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Old 11-27-2016, 01:06 AM   #1
Khenal
 
Join Date: Mar 2013
Default Large Weapons in Small Spaces

How do tight spaces effect the use of large weapons? I can't imagine gurps would allow someone to be swinging around a huge axe in a corridor only one hex wide, but I also can't find any rules about it. The question comes from a situation I'm currently in. A SM+1 baddie is in a narrow (1 hex wide) and gentle staircase. Ceiling is two hexes up, a sharp turn in the stairs is one hex behind the baddie, and the baddie is using a tetsubo (gigantic bat, more or less). Are they free to swing to their evil-heart's content? Can they only thrust? Can they do anything at all with such a weapon in such a space? Thanks for any help.
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Old 11-27-2016, 02:24 AM   #2
Ulzgoroth
 
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Default Re: Large Weapons in Small Spaces

The source you want is GURPS Underground Adventures, p12. In excessively narrow spaces (defined in the text) long weapons can be penalized as if in Close Combat.

...A GM should also consider whether it's possible to carry a long weapon into a really cramped passage at all, of course, but if it's possible to fit the weapon into the space it won't be entirely impossible to use it.
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Old 11-27-2016, 02:35 AM   #3
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Default Re: Large Weapons in Small Spaces

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Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth View Post
The source you want is GURPS Underground Adventures, p12. In excessively narrow spaces (defined in the text) long weapons can be penalized as if in Close Combat.
To expand on that, long weapons in CC suffer -4 to attack per their longest yard of reach, so in CC, your tetsubo is suffering -8. I'd say this only really makes sense for swung weapons, and given that the ceiling is six feet high (and I don't have Underground Adventures to check its particulars), I'd feel comfortable halving the penalty, so taking -4 off swung attacks.

In this situation, if the baddie can keep you at reach 2, they should thrust at you: but, of course, with the stairs behind them, they may have limited ability to retreat or otherwise open range. If you close to reach 1 or C, they should kick you or punch to appropriately, because the weapon's not helping.
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Old 11-27-2016, 02:40 AM   #4
Salabasama
 
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Default Re: Large Weapons in Small Spaces

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Originally Posted by Khenal View Post
How do tight spaces effect the use of large weapons?
It's "affect," you maroon.
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Old 11-27-2016, 02:41 AM   #5
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It's "affect," you maroon.
9/10: would lol again
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Old 11-27-2016, 02:43 AM   #6
Ulzgoroth
 
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Default Re: Large Weapons in Small Spaces

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Originally Posted by McAllister View Post
To expand on that, long weapons in CC suffer -4 to attack per their longest yard of reach, so in CC, your tetsubo is suffering -8. I'd say this only really makes sense for swung weapons, and given that the ceiling is six feet high (and I don't have Underground Adventures to check its particulars), I'd feel comfortable halving the penalty, so taking -4 off swung attacks.
Halving the penalty is not under any circumstance part of the rules, but tall is as good as wide for providing swinging room.
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Old 11-27-2016, 06:43 AM   #7
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Default Re: Large Weapons in Small Spaces

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Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth View Post
The source you want is GURPS Underground Adventures, p12. In e
...
I guess they didn't expect anyone to play dungeon delving with just Basic Set.
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Old 11-27-2016, 07:20 AM   #8
evileeyore
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Default Re: Large Weapons in Small Spaces

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I guess they didn't expect anyone to play dungeon delving with just Basic Set.
Sure, and in those old benighted days the GM just set their own penalties guidance free.
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Old 11-27-2016, 07:39 AM   #9
Varyon
 
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Default Re: Large Weapons in Small Spaces

Quote:
Originally Posted by Salabasama View Post
It's "affect," you maroon.
I was going to make a response pretending he had actually intended to use "effect," but your joke's better.
(And OP, don't feel we're picking on you - affect/effect is an extremely common mistake)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Donny Brook View Post
I guess they didn't expect anyone to play dungeon delving with just Basic Set.
More like they were unable to anticipate every single combat situation that could possibly crop up. Note they also didn't have reverse grips, cross parries, damaging Judo throws, and similar, and those are far more common in fiction than armed fights in incredibly close confines.
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Old 11-27-2016, 07:50 AM   #10
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Default Re: Large Weapons in Small Spaces

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Originally Posted by Donny Brook View Post
I guess they didn't expect anyone to play dungeon delving with just Basic Set.
All of the specific penalties in UA are taken from GURPS Martial Arts, which is where close combat was worked out in detail. All that UA did was offer a standard set of conditions under which tight spaces made those penalties appropriate—which GMs were always free to figure out for themselves, as evileeyore points out. It just seemed like figuring out a standard set of conditions was the sort of thing that people would want in UA.

A whole lot of GURPS mechanics has developed like that. GURPS is a larger project than any one mind could create.

FWIW, the specific conditions in UA are that a thrust weapon needs clearance equal to its length in the direction of thrust; a swung weapon needs clearance in two different directions. And you know, it seems as if positioning yourself so your foe can't use his longer weapon against you is the sort of thing that a Tactics roll might get you.
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