[JLV]

Originally Posted by larsdangly

Good insights here! I would add that the more recent emergence of HEMA has provided another window into how armed martial arts work with other kinds of rules sets and equipment, and that is really worth look at for new insights into what might be found in a set of game rules that are both fun to play and have a certain feel of verisimilitude.

The weapon systems considered by HEMA include some where a 'empty parry' (a displacement of an incoming attack that does not simultaneously attack or threaten the foe) is a mistake, and others where an empty parry is a core part of the system. Longsword, messer and sword+buckler are good examples of the first type, and military saber is a good example of the second type. The ideal response to an incoming attack for this first type of weapon system is an action that negates the attack by displacing or avoiding it, while simultaneously returning an attack of your own (or at least a threat that sets you up for an immediate counter) as part of the same motion. The core techniques for german and italian longsword provide lots of examples of this principle.

In translating this into game design, I would say the important point is that there are three reasons to add some kind of active, skill-based defensive capability into melee combat: (1) two of the ways the game 'breaks' as characters progress in experience is that they can only become harder to kill by getting stronger or wearing more armor, and they can't get better at killing others by raising DX past a certain point. This makes characters evolve in strange and unsatisfying ways as the game advances. (2) everyone is pretty easy to kill, even when they are quite dexterous and have lots of talents. And (3) it violates the feeling of verisimilitude to have no ways to actively defend yourself, even when a less skilled foe attacks you. For all of these reasons, I think the game is better when you toss in a well designed rule for something more or less like a parry.

The rules I described in a post a couple of pages up accomplish this, and in a way that doesn't change play much for low-DX characters but allows high DX combatants to both defend themselves actively and attack on the same turn, with some significant chance of success at both.

Most of my personal experience has been with oriental martial arts (other than fencing), and the same situation accrues there. Tai Chi Sword prefers to use the deflect and counter approach, all in one motion, while basic Japanese Katana tends to go with "empty" parries/blocks a (to me, at least) surprising amount of the time. It shouldn't be much of a shock then to realize that Ninjutsu goes with the "deflect and counterattack in one motion" approach for the Ninjato -- precisely to defeat the "standard" Katana user's tendency to make "separate" blocks and counterattacks. (Besides, the generally low manufacturing quality of the Ninjato compared to the average Katana meant that a block was as likely to cause the Ninjato to break as stop the opponent's blade, whereas a slip and attack put a lot less stress on the Ninja's blade...) In fencing terms, both Tai Chi and Ninjutsu rely a lot more on the "stop thrust" than they do the "parry and riposte."

Still, all of this is pretty "tactical" for a five-second Melee turn!