Mailanka's Musings -- GURPS Content Post

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

I often times see Force Sword and Force Buckler in play used as a very mobile and aggressive style as people rely on the 3 DB awesomeness (combined with extremely light wait) to go wild with move and attacks and even committed attacks with a 'Trust the Shield' mentality

I wonder if that could work as a style?

Force Sword-And-Buckler, as described in the pyramid article I'm referencing, is slow and patient. I'm using that style because Psi-Wars is, ostensibly, lazy. The idea is to show that you can use existing material to good effect, rather than creating your own. But you can create your own!

There are a few things I've noticed in my playtests. First, move-and-attack prevents you from parrying with your weapon, which is deadly to a force swordsman. He typically has a parry of 13-14, and a dodge of 10. If he runs and attacks, then he will be cut down by blaster fire. Someone with a force buckler doesn't have this problem. You run, you slam into someone with your shield, and then you can freely parry (with your +3 DB) or, if you don't have precognitive parry, dodge with a +3 DB (so an average dodge of 13). We saw Dun Beltain do this in the iteration 3 playtest, and he was honestly as capable as several of the 300 point characters in later playtests.

Your comment about committed attacks is also very valid. Yes, you cannot parry after you make a committed attack and you suffer a -2... but look at all that block you have. The only problem is that you only have one block... but why should you? I haven't, but I see no reason why I couldn't, or shouldn't, introduce the multi-block rule. It's not ideal, but it doesn't need to be. Block once or twice, then go to dodge for the rest, using that +3 DB. It's also not a particularly heavy weapon, so it doesn't exactly slow you down.

The one draw back is that high mobility styles tend to put you in the thick of things, but shields tend to be very poor at blocking rear attacks and do not provide their DB penalty if you hit their wielder from the wrong angle. A Mobile Buckler-fighter would thus want to be well versed in tactics, and have SOPs like "Back to the Wall" as fairly standard. They would need to be careful and measured in how they charged and try to avoid letting people get behind them. The idea would have to be to use their mobility to keep their edge and advantage.