[MRQ II/Legend] Declaring a parry in advance

Hello,

I am new to MRQ II/Legend. So I am reading the combat chapter, and I am somewhat puzzled at the statement that it's possible to declare a parry in advance (p.84, list of activities) when it's actually possible to declare a parry anyway in a reactive situation (p.85) with the additional advantage of saving the CA by not completing the parry. Am I missing something?

Thanks,

Antonio

The exact language:

The intention to parry must be declared before any attack roll is made. However, if the attack

misses then the parrying participant can opt not to complete the parry, thereby saving his CA

from being spent. This does mean, though, that he will not gain a defensive Combat Manoeuvre

(see Combat Manoeuvres, page 134), for the exchange.

The semantics are odd - there doesn't appear to ever be any reason not to declare a parry before the attack roll is made, as there's no drawback if the parry proves not to be needed.

I typically play using BRP/RQ3 rules, (although I do use the combat maneuvers and magic from Legend/RQ3). I'm unsure of why a Parry would be declared before it is required, but this must be a forked road in the combat rules between BRP and Legend/RQ6... I will have a good read of those rules, but it is possible that one of the authors will clarify this before I have a go

The exact language:

The semantics are odd - there doesn't appear to ever be any reason not to declare a parry before the attack roll is made, as there's no drawback if the parry proves not to be needed.

Indeed, that's the other issue.

Evade seems to have a similar problem.

Anybody knows whether things were clarified in Legend and/or RuneQuest 6?

The exact language:

The semantics are odd - there doesn't appear to ever be any reason not to declare a parry before the attack roll is made, as there's no drawback if the parry proves not to be needed.

That is indeed correct. My understanding is that it is a bit of a legacy from an earlier version of the system. Originally you had to declare your parry before you saw the result of the attack but that was poor both as a game mechanic (leads to agonising decisions for no good reason) and as simulation (you can judge the attack as you see it.)

What it sort of means is that you can only attempt to parry an attack which you are paying attention to. So you say "I'll parry if needs be." If the attack is poor you can either do nothing or attempt a parry in order to gain a CM.

I forget as well about the role of Evade in this. I *think* in Legend if you wish to Evade you may need to declare it before hand but can't remember whether you can freely abort it like a parry.

Basically, just ignore it. Assume that unless someone says otherwise that they will make a decision on parrying or evading after they see the dice roll.

RQ6 does add a mechanic to differentiate parries declared in advance versus those declared afterwards.

Thanks for the info! I'd like to run my first session with as few hiccups as possible. Fingers crossed!