Bushido 101 - The Importance of Defending

The melee mechanics in Bushido are pretty nifty and for me, come as close to representing swordplay with dice as you're ever likely to see. You are essentially trying to out guess your opponent, much as you would were you to be circling each other on the battlefield.

A common error made by new players is to put all their dice into attack. Hopefully, the example below demonstrates why this is a bad idea.

Hotaru has taken on a Kairai Farmer and is more than capable of outfighting the slow moving servant of Yurei. However, her impetuous nature has seen her put all of her dice into attack. She doesn't roll badly, with a total attack value of 6. In reply, the Kairai manages a defence roll of 3. While this gives her a success level of 3, she is probably only likely to deal 3 damage (2 when you factor in the Kairai's Tough trait). Worse still, the Kairai is able to strike back.

Because Hotaru did not roll any of her dice in defence, whatever the Kairai rolls in attack (unless it is a 1) will be the success level. As you can see, the Kairai has rolled a 5. Disaster! The farmer may be digging the young monk an early grave.