GURPS Overhaul - Combat Skills, take 2

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by TheVaultDweller

Most swords are under two pounds and the point of balance is just a couple inches above your hand. I believe the average night stick weights more and the point of balance is closer to the middle (better for swinging), so a average one handed sword is worse than a night stick. That, to me, makes it pretty poor. It might just be that we disagree on the definition of what constitutes "good" here.

Yeah, I'd say we have different ideas of what "good" means when it comes to bludgeoning people. Do note, however, that under my system a sword is indeed a bit worse at crushing than a nightstick - a 2 lb nightstick would be a GURPS light club, which does sw+1 cr and thr+1 cr. A broadsword's crushing component is sw-1 cr and thr+1 cr.

Originally Posted by TheVaultDweller

From what you said, the difference between a sword and a mace is +3 in favor of the mace. That sounds about right if your swing damage for ST 10 is 1d. I might drop this one more point for slender thrust centric "sideswords".

A slender thrust-centric sword is probably an edged rapier or jian, which are sw cut, meaning sw-2 cr, which is indeed one point lower than a broadsword.

[TheVaultDweller]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Yeah, I'd say we have different ideas of what "good" means when it comes to bludgeoning people. Do note, however, that under my system a sword is indeed a bit worse at crushing than a nightstick - a 2 lb nightstick would be a GURPS light club, which does sw+1 cr and thr+1 cr. A broadsword's crushing component is sw-1 cr and thr+1 cr.


A slender thrust-centric sword is probably an edged rapier or jian, which are sw cut, meaning sw-2 cr, which is indeed one point lower than a broadsword.

You know, I'm in the process of putting together a document of relevant rules present in various books/articles/sites, plus my own set of house rules, which will become my "standard" GURPS, and even though my system is a bit different from your mechanically, it looks like they achieve very similar results. Weird how this sort of "parallel evolution" in design happens. I guess it's natural, since we are basing it on many of the same assumptions (DouglasCole's revised ST table, for example).

I'm pretty advanced at it, too, and it's looking very good. I think I may run a few fight scenarios at low-tech and post it. The only thing I'm a lit bummed about it that I'm probably going to need to design a character sheet of some sort, but I suck at doing this sort of thing, specially with any sense of design.

[Ulzgoroth]

Your knife-sword transition is a bit ugly, here. An inch or two of blade throws you to a -6 default? That's harsher than the Basic Set.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Your knife-sword transition is a bit ugly, here. An inch or two of blade throws you to a -6 default? That's harsher than the Basic Set.

I'll admit, it's a rather nasty breakpoint. However, it's not really the length of the blade that causes it (there should be some weapons that can be used with Knife at Reach C and Sword at Reach 1), but the way in which you use it. Using a knife is meant to be limited to Close Combat (Reach C) and is more akin to unarmed combat than to swordplay. At least, that's the way I see knife fighting - it's basically unarmed combat with better striking surfaces, not a sword fight with shorter blades.

[Kalzazz]

I recommend using a simple Google spreadsheet and sticking all the points in one column and using sum

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

I recommend using a simple Google spreadsheet and sticking all the points in one column and using sum

... Huh? What the heck are you talking about?

[Kalzazz]

Was replying to TheVaultDweller concerning character sheet design?

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

Was replying to TheVaultDweller concerning character sheet design?

Oh, I see then. Do keep in mind the Quote button is there for a reason, and would have avoided any confusion resulting from you responding to a single tangential sentence.

[Novembermike]

Very nice. I'm not sure that I like grappling having defaults though, it doesn't feel like it benefits from the footwork or other knowledge from hand to hand or knife fighting.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Novembermike

Very nice. I'm not sure that I like grappling having defaults though, it doesn't feel like it benefits from the footwork or other knowledge from hand to hand or knife fighting.

I'm not certain it wouldn't. Getting yourself into position to strike and into position to grab aren't entirely dissimilar, and of course GURPS skills are equally well-versed in avoiding strikes as avoiding grabs. I'll admit I did consider not having Grappling have any defaults, but when we consider GURPS RAW has armed grappling using the same skill as striking, at least some default between Grappling and Brawling was in order (as for Knife, that's because my system has double-defaulting built into it).