This optional rule corresponds to fighting more individuals than you can manage. Any time there are more individuals (not appropriate for ‘grunt squads’) engaged in a conflict with you than you have cliché dice, you automatically receive one die of ‘damage’ to represent being outmaneuvered, flanked, and outclassed.

A ‘Barbarian (3)’ would be out numbered and outclassed when facing 4 ‘Burly Dock Hands (2)’ and would take the penalty die to his cliché. If the same Barbarian faced a ‘Gangly Mob of Goblins (4)’, he would be right at home and not suffer the die penalty. Though there might be actually more Goblins present, they are a ‘Grunt Squad’ and not as inclined to take advantage of the situation as would 4 individual ‘dock hands’.

It may be acceptable to your gm to allow you to turn the 4 individual ‘Dock Hands’ into a grunt squad if you beat all 4 of them in a singe round and chose to do so rather than inflicting a ‘wound’, assuming you describe it suitably. The newly formed grunt squad might then become ‘a hostile band of dock hands (4)’. A rule of thumb might be to turn the ‘grunt squad’s cliché value into the number of individuals there where.

Original Author: Manu, cthulhu risus (slightly modified).

John Risus