Hand to hand questions...

[TippetsTX]

Originally Posted by Skarg

Otherwise it would be much more obnoxious, and frequently involve the skills of fighters being ignored because movement comes before combat and HTH is an oversimplified 1-die roll that takes nothing into account.

I was just thinking about this myself... it is one of the odder aspects of TFT combat, don't you think? I can see using it to simplify NPC reactions when a PC initiates HTH, but PCs should have a bit more control over the outcome especially if they are trained in Unarmed Combat.

[hcobb]

I try to cover every possibility here:

https://www.hcobb.com/tft/house_rules.html#HTH

[Skarg]

Originally Posted by TippetsTX

I was just thinking about this myself... it is one of the odder aspects of TFT combat, don't you think? I can see using it to simplify NPC reactions when a PC initiates HTH, but PCs should have a bit more control over the outcome especially if they are trained in Unarmed Combat.

Yes, initiating HTH is one of the weakest rules in the game (after Pinning) and I think really wants more development unless you don't use it much and/or don't notice or don't care how generic it is.

Henry's suggestion linked in the post above would be an improvement, for example.

Another place one could look is GURPS, which has a quite deluxe set of rules for what it calls Close Combat, which cover just about everything and work well.

There's also Dungeon Fantasy Grappling (a simplified revision of GURPS Technical Grappling), which is also great or perhaps better, which hopefully Douglas will make a TFT version of at some point.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by Skarg

There's also Dungeon Fantasy Grappling (a simplified revision of GURPS Technical Grappling), which is also great or perhaps better, which hopefully Douglas will make a TFT version of at some point.

Thanks for that!

I have to focus on getting my Nordlond Sagas product out the door...but as soon as that's done, I'll put my hand to new TFT work ("More Perilous Journeys" is my next project anyway) and during that process I should be able to see what I can do to bring the FDG type close combat ideas to TFT. If anything, though, it'll be Hexagram article length, because TFT is short, simple, fast, and to the point and the close quarters rules should be just as elegant as the melee combat rules, or else what's the point?

[Skarg]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

... I should be able to see what I can do to bring the FDG type close combat ideas to TFT.

Great!!

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

If anything, though, it'll be Hexagram article length, because TFT is short, simple, fast, and to the point and the close quarters rules should be just as elegant as the melee combat rules, or else what's the point?

Well different players have different tastes.

To me, a rule system has broken down when the reason you can or can't do something, or the reason something happens (e.g. being tackled by a child and hacked to death by an adjacent DX 8 hobgoblin with a halberd), is because it's simply how the rules work, but there's no relatable reason in the game world situation for it.

So the point to me in replacing the HTH system would be to provide the things I notice it lacks and feel can be very important, such as:

* taking into account how big, heavy, strong and skilled the figures are who are trying to tackle someone to HTH on the ground, or to avoid that

* taking into account the equipment (weapons & shield) of the person resisting being tackled

* not insisting everyone must drop everything but a dagger when falling into HTH - maybe instead say what the drawback is if you keep holding onto something else

* fixing the pinning rules

[hcobb]

My preference is to reduce the total rules length. Hence deleting "roll to miss" and just applying "wild shot" to any unintended targets.