Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post

Edris · 10-14-2015, 09:59 AM

I, uh.

This isn't anything remotely close to a real punch in a real fight. Also, Guinness denied his entry if you actually look it up. In fact, if you look him up, all you find is a bunch of hot air and people making fun of him.

Who is going to just stand there and let him flail in their face like that? If his opponent has a weapon he's going to get his hands absolutely skewered; all the broadsword guy has to do is retreat to be able to parry his attack. If you're doing more attacks and spending skill penalty on it, you'll have less skill for deceptive attacks, and if you don't have high enough skill to pull off deceptive attacks, you're going to get a hand chopped off against a broadsword. Then you're going to be at -4 from shock and either miss the rest of your attacks or land another one and he'll do a feverish defense to parry at -2 and might skewer another hand, or it'll hit his shield. Alternatively, if he doesn't have a shield he just parries with his offhand device and skewers the hand anyway. And while this won't happen every fight it's likely enough that it'll end his career pretty fast.

As for Rapid Strike Points, GURPS doesn't really do additional stat keeping for individual things like this. The closest thing to something like that would be in one of the Alternative GURPS pyramids where they talk about Action Points. You'd be better using that system if you really want to use a house rule along these lines. Since you brought up martial arts, consider looking at P.80 for their realistic treatment of attacking many times. A normal person can get five full-power attacks (All at full skill nonetheless, if you put the points into it!) in with the AOA:Double maneuver and the Extra Attack advantage with those rules, which is pretty crazy already.

Now, if we want to leave the realm of realism, turn to P.126 of GURPS: Martial Arts. There's several pages there dedicated to hitting things really fast here including some things that are actually similar to what you brought up. If you want to trade speed for power, perhaps you could consider picking apart Defensive Attack (P.100, Martial Arts)? +1 to a defense is +2 to skill. You might be able to say it gives you +2 to skill for the purposes of making extra attacks only and just let them trade as much damage for skill as they want. Make sure you remember flurry of blows to reduce the skill penalty (And to watch your FP!). As an aside, all of these options would make for a terrifying Martial Artist Mage who triggers spells every time he touches someone..

Taking out armed opponents is suppose to be difficult, because that's how it is realistically. Most commonly, I see people taking Karate/Judo and then doing some or all of the following:

All-Out Defense: Parry > Retreat w/ X levels of riposte and Cross-Parry > Move into C range with a Giant Step or Committed attack > Counterattack & with a skill-capped Arm Lock/Disarm (Can't do a deceptive attack with a Riposite, counterattack is useful for this purpose)
Or
Retreat and Cross-Parry > Move into C range with a Giant Step or Committed attack > Counterattack & Deceptive Attack with a skill-capped Arm Lock/Disarm (The ability to go way over base skill for these techniques makes you able to penalize their defenses severely)

Potentially omit going into C range if you're disarming instead of arm locking. And then go off from there.

10-14-2015, 09:59 AM	#3
Edris Join Date: Jul 2014	Re: Rapid Strike Fix I, uh. This isn't anything remotely close to a real punch in a real fight. Also, Guinness denied his entry if you actually look it up. In fact, if you look him up, all you find is a bunch of hot air and people making fun of him. Who is going to just stand there and let him flail in their face like that? If his opponent has a weapon he's going to get his hands absolutely skewered; all the broadsword guy has to do is retreat to be able to parry his attack. If you're doing more attacks and spending skill penalty on it, you'll have less skill for deceptive attacks, and if you don't have high enough skill to pull off deceptive attacks, you're going to get a hand chopped off against a broadsword. Then you're going to be at -4 from shock and either miss the rest of your attacks or land another one and he'll do a feverish defense to parry at -2 and might skewer another hand, or it'll hit his shield. Alternatively, if he doesn't have a shield he just parries with his offhand device and skewers the hand anyway. And while this won't happen every fight it's likely enough that it'll end his career pretty fast. As for Rapid Strike Points, GURPS doesn't really do additional stat keeping for individual things like this. The closest thing to something like that would be in one of the Alternative GURPS pyramids where they talk about Action Points. You'd be better using that system if you really want to use a house rule along these lines. Since you brought up martial arts, consider looking at P.80 for their realistic treatment of attacking many times. A normal person can get five full-power attacks (All at full skill nonetheless, if you put the points into it!) in with the AOA:Double maneuver and the Extra Attack advantage with those rules, which is pretty crazy already. Now, if we want to leave the realm of realism, turn to P.126 of GURPS: Martial Arts. There's several pages there dedicated to hitting things really fast here including some things that are actually similar to what you brought up. If you want to trade speed for power, perhaps you could consider picking apart Defensive Attack (P.100, Martial Arts)? +1 to a defense is +2 to skill. You might be able to say it gives you +2 to skill for the purposes of making extra attacks only and just let them trade as much damage for skill as they want. Make sure you remember flurry of blows to reduce the skill penalty (And to watch your FP!). As an aside, all of these options would make for a terrifying Martial Artist Mage who triggers spells every time he touches someone.. Taking out armed opponents is suppose to be difficult, because that's how it is realistically. Most commonly, I see people taking Karate/Judo and then doing some or all of the following: All-Out Defense: Parry > Retreat w/ X levels of riposte and Cross-Parry > Move into C range with a Giant Step or Committed attack > Counterattack & with a skill-capped Arm Lock/Disarm (Can't do a deceptive attack with a Riposite, counterattack is useful for this purpose) Or Retreat and Cross-Parry > Move into C range with a Giant Step or Committed attack > Counterattack & Deceptive Attack with a skill-capped Arm Lock/Disarm (The ability to go way over base skill for these techniques makes you able to penalize their defenses severely) Potentially omit going into C range if you're disarming instead of arm locking. And then go off from there.