level of difficulty for attacking while mounted.â
I realize this still does not address the limited scope of OPâs question, but I think weâve shown OP has merely scratched the surface of the problems with how ranged weapons are presented in the rules.
I think @Gebirâs interpretation satisfies the complaint, and seems consistent with the wording. Again, a short clause adding clarity to the description in the Volley would have solved this problem. âA player may activate this quality as part of their attack action, at which point it remains constant until the end of the scene, or until they change to a different weapon.â Would be my suggestion.
Alternatively, since the rules allow retrieval of loads, you could rule Volley applies only to a single attack, after which point the archer may spend a round(?) retrieving the load, and volley again. I know thatâs contradicted in the wording on how loads are retrieved, but since time is nebulous in Action scenes I think itâs a justifiable application of the rules âin spirit.â And since ruling a Volley lasts an entire scene means only one load is ever needed per scene, this leaves next to no incentive to carrying extra loads other than the risk of losing one to a complication. Ruling a load applies to only one attack would provide a bit more impetus toward their cautious use. However, this brings us back to the unsatisfactory performance of archery in the game as present, and since the description of the Volley effect pluralizes âweapon attacks,â and nowhere specifies that it applies only to a single attack, Iâm much more inclined toward @Gebirâs interpretation: a single volley lasts one scene (and I would add the caveat unless interrupted)
I managed to find the passage I was trying to reference earlier. It is in the Core Book on pg 151. I had to hunt down that reviewer I mentioned to see him list this example.
Under Bows it states:
âThe Hyrkanian horse bow is used to dramatic effect by those steppe nomads and the Turanian cavalry, and are[sic] usable from horseback without penaltyâ (151).
Talk about burying the rules. Talk about treasure hunts. I had to go to a secondary source to hunt this down.
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Yeah the first books need a rewrite.
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