Suggestion to adjust Fist Damage.

[KevinJ]

Originally Posted by David Bofinger

The unarmed combat system should be designed with these sorts of situations in mind, and maybe also so that people can throw in a punch or pommel strike as a bonus during a fight.

Are you going to unscrew the pommel and end him rightly?

[KevinJ]

Originally Posted by David Bofinger

That makes it difficult. The damage has to be large enough to provide a realistic chance a guard can be prevented from raising an alarm but not so great that it competes with a sword. I don't know how this should be done.

On the serious side...

I have thought that TFT needed a redesign of ST to weapon damage for a long time. You could raise all damages, but then you have quick deaths. Do you make all Fist damage 'stun' damage and provide a chart with increased damages just for unarmed?

[Skarg]

The thing about wanting to be able to knock out a guard, is that in basic TFT, you generally make someone unconscious by beating them to within 1 point of death, but it can be done with optional rules, especially if you can come from behind without being detected.

I.e. the optional Aimed Shots and Critical Hits rules give ways to knock people out with head hits for less damage, but a head hit is -6 DX to hit, so you wither want a very high DX, or have him be completely surprised, standing still and/or you come from behind and take a few turns with the (also Optional) rule for waiting for an opening.

Of course there's also the problem that your unarmed damage may likely not be enough to do enough damage anyway.

Which is all to say, in deciding what unarmed damage should be, you should keep in mind that full ST damage to someone will kill them (unless that changes...). Rules for just knocking someone unconscious or beating the fight out of them in a brawl might want to be different from that.

[Rick_Smith]

Originally Posted by David Bofinger

...
That makes it difficult. The damage has to be large enough to provide a realistic chance a guard can be prevented from raising an alarm but not so great that it competes with a sword. I don't know how this should be done.

Hi David,
It is not easy to knock someone out, unarmed, quickly enough to prevent them from raising the alarm. I think that people who are skilled in such techniques could fairly be said to have some Unarmed Combat talents.

Warm regards, Rick.

[Rick_Smith]

Originally Posted by Skarg

...
Of course there's also the problem that your unarmed damage may likely not be enough to do enough damage anyway.

Which is all to say, in deciding what unarmed damage should be, you should keep in mind that full ST damage to someone will kill them (unless that changes...). Rules for just knocking someone unconscious or beating the fight out of them in a brawl might want to be different from that.

Hi Skarg,
On page 26 of AM, it talks about using the flat of your blade and striking carefully to not kill someone. These attacks do 1/2 damage. Unarmed attacks can also be non-lethal but do full damage.

(I call this type of damage 'subduel' damage. It can not kill you but it can knock you out. I say that these bruises and contusions will heal faster than deep cuts and piercings so in my campaign subduel damage heals at x4 the regular rate.)

In any case, old TFT does have rules for knocking people out without killing them.

One of the things that I think would be cool is silent takedowns, (e.g. Sandbagging or Koshing someone, garrotting or strangling people), in the new TFT. I have written talents for such tricks in my campaign, but more rules to support stealthy people would be cool for the new TFT.

Warm regards, Rick.

[Skarg]

Originally Posted by Rick_Smith

On page 26 of AM, it talks about using the flat of your blade and striking carefully to not kill someone. These attacks do 1/2 damage. Unarmed attacks can also be non-lethal but do full damage.

Oh right, that too.

Originally Posted by Rick_Smith

(I call this type of damage 'subduel' damage. It can not kill you but it can knock you out. I say that these bruises and contusions will heal faster than deep cuts and piercings so in my campaign subduel damage heals at x4 the regular rate.

Yeah, we house-ruled faster recovery from soft crushing injuries in GURPS in a similar way to your TFT house rule, too.