07-19-2018, 07:07 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Saint Paul, MN
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Crippled leg
We had a great combat yesterday where Sir Yvor Gryffyn (one of the pregens from Delvers to Go) critically missed, hit his own leg, and crippled it. This felt believable in the story because the floor was wet and we imagined his foot sliding forward as he swung his sword downward at his foe (a dungeon lobster thing). Because of the crippling injury threshold, Sir Yvor was still doing fairly well and wanted to stay in the fight. The book says he can still fight from a seated position at -2, which hardly crimps his style at all. The rest of the battle raised two questions for us:
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07-19-2018, 07:22 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Most definitely alone
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Re: Crippled leg
You may be getting a bit too detailed for DFRPG, but you might consider -2 or -1 per die of damage (whichever is higher). Alternatively, you might just forbid All-Out Attacking for higher damage, which would 'feel like' the time when a fighter would really use his whole body on the strike.
I like the idea, however, even if it's just situational, rather than a flat house rule.
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07-19-2018, 09:01 PM | #3 |
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Central Texas, north of Austin
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Re: Crippled leg
I have some interpretations.
Combat Move: I would not allow a step while sitting. However, Exploits p. 35 indicates that you can spend your whole move to move one hex while lying down "(belly crawl or rolling)." I think rolling in this case is appropriate to get into position. Of course, then you would have to change posture to sit to attack at -2 instead of -4. Reduced Damage: It definitely seems that legs would be important to damage in positioning and distributing body weight. However, there doesn't appear to be any penalties to attacking a melee opponent above you where the legs seem much less likely to contribute to power than versus a level foe. |
07-19-2018, 09:12 PM | #4 |
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Central Texas, north of Austin
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Re: Crippled leg
Damage:
How about this compromise: Keep the -2 to damage unless: You can do full damage, but then the fighter becomes unready and needs to spend a ready maneuver to recover his position from awkwardly throwing his torso into the blow. In this interpretation, the legs are more useful for repositioning the combatant quickly than contributing strength. |
07-19-2018, 11:37 PM | #5 |
Banned
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
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Re: Crippled leg
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07-20-2018, 06:22 AM | #6 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
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Re: Crippled leg
If you want to move around while seated, you're going to have to free up your hands of your shield and sword, particularly if you only have one leg left. Otherwise there's no real way to do it while seated.
As others have pointed out, you don't have to stay seated, you can still lie down. Getting back up to sitting again with one less leg than you're used to might be quite awkward (but once you've lived with one leg for a while I doubt it'll slow you down). I might require two Change Postures (one on a successful Acrobatics check) if I cared that much about detail - but I confess I usually don't when I'm actually at the table.
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07-20-2018, 07:54 AM | #7 |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: Crippled leg
Others have addressed movement: You can move, but you have to change from sitting to lying to do so. Lying allows you to move at one yard per second; see Exploits, p. 99. So you'll be wasting a lot of time on Change Posture maneuvers to switch between sitting and lying, and vice versa, and you'll be wasting more time rolling around at Move 1.
Damage reduction is way, way, way below the resolution of the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game. If you really want it: Kicking damage is +1 relative to punching because you can use the power of the legs. That corresponds to +1 to thrust and thus +2 to ST. So it wouldn't be wrong to say that without the power of the legs, you're at -2 to ST and thus -1 to thrust damage and -2 to swing damage with all melee attacks.
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07-23-2018, 11:13 PM | #8 |
Join Date: Mar 2008
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Re: Crippled leg
You should be able to move backwards while in a sitting posture at one yard a turn, maybe even two. Say two straight back, one into the two rear side hexes but not into any of the three forward hexes.
This would allow the Retreat bonus on Defense so you can keep someone occupied. |
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