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So this came up recently in a rules discussion.  Could a Slave/Grunt with the bodyguard talent defend multiple people near him in the same round?  Say there is 5 people within arms length or near range.  Could he defend all five with Bodyguard?  As the rule states this talent does not count as a movement or an action.  So can you do something that does not count as an action over and over again in combat.  I argued you can not.  Though I am split Gming a game and the co gm said according to the rules you could.  That would make the Slave/Grunt talent Rebel potentially massively powerful.  

I argued there would simply not be enough time between attacks for the character to defend everyone in the group that was near range or closer in the time that was supposed to be represented in combat.  He argued it does not cost a maneuver or action so you do it as much as you want.  I am curious as to which of these would be the way it was intended?


Thanks DCurbow

This is a a heroic deed for any role to do this, since you don't know if your armour will work. This is a little bit of a risk to take for the Slave/Grunt because he doesn't know if Shake It Off will succeed (or if his armor will work). Also since the bodyguard is 'taking the bullet', which means that the bodyguard is moving in front of the original target. Now, sure there can be a new shooting in the round near wherever the bodyguard is currently standing and perhaps even a new target, a bodyguard can use this ability again to throw himself in front of this new target, taking another bullet and hope that his armor works and if he is a Slave/Grunt, hope that his Shake it Off will work another time.

I had a player that played a slave (the Swedish version which is a little bit (more) broken). He didn't have the bodyguard talent but he (and the other players) started to rely on his Shake it Off to much so eventually the day came when he failed the skill roll and also died because of it. Just saying.

How long a round is can differ from round to round, from 10 seconds to several minutes.

I get there is a risk but with rebel every point absorbed gives you a bonus on your next action.  So there are five people within near range and arm length of the Slave.  They each get attacked for a 3 points each.  The slave jumps in front with Bodyguard Shakes it off with Rebel get three successes on each attempt.  That is not unreasonable.  Now his next action is preformed with 15 bonus die plus attribute plus skill plus gear bonus.  So strength is the key attribute so it is 5 Fight skill at 3 and brass knuckles.  So that is 24 die to attack or am I missing something?

I get there is a risk but with rebel every point absorbed gives you a bonus on your next action.  So there are five people within near range and arm length of the Slave.  They each get attacked for a 3 points each.  The slave jumps in front with Bodyguard Shakes it off with Rebel get three successes on each attempt.  That is not unreasonable.  Now his next action is preformed with 15 bonus die plus attribute plus skill plus gear bonus.  So strength is the key attribute so it is 5 Fight skill at 3 and brass knuckles.  So that is 24 die to attack or am I missing something?

On the average a slave will get 1½ successes with a skill roll, if he is good at it (slightly less actually), more of course if he pushes, but if he pushes he will also risk damage his strength, by which shake it off is based on, which mean that he will have less chance of getting successes with his next shake it off roll. This can easily lead to a death spiral (since you can't shake of damage caused by pushes). Sure, a slave can get lucky every now and then and get a huge amount of successes, but this usually evens out at the end and the more you risk yourself in this matter, the closer you will get to the day when you don't succeed, like my player who started to play like he was superman. He didn't survive that many sessions until the skill roll failed and he ended up in a really fast death spiral.

So if you want to risk yourself by standing in the middle of bullet rain to get some modifications to an action, go ahead. I think you will get less modifications that you think and you will damage yourself in the process. Also, what happens if someone melee attacks you before it is your turn. You probably want to defend yourself, then you spend your monster skill roll on a melee defense roll. Which is ok to do, but they don't do so much damage.

Thanks for the information.

Please let me know how it goes. A lot of players say that they are going to do that and that, but then you don't hear from them again.

I can see that not sure it will come up in a game.  I am alternating Game Mastering a game with my Son.  So he runs every other game.  It was more a rules conversation between him and I.  But if it comes up that he plays a Slave when he is not game mastering I will let you know how it works.  Either way my son will be thrilled as his side of the debate won.