Iajutsu strike

[WaterAndWindSpirit]

Hello everyone!

Let's assume my character is a combat monster with combat skills in the low to mid 30s, and a DX between 15 to 20. She wants to intimidate someone. That someone is smoking a cigarette. She wants to draw a sword, slash at the cigarette to make a clean slice, grab the sliced cigarette bit in mid-air, sheathe her sword, all of that so fast that you miss it happening if you blink, timed right as the guy blinks, and then just take a whiff and blow the smoke at the guy's face, leaving him to realize it could have been his head instead of his cig. That type of Iajutsu strike is her go-to physical threat. Doesn't have to be a cigarette, but has to be something small.

What skills, perks, advantages, and techniques, as well as rules can be used to make that a common intimidation technique for a non-cinematic but clearly superhuman character?

Thanks!

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by WaterAndWindSpirit

Hello everyone!

Let's assume my character is a combat monster with combat skills in the low to mid 30s, and a DX between 15 to 20. She wants to intimidate someone. That someone is smoking a cigarette. She wants to draw a sword, slash at the cigarette to make a clean slice, grab the sliced cigarette bit in mid-air, sheathe her sword, all of that so fast that you miss it happening if you blink, timed right as the guy blinks, and then just take a whiff and blow the smoke at the guy's face, leaving him to realize it could have been his head instead of his cig. That type of Iajutsu strike is her go-to physical threat. Doesn't have to be a cigarette, but has to be something small.

What skills, perks, advantages, and techniques, as well as rules can be used to make that a common intimidation technique for a non-cinematic but clearly superhuman character?

Thanks!

The trick in the action within the rules is getting the guy to freeze rather than respond. There is no "move so fast that other characters can not take an Active Defense" Power.

So I think it might be a Perk that let's the Iaijutsuka use a Fast Draw:Sword for an Intimidation Roll. A successful Intimidation means the target freezes.

If you don't like that it could be a bizarre version of Rapier Wit that causes Mental Stunning with the fast draw rather than snappy repartee.

[Anaraxes]

You might call it an Influence Schtick.

Originally Posted by PU2 p15

...lets you use a specific Influence skill – Diplomacy, Fast-Talk, Intimidation, Savoir-Faire, Sex Appeal, or Streetwise – without conversation, contact, or appreciable time.

The "without appreciable time" caught me eye, given the bit about not having a defense. You might add a requirement for a successful sword skill check just for the flavor -- the Perk is just an Influence skill roll. But it's not combat, so Active Defenses don't come into it.

It's also somewhat like the Combat Schtick "Follow-Through" (That was written to Intimidate others as a free action after a knockdown or kill. Here you'd change the setup prereq to a suitably flashy sword move, and include the not-quite-target in the Intimidation roll, since he's not dead.)

However it's built, I'd call for an Intimidation check, not just a sword skill check. Want to be initimidating, learn to Intimidate. That doesn't come for free just because you're really good.

Given the skill numbers, you could model the "can't defend" simply by taking a lot of Deceptive Attack and calling it "speed". Normal people won't be able to make an Active Defense -- and if they try, well, looking silly with their late reaction just helps make your case. No reason the AD needs to be outlawed entirely.

Sufficiently bad failures (crit fails, maybe anything below skill -10) on the sword skill check should be appropriately gruesome, particularly in regard to the social situation. And failing the Intimidation check is almost as bad, as you've initiated violent action while failing to intimidate.

(In what way is this ability "non-cinematic"? :))

[WaterAndWindSpirit]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

(In what way is this ability "non-cinematic"? :))

In that it's an explicit "Super Speed" ability, that she has superhuman speed, reflexes, accuracy by explicit superpower, and she has impressive skill on top of it to pull it off. Not quite Altered Time Rate, but still unnatural speed. A Deceptive attacks sounds right down the alley for her. -10 to her strike gives -5 to AD, on top of the -4 surprise, for a total -9. Enough to pull it off on most "normal" people. Along with two Fast Draw rolls at -10 for an "Instant" action.

[Refplace]

Yeah, how is this not cinematic?
Seriously though here are my thoughts.
You need Fast Draw at a really high level and the Quick-Sheath perk. Also Intimidation or Perk Skill Adaptation Intimidation (Fast Draw).
The Quick-Sheath perk lets you shave a second off sheathing your weapon so it usually goes from 2 to 1 seconds. Take a-10 skill and I'd let you shave another. Or see rules in Martial Arts for this which includes Grip Mastery to change grip so you can combine both to do it in 1 turn or even a Free Action.

I would add the Flourish and Follow-Through perks as useful to the concept.
I think the Follow-Through perk could be adapted to a move where you draw and sheathe the blade as a single action. GM approval but works for me.
The catch is if you can slice a cigarette with the move you can slice the foe too. so in anything but a highly cinematic game I would not allow that as anything other than an attack.
But you could Fast-Draw, Attack (with location penalties), and then use Reverse Grip (or Technique) and Quick-Sheathe to put the blade back, followed by the Follow-Through perk for an Intimidation attempt.

Also add the Chiburi perk (flicking blood off your blade) and see the Iaijutsu style in GURPS Martial Arts if you haven't already.
The nice thing is for a few points in perks your really adding value to an already useful Fast-Draw skill.
You probably need Extra Attack (Single Skill-Fast Draw, -20%) or take a penalty to use multiple Fast draw rolls in one Turn. See Martial Arts p. 103 for details.


I also like the Rapier Wit with Fast-Draw instead of Public Speaking as the skill.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

The trick in the action within the rules is getting the guy to freeze rather than respond. There is no "move so fast that other characters can not take an Active Defense" Power.

Unless of course you require passing a perception check as a prerequisite to making an active defense, like in Cole's optional "Dodge This" rules from Pyramid 3/57 :) (pg 29 "Incoming"... why limit it to just projectiles?)

Cole implies that movement adds to perception checks per B551 (implying it'd somehow be easier to spot a fast bullet than a slow bullet) but the way "Sense Rolls" works, you subtracting speed from range instead of adding them. so can only ever neutralize a distance penalty, not give a bonus, though I suppose it can in effect sometimes result in an effective bonus based on being a lesser penalty.

That bit always seemed odd, something like "slow objects are boring" but you'd think at some point fast swords/birds would be harder to spot than slow ones. Much like Kromm's 2008 house rule to limit Size Modifier modifiers to 4 I think maybe the most speed should ever result in subtracting from a distance penalty is 4.

Past whatever speed it takes to do that, it might even be more realistic to reverse it and start adding speed back to the distance to eventually remove that discount and then add penalties again. This would give sort of a parabola effect.

So if you were trying to see a projectile 100 yards ahead (-10 to Vision roll) to buy down the penalty to -6 (suggesting this be the lowest a penalty could get) it would need to be effectively 20 yards away, which is achieved by the object moving 80 yards/second.

But then... if it's moving 160 yards/second, you add the excess 80/ys back to bring the penalty back up to -10, and the penalty would go up to -15 (effective 700y) if it was moving 860 y/s. At some point, a speedster like Barry Allen is just going to be moving so quickly that his attacks would function like surprise attacks (failed perception checks)

- - -

Another way is perhaps just house rule that active defenses can't be made if effective skill is less than 2 (ignore B345's "unless") in which case just use Deceptive Attack (reflecting high speed) to prevent reaction. The rules allow active defences even when skill is less than 3, but it feels like GURPS throws defenders bones like these to make it more survivable somehow.

I'd rather just have more options for getting defense bonuses to prevent the "2 or less" situation. Using "One Foe" for example, would give you dodge 3 where you'd normally have dodge 2, while "Feverish Defense" would improve Dodge 1 to Dodge 3, so with stuff like that, banning "2 or less" situations feels less necessary. Situations where foes don't even have a snowball's chance of dodging because the foe is THAT quick don't seem wrong at all.

Now in this case you would have 2 different rolls: first a roll to perceive the sword attack (if using Cole's rules, which are cool, even if intended for ranged bullets and not melee attacks) and then if they do, maybe they could try to pull the cigarette out of the way before it gets hit (no-contact parry or a dodge)

The multiple components of this example do raise the question of multiple rolls though. For example: you might not see a sword coming in time to react/defend, but maybe you do begin to see it on its way back into the scabbard?

The idea of watching an opponent's blinking patterns and trying to time your attacks mid-blink to give them some kind of perception penalty also sounds interesting but I don't know what kind of skill check that would be. Would blinking be Body Language?

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by WaterAndWindSpirit

Let's assume my character is a combat monster with combat skills in the low to mid 30s, and a DX between 15 to 20. She wants to intimidate someone. That someone is smoking a cigarette. She wants to draw a sword, slash at the cigarette to make a clean slice, grab the sliced cigarette bit in mid-air, sheathe her sword, all of that so fast that you miss it happening if you blink, timed right as the guy blinks, and then just take a whiff and blow the smoke at the guy's face, leaving him to realize it could have been his head instead of his cig. That type of Iajutsu strike is her go-to physical threat. Doesn't have to be a cigarette, but has to be something small.

First off, we need to be able to draw, attack, and resheathe in a single Maneuver. That calls for the Quick Sheathe Perk. Specifically, this is Fast-Draw, Attack, Reversed Grip (which calls for a roll against weapon skill to do as a free action), Fast-Draw. Two Fast-Draw attempts with the same hand in a given turn means the second is at -2 (optionally, -1 with TbaM or WM). Next up, for the attack, it needs to hit a cigarette. A cigarette is arguably -8 to hit (comparable to an eye; while more narrow, it's longer), but striking close to the lips (so you have enough cigarette to grab) without hitting the face probably makes it -10 to hit. You also need to grab the cigarette out of the air, but without burning your hand. I can see a variety of skills potentially working here - Judo (the other grappling skills are two-handed), Sleight of Hand, etc. This is comparably at -10, and calls for a second attack, meaning you need Extra Attack or to do an All Out Attack (Double) or Rapid Strike (I don't think RAW would allow a Dual Weapon Attack in this situation, although you could train a Combination to do this more easily). You'll probably need to do it with your offhand, so Ambidexterity of Off-Hand Training would be appropriate. Some sort of roll may be necessary to quickly take a drag from the cigarette stub you just caught without accidentally shoving the burning end in your mouth. Note with modern cigarettes you've probably cut off the filter, so the character may need to practice smoking unfiltered cigarettes (specifically, normal cigarettes with the filters removed) to avoid an embarrassing coughing fit. A Perk to let you do a free Intimidation after this would be appropriate, and I'd be strongly inclined to give the foe a penalty to resist it, given your demonstration of speed/skill.

With that out of the way, all that's left is to make certain the foe can't defend. I don't think it would be horrible to interpret a failure by 5 or more on an Active Defense as meaning the character fails to even attempt any visible defense (game mechanically, they still take penalties to future defenses). So, we just need to make certain the target fails their defense by 5 or more. With -10 on each attack already, plus possibly a further penalty for making multiple attacks, means you may not have a lot left to "spend" on making the attack Deceptive. I've previously suggested allowing Setup Attacks with non-attack actions, with Fast Draw mentioned explicitly. Provided your Fast-Draw is at a high level, you can take a penalty to it in order to penalize your foe's defense (to represent an incredible fast draw). I'd call for a Perk to be able to do this (and would include the Perk as part of the Iaijutsu style), but if your character has a high Fast-Draw skill, she can readily impose high penalties to defend against her iai strikes.

Timing the attack mid-blink is probably fluff, although a Body Language based Ruse-equivalent Setup Attack might be possible.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by Varyon

I don't think it would be horrible to interpret a failure by 5 or more on an Active Defense as meaning the character fails to even attempt any visible defense (game mechanically, they still take penalties to future defenses).

That seems strange, if you don't even attempt to defend then why would it make future defences harder? One of the advantages to not making active defences against surprise attacks (or tiny worthless attacks) is usually no penalties against later ones that second (or if using Last Gasp, no expended AP).

The main problem with the idea of using perception rolls to determine whether or not you perceive the attack is I'm not entirely sure what speed you'd use for the sword. I think Basic Speed is a guideline, but longer weapons are actually distance amplifies when swung (ie if a hand moves 1 yard, then a weapon as as long as your arm moves 2 yards, I think?) so the tip of the katana would move much faster than the hand wielding the katana actually would.

But then: does someone need to be watching the tip of the katana to perceive the attack, or is watching the hand enough? The tip would be closer (less distance penalty) but faster (more speed penalty) while the hand would be further (more distance penalty) but slower (less speed penalty).

Watching the tip would give a better idea of what specifically it was being swung at while the hand would be more like "he's swinging it, but i'm not sure at what" so you could almost have 2 rolls. First against the hand "he's swinging in my general direction" then the tip "he's swinging at my ear".

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Plane

That seems strange, if you don't even attempt to defend then why would it make future defences harder? One of the advantages to not making active defences against surprise attacks (or tiny worthless attacks) is usually no penalties against later ones that second (or if using Last Gasp, no expended AP).

Because there shouldn't be a benefit to severely failing a roll. "Didn't even attempt a defense" is fluff here, to represent how outclassed you were by the attack's speed/etc. If you need an explanation for it "using up" a defense, just say it threw the character off balance - that certainly seems to be the case in fiction when a too-fast attack happens.

Originally Posted by Plane

But then: does someone need to be watching the tip of the katana to perceive the attack, or is watching the hand enough? The tip would be closer (less distance penalty) but faster (more speed penalty) while the hand would be further (more distance penalty) but slower (less speed penalty).

In unarmed combat, you pay more attention to the shoulders and hips, as those tell you with a good deal of reliability where the attack is headed without forcing you to focus on a specific striker. I'd expect armed combat to be somewhat similar, although focusing on the hand(s) wielding the weapon is probably a decent strategy (of course, in fiction this often results in a savvy character using their feet or a concealed off-hand weapon to take advantage of the foe's focus).

[Plane]

I guess the main issue is, you declare a retreat before you actually roll the defence, if failing by a certain amount means you didn't even try to defend, then why did your retreat get used?

Or even "I'm trying to avoid the sword with a teleport dodge, I spend 5 FP to teleport nearby", that could avoid a sword but if you fail too hard, you never tried to teleport?

That's why a perception to see if you get to defend at all (no defense against surprise) is best. It's already built into GURPS Powers against Shrinking chars (roll vision+10 minus their size modifier) and it could be adapted into anything.

The idea of throwing someone off balance AFTER they fail to defend (they didn't see it coming but they saw it leaving) is good though, that could penalize subsequent defenses, create a mental stun...