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Old 03-06-2018, 09:32 AM   #33
larsdangly
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Default Re: TFT and GURPS - where is the line between them?

These are important game-design issues, but it is worth considering another side to the question of armored vs. unarmored combatants: versimilitude. No combat system is 'realistic' but there is a big difference between games with combat systems that represent important features of reality and those that don't. And one important feature of reality is that armor is very effective and very important, and without it you will have a good chance of being debilitated by one blow from a weapon like a sword, spear or bow.

There are a lot of games that fiddle the probabilities of various damage outcomes to enhance player survivability, but end up creating a game where lethal or debilitating injuries are impossible or very unlikely. For instance, you can't hunt deer with a bow in D&D, or most other games, because no single attack will debilitate them, so they will just run away after you hit them. Not some of the time - 100 % of the time. There are many examples like this, and they are really frustrating.

How stupid do you have to be to make a combat system in which it is literally impossible for a person or person-sized creature to suffer a debilitating injury from a crossbow, spear or sword? Hard to say, but apparently that is how stupid most of us are, because that is how most of our games work.

So, when I deliberate revisions and house rules, I usually am trying to nudge us closer to reality rather than farther away.
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