Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - Combining GURPS and Hackmaster combat system?

mhd · 06-05-2017, 01:42 PM

If I were to adapt a tick-based combat system to GURPS, it would at least have to cope with different attack variants -- and there's a lot of them.
So you couldn't just have a speed value of a "broadsword" in general, you'd have to have different ones for thrusts and cuts, and then probably again for all-out attacks (all of them), deceptive attacks, defensive attacks, reverse grips, defensive grips etc...

Heck, if those attacks remain unchanged at all. It could just be that instead of having a to-hit benefit or defense penalty, some attack maneuvers would change the speed values. (And what about stop-hits, ripostes and counterattacks?)

Also, integrating U parries and double-dagger weaponry might seem appropriate. Possibly changing this from a binary distinction to something graded (i.e. weapons could have a "unbalanced" window of ticks after a parry/attack, or a recovery time that might not be equal to the attack time).

HackMaster elaborated on a rather D&D-ish system, which is about as simple as it gets in RPG-dom (apart from maybe T&T). So adding a different intitiative/round system on top of that doesn't have to affect to many moving parts. With GURPS, there's a lot more bells and whistles that would need to be looked at.

06-05-2017, 01:42 PM	#15
mhd Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Land of the Beer, Home of the Dirndls	Re: Combining GURPS and Hackmaster combat system? If I were to adapt a tick-based combat system to GURPS, it would at least have to cope with different attack variants -- and there's a lot of them. So you couldn't just have a speed value of a "broadsword" in general, you'd have to have different ones for thrusts and cuts, and then probably again for all-out attacks (all of them), deceptive attacks, defensive attacks, reverse grips, defensive grips etc... Heck, if those attacks remain unchanged at all. It could just be that instead of having a to-hit benefit or defense penalty, some attack maneuvers would change the speed values. (And what about stop-hits, ripostes and counterattacks?) Also, integrating U parries and double-dagger weaponry might seem appropriate. Possibly changing this from a binary distinction to something graded (i.e. weapons could have a "unbalanced" window of ticks after a parry/attack, or a recovery time that might not be equal to the attack time). HackMaster elaborated on a rather D&D-ish system, which is about as simple as it gets in RPG-dom (apart from maybe T&T). So adding a different intitiative/round system on top of that doesn't have to affect to many moving parts. With GURPS, there's a lot more bells and whistles that would need to be looked at.