Opposed Roll

Play Vocabulary

An 'Opposed Roll is a dice roll made against another roll (such rolls being actions or reactions made by opponents, which might be foes upon the battlefield, adversaries in a courtroom, competitors on the sportsfield, or the protagonist versus a trap mechanism).

For example, when a combatant essays to strike another, he makes an opposed roll, because unless the target or foe is taken by surprise and flat-footed, having no intuitive ability to detect the danger, then the target has the opportunity to either evade, or parry, or block the attack by making their own reactive diceroll(s). The original attack or challenge is an opposed roll because of it's nature of allowing a defense or evasion attempt. The defender takes part in the opposed roll, by rolling himself in return, and his roll is also considered in some sense 'opposed'. The roll made by the defender to prevail against an attack or challenge is a defense roll?.

The above options are usually limited to short range and melee situations. In the case where an arrow is shot from afar by an unseen bowman there is usually no chance to evade (the targets' initiative and agility does not come into play, it being unlikely to be aware of the incoming arrow unless endowed with superior hearing), and (presuming an accurate shot) the only defense comes thus from armour (be it worn, or a natural part of the target creature).

The roll a player makes to see if his characters' armour was sufficient against the arrow is still deemed to be an opposed roll, but it cannot involve the characters' Sinew vital statistic (that is, there is no opportunity to position ones' shield or armour and thus achieve a proper block or parry, and there is likely no time for an evasion'' attempt).

See also:

• Actions
• Combat
• Rules