Quote:
Originally Posted by AllySanders
1) does she have to purchase dual weapon attack for the weapon she plans to use in each hand, or only once?
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The RAW (Rules As Written) would require the character to purchase it for both weapons, leaving her capable of using two shortswords, two knives, or a knife and shortsword at no penalty. Many GM's will allow a character to purchase it by combination instead - DWA (Shortsword/Knife) instead of DWA (Shortsword) and DWA (Knife) - which means you only need to purchase it once, but can only use it with that combination (so shortsword and knife only, not two shortswords or two knives).
That said, for a
realistic dual wielding character, DWA isn’t needed. Like most RPG’s, however, GURPS doesn’t really handle a realistic dual wielding character very well. Dual wielding basically forces your foe to split his attention between your weapons, as he doesn’t know which you’ll be using to attack. It also - given good enough coordination - makes it harder for him to capitalize on any openings in your defenses (say, from having just attacked) while making it easier for you to capitalize on any openings in his (as he’ll likely be more open to an attack from one weapon than the other). I probably wouldn’t normally suggest this for a new GM or player, but if you’d like to go this route, a relatively simple way to do it is the following - anytime the character fails a Parry by 1 (Margin of Failure 1), she may attempt to Parry using the other weapon instead, optionally at -1 to defense. Similarly, anytime a foe just barely succeeds on a Parry (Margin of Success 0), the character may attempt to attack using the other weapon instead; on a hit, the foe may attempt another defense, optionally at +1. In both cases, this isn’t the character actually getting an extra defense or attack - rather, you are retroactively declaring the situation called for using the other weapon. When the dice indicate the character failed to defend with her shortsword by 1, but then successfully defended with her knife, in the game world she simply parried the strike with her knife.