Defending
Defending is something you do in response to being attacked. It happens when it's not your turn, and it doesn't use your action for the round.
Defending is otherwise like an extra action—the GM sets the difficulty, you can reduce the difficulty with skills and Effort and so on, and you make a roll to see if you succeed.
Each time you defend, it's a singular instance, so any Effort or Edge you used on your last turn doesn't limit what you can do when defending. If you're attacked multiple times, you can apply Effort to each as if it were an extra action.
When you are attacked, you decide whether you try to block it or dodge it (not both).
Completely helpless or unconscious PCs can't attempt to block or dodge.
You can still try to block or dodge while hindered due to something like having your hands tied behind your back or being drugged, but that hindrance applies to your block or dodge.
Block
Blocking is an attempt to lessen an attack's force against you so it does less harm.
To block, make a Might defense roll. If you fail, you are hit and take the wound from the attack. If you succeed, you reduce the wound's severity by one step—an attack that inflicts a major wound only gives you a moderate wound, a moderate wound attack gives you a minor wound, and a minor wound attack doesn't wound you at all.
Limits of Blocking: Some attacks only have to touch you to be effective, like a giant frog's sticky tongue or an undead's life-draining touch. You can use block against these kinds of attacks, but even a successful block means the foe was able to touch you, so additional effects from the attack can still affect you. This includes attacks that restrain or move you (like being grabbed by a giant or pushed by a charging bull).
Even if you don't know an attack is coming, you usually can still make a defense roll, but the GM might say that you can't use skill or Effort to ease the defense task. In extreme circumstances, like being betrayed by an NPC you thought was a friend, the GM might say that the surprise attack automatically hits you.
Dodge
Dodging is an attempt to completely avoid being hit.
To dodge, make a Speed defense roll. If you fail, you are hit and take the wound from the attack. If you succeed, you are not hit and take no wound from the attack.
Dodge tasks against an area attack are hindered.
Wearing armor hinders your Speed defense rolls to dodge. If you cannot freely use the armor you are wearing, its dodge penalty also applies to all of your Speed tasks (not just to Speed defense rolls to dodge).
Armor and Shields
Armor makes it easier to block but harder to dodge, based on armor category: light, medium, or heavy armor.
- Light Armor: Block rolls are eased. Dodge rolls are hindered.
- Medium Armor: Block rolls are eased by two steps. Dodge rolls are hindered by two steps.
- Heavy Armor: Block rolls are eased by three steps. Dodge rolls are hindered by three steps.
If you cannot freely use the armor you are wearing, its dodge penalty also applies to all of your Speed tasks (not just to Speed defense rolls to dodge). For example, heavy armor hinders dodge rolls by three steps; if you are wearing heavy armor but can't freely use it, all of your Speed tasks are hindered by three steps.
Your type tells you what kind of armor you can freely use.
Special attacks or a GM intrusion as part of an attack might damage your armor, reducing how much it eases your block tasks (but not affecting how much it hinders your dodge tasks).
Shields: You use a shield to protect yourself from an attack. If you have a shield and succeed at a block roll, instead of reducing the wound's severity by one step, you can have the shield take the entire wound from the attack so you take no damage. For example, if you succeed at blocking an attack that inflicts a major wound, you can reduce the severity to a moderate wound or have the shield take the major wound.
A shield can take three minor wounds, two moderate wounds, and one major wound.
Just like a player character, when a shield runs out of minor wounds, additional minor wounds become ("roll over to") moderate wounds, and when it runs out of moderate wounds, additional moderate wounds become ("roll over to") major wounds.
When a shield takes a major wound, it is broken, ruined, or destroyed and no longer has any effect. (Minor and moderate wounds don't reduce a shield's effectiveness, other than that they eventually run out and the shield only has a major wound left.)
The GM might use a GM intrusion to knock your shield off your arm or destroy it even if it has wounds left.
Historically, shields maybe lasted one or two battles before being reduced to flinders.
Other Defenses
Some effects and NPC attacks might bypass blocks and dodges. For example, a trap that releases poison gas might have you make a Might defense roll (not a block roll), and a mental blast from a psychic monster might have you make an Intellect defense roll (not a dodge roll). Some characters are trained in Might defense, Speed defense, or Intellect defense for these situations.
Sometimes an attack provokes two defense actions. For example, if a venomous snake tries to bite you, you can try to block or dodge its attack, but if you fail, you'll take a wound and also need to make a Might defense roll against the poison in the bite. (And if you fail that, you might take damage directly to your Speed Pool.)
You can always choose to not defend against an attack, in which case it automatically hits you.
Non-Rest Recovery: If a defense roll fails, some attacks may confer an ongoing hostile effect that requires you to use a recovery to end them. More serious or long-lasting hostile effects may require you to use multiple recoveries (or one with a specific duration, such as a one-hour or ten-hour recovery) to give you a chance to end the effect with a successful defense roll. If you use a recovery this way, you don't get any of the benefits a recovery normally grants, but it still takes the indicated time.
For example, suppose Ray's character is possessed by a demon. In that case, he can use a ten-hour non-rest recovery to attempt another Intellect defense roll to break the demon's control, but doing so doesn't give him any Pool points or remove any wounds for that recovery.