[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Plane

One thing I wonder is that if slamming someone slows you down (the damage they do subtracts yards from speed) that maybe if someone parries your slam that should slow you down too. Like maybe parrying a slam should also inflict damage to the slammer (in addition to a possible Aggressive Parry) as if they had collided with something. But not do damage to the parrier. Then that damage would be decelerative too.

Like maybe a parrier could have the option of a fast-parrying a slam (like a punch) or slow-parrying a slam (like a shove) depending on if they wanted to injure or avoid injuring a slammer/runner or not.

I'd think that the slammer would be slowed down but not stopped by a successful parry. They've made contact and imparted force, but didn't deliver a solid hit. They continue past, but not as quickly. maybe half speed?

What weight rules? Do you mean like which allows someone to move despite being grappled?

To actually stop someone, you're either making contact with them or forcing them to stop and think "I'd better not continue forward or I'll make contact with them".

No, the parried weight rules. You can parry a weapon that weighs up to your basic lift. The weight of a slam is the slammer's strength score. If you're parrying a ST 12 slam with a weapon 4 lbs or lighter the weapon has a chance to break, but that doesn't apply to unarmed attacks, so unarmed parrying of a slam is one of the better options. See "Parrying Heavy Weapons" on basic page 376.

I don't disagree that parrying a slam and stopping your foe feels kind of weird, but that's what the RAW rules say, which was why I qualified that statement as the RAW result.

Yeah, sounds like floating TG's table over.

Which table specifically? I've been rooting around for a good parrying tweak and I don't know TG well at all.

1) you probably can't run as fast when you're throwing punches/kicks than when you're focusing 100% on running

That might be covered on only allowing a "Move" to be "Sprinting" and to not allow Sprinting during a Move and Attack, though.

I'd argue that's covered by no sprinting in move and attack.

2) if a punch launches kinetic energy forward to knock its target backward, that is wasted energy not being spent to propel the runner forward.

IE basically if my punch misses, then I don't transfer any of my momentum to you, and maintain that forward momentum. If a punch hits, it necessarily must transfer some amount of kinetic momentum to the target.

The question is whether or not the transfer of momentum is enough to actually slow down.

TG basically decelerates a slammer by 1 y/s per each point of damage they took from the thing they collided with, so 1 damage = 1 yard seems like the go-to formula.

That said, I'm more of the mind it should scale with HP like shock does. IE it should be 2 damage = 1 yard if the slammer/runner has 20 HP, because they have more inertia and it would take more force to slow them down.

I don't think a punch does transfer enough momentum to slow down. Slams are special because of their immense weight and ability to transfer force. They get special parrying and momentum rules, even in the basic set, that blows do not. And the ground is very different than the frictionless vacuums and spherical cows of physics. I'd certainly allow it in a 0-G struggle, but it feels like massively overstating the effects here.

Er, you mean like 2 AP for AOA/Committed = 1 AP worth of deceleration while normal/defensive attacks give 0.5 AP worth of deceleration? Rounded down to 0 unless using a partial AP system, or maybe just eyeballing that as 20% or 25% of move instead of 50%

I hadn't thought of the AOA analogy, but yeah. I'd call it 25% of move rather than using fractional AP. but as I think about it, that would let almost everyone get an extra yard of movement with an attack, which feels wrong, step already does that. And that was a "possibly when being generous" comment.

Well, the issue is when I run THROUGH to the rear hex without trying to get around you.

Normal evasion basically assumes "if my obstructor gets in my way, I'll back off and reduce my forward momentum to avoid bumping into them or tripping over them" which is a weird assumption.

not really. some evasion contests probably look like that, but many rely on forcing your way past one side.

I don't have my Basic Move of 6 due to the leg injury though, wouldn't AP cost for deceleration be based on my reduced move?

Move 3 is basically my maximum right now, so it seems like if I got 1 free AP worth of deceleration from an active defense that this would only reduce me by 1/2 my move rounded down, so 1.5 would round down to just reducing by 1y/s and still leave me at 2/ys forward momentum...

Good catch, thank you.