Question about blocking

[HeroPenguin]

First, a disclaimer: I don't have the GURPS 4e books yet, so I don't know if this has been addressed in the rules or not. Now, on to the question.

I understand the basic flow of combat, rules on attacks, and active defenses from my 3e days. A dodge is an attempt to get out of the way, a parry is an attempt to deflect a blow, and a block is an attempt to impose an object between you and the attack. You can always dodge and parry (supposing you're not disabled, and ignoring whether or not the defense would be effective, i.e. parrying a bullet, or dodging a mental assault), but the block is somewhat different, in that you HAVE to have a shield or similar improvised item in order to use the defense. This always seemed odd to me to have this somewhat misbalance in the defenses, but I dealt with it.

However, it recently occured to me that realistically, a block is not a parry with a shield, and a parry is not a block with a weapon or your hands. A block involves properly bracing yourself for an attack, and a parry involves an act to redirect the force, rather than simply stopping it. Taking the base action of a block into account, that being a bracing of the body and dedicated preperation against an attack, and it seems to me that you should be able to block with anything, even being unarmed, though without a shield, you'll still be at a disadvantage, namely that whatever you're blocking with is going to take the full force of the impact.

I sketched up a sort of preliminary house rule on this concept, and I'd like some feedback as to its playability. Make your block score equal to 3+(skill/2), like parry, and allow a character to block using any solid weapon (no flails or whips, sorry), with the limitation that an object (or limb) used to block will take half damage from the attack (applying the wounding modifier where applicable, not taking full damage because a block does respresent a preparation to take the blow, allowing the damage to be minimized, even while taking it full on), and reduce any knockback effects by half, if they aren't reduced to nothing at all.

In combat, parries aren't always available, but a block should be, because realistically, you can brace for impact any time you're aware of an attack coming and have both feet on the ground, and possibly even more often than that. Also, blocking an entangling attack with a whip or similar weapon could remove the leverage advantage for the foe, because you were braced against it, or at least reduce the bonus/penalty. Also, this rule really doesn't make much sense unless hit location and weapon damage rules are being used as well (why block an attack with your arms if you'll wind up taking the same damage anyway? You wouldn't, that's what.), but if you can't dodge, protecting your face and chest with your arms is an easy way to avoid potentially lethal damage.

As far as effectiveness goes in-game, it still comes across to being an inferior defense compared to parry, which it pretty much is, and should be, but it allows for another option, and aids in adding realism to the system without proposing any major tweaks. When a helpless person is cornered and about to be struck, they're more likely to either try to escape, or throw their arms in front of their body to try and protect themselves as opposed to batting away the attack. This could be reflected by giving Block a higher default than parry to someone with no combat experience (one could argue that parry shouldn't get a default, but that's for a different place, if not already in the official rules), or some other alternative. For now, this is what I have. Comments are appreciated and welcomed, and I apologize for the large mass of text up here. ^_^;;

[GreenNight]

You got 1 parry (or block) for hand. That is, if you have two ready weapons you can parry twice (one for weapon) and dodge as many times as you want. If you brace two shields you can block twice (one for shield) and parry as many times as you want.

The only difference between parry and block is that you block with a shield and parry with a weapon. You could call a block "Shield parry". By the way, your arms are weapons, so you can parry with them.

What you are defining is a completely different beast, more appropiately named "braced to recieve an attack" ;) no comments on that, not enough experience.

[HeroPenguin]

Originally Posted by GreenNight

The only difference between parry and block is that you block with a shield and parry with a weapon. You could call a block "Shield parry". By the way, your arms are weapons, so you can parry with them.

What you are defining is a completely different beast, more appropiately named "braced to recieve an attack" ;) no comments on that, not enough experience.

No, a parry and a block are actually two entirely different things. Consider the Fencer versus the Knight. The Fencer parries extremely well, batting away enemy blows, deflecting them so they're forced to miss. The Knight CAN parry using his sword, but his superior defense lies in his shield, which he does not use to bat away enemy attacks, but simply stop them from striking him by being in the way. Now if the Knight tried to stop a blow, as opposed to deflecting it, with his sword, would that be considered a parry? You're not deflecting the attack, you're simply stopping it from arriving at its target by interrupting its path, rather than changing it. I realize that effectively, in the game, it's considered the same thing, but realistically, a block represents a different technique than a parry. That was my point in my initial post.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by GreenNight

You got 1 parry (or block) for hand. That is, if you have two ready weapons you can parry twice (one for weapon) and dodge as many times as you want. If you brace two shields you can block twice (one for shield) and parry as many times as you want.

In 4e you can parry as many times as you like at a cumulative penalty.