Sometimes, luck is just not with one character or another. Other times, it gets worse… Well, let's see:
Our group of 4 was almost ambushed by 6 Fomori. Almost, because there was no surprise round. 3 of us are brawny were beings (an Ahroun Garou and two Khan), the last one is my Gukutsushin Fox with just 2 rage, which generally handles all the face-stuff. As in, all the whole etiquette stuff and getting them out on bail after trashing bars. The only gift that might have any application during combat is Mother's Touch, the rest is social magic. Statwise the Kitsune is at the level of a skilled human when it comes to fighting – about 4 to 5 dice for the relevant rolls. Oh, and the fox also acts dead last due to rolling poorly. So far, no problem, right? Oh, did I mention that they are also unarmed?
Well, in Round 1, they dispatched one of the Fomori with a lucky roll, while I was shot at and suffered some damage and couldn't manage to do the shift roll. So far so OK, I was acting as a sponge for 3 attack dice from the shooty one and suffered 2 boxes of lethal damage.
In Round 2, some more damage was dealt between the Fomori and the other 3, while I managed to evade damage by dodging. So, took away one attack action, right? But I also was kinda skipped down at the end of the normal turn before the others delved into the rage turn. I had wanted to use the moment when I would have been to do the rage-shift up to my much more dodgy Juko-form, but… that moment when I would have been able to do that, the Storyteller instantly jumped to the rage round. So… yea.
As far as I know, four of the remaining Fomori have been shown to have acted in Rage rounds and split their pools at the same time – which is something the normal rules forbid us to do:
- Shooty has apparently a dice pool of 10 for their pistol, can soak aggravated damage, and wears some armor. Which also doesn't seem to have any impact on their pools. They acted in round 1, rage round 1, and round 2.
- Stoney has a visible stone skin and armor dice from that but was seen acting in all rounds – including the rage ones.
- Slashy has 10 dice for their sword and joined the battle in the rage step of round 1 and acted in the rage round of round 2.
- Blasty has apparently also 10 for their pistol, but might not soak aggravated damage or have armor. An acted in rage rounds.
- Unknown has… well, we have no idea what they can do, they haven't acted noticeably so far?!
Luckily we had to call a break after round two.
It didn't get better as the storyteller claimed that we'd be on the upper hand despite the Fomori clearly being both better with their weapons and winning the action economy by being more numerous and doing both splits as well as rage rounds. At least those Fomori don't regenerate.
However, what bothers me is, that the Storyteller seems to have planned the combat in such a way that he most likely totally overestimated our character's capabilities and performance (We're a Rank 1 Wave Sentai with about 10 XP spent at most goddangit!), and atop that seems to heavily rely on the characters doing the "go down and rage heal" thing – which just doesn't apply to my character at all.
As it is, I see myself with few options: I could rely on repeatedly announcing dodge and hoping not to get hit and that the Storyteller actually gives me the chance to change shape. I could risk getting literally butchered as I try to do anything else, be it attempting a heal with Mother's Touch or disengaging to possible safety.
Is it my problem for being not well above average or is the Storyteller at fault here?!
Due to format issues, the storyteller may neither alter NPCs approved by the organizers nor cheat on dice rolls nor use unapproved NPCs or alter the rules. On the other hand, character death is final, death means you need to reapply from scratch.
Best Answer
It's a problem of your storyteller.
As you made clear, they don't have the authority to change the rules, so them changing the rules is naughty.
Talk to them about how to handle combat as a face
Combat in their game seems pretty lethal, more calibrated for the combat characters than you. As such, it's worth asking if they'll be gentle to you if the enemies defeat you. As you said, you'd like to be able to take more actions than simply dodging. A good way to do that is to guarantee that the enemies won't kill you if they take you out. That way you can fight hard, be knocked to low health, and heal after, or get lucky on rolls and do well.
You could also theoretically use your social skills to avoid being the target while not fighting, and act behind the scenes. There's a variety of ways they could ensure you are active and involved in combat and able to take a number of actions. You should talk to your storyteller and make sure you're on the same page as to what you can do without dying.
This is probably done best in breaks or after sessions, to avoid it interrupting the game. You should be having fun during all of the game.
Tell organizers about their rules changes if you are worried about them.
Since you don't want to perma die, you should quickly communicate to the organizers if your storyteller is buffing up enemies in such a way as to kill you.
In the meantime, take as much defensive action as you can, and keep yourself safe from retaliation. If you tell them, they could simply have enemies burn you down and kill you.
If you're skipped, be direct.
Your turn is important. If they forget it say "Hey, I still need to act, can I do some judo magic?" Don't expect them to remember it, or for them to understand the nuances of your request. Directly ask them. This is especially important if you want to avoid death, since your actions may protect you.