Steve Jackson Games Forums - Combining GURPS and Hackmaster combat system?

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Originally Posted by tbone (Post 2103981)

Needless to say, these are very slow speeds for GURPS – but if those Hackmaster-like speeds are your design goal, then that's a good thing.

You'll no doubt have noticed that there's more to be done, though. If you haven't tackled these already:

In your hybrid system, what is the GURPS fighter with an attack speed of (say) "every 4 seconds" doing on those three no-action seconds? Are those explicitly Ready maneuvers? In a GURPS fight, what maneuver the fighter is assumed to have chosen is an important thing...
What is and isn't the fighter allowed to do on those three no-action seconds? Can he freely take Move maneuvers (or, as above, is he taking Ready maneuvers that limit him to a Step)? Can he defend without "disrupting" the in-progress attack? If so, does that include the ability to Parry with the same weapon? (How would parrying work, anyway? Is that also once per 4 seconds?)
How would Rapid Strike work? Does the selection of Rapid Strike mean the fighter now attacks every 2 seconds? Or does he still wait til the 4th second, and then instantly attack twice?

And probably much more. I'm not saying that it can't be done, just that there'll be a lot of details to work out.

Indeed, there are many details to still work out.

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Or maybe I'm misunderstanding Hackmaster, and therefore your hybrid as well. Assume Mr "Every 4 Sec" Hackmaster fighter strikes on Second 10, and wants to keep on doing so.

I'm imagining that he attacks on Second 10, immediately announces "I attack again!", spend Seconds 11, 12, and 13 making or preparing that next attack (which presumably places some limits on what else he can do), and finally launches that next attack on Second 14. Is that how HM works?

Or are attacks in HM instead more of a "recharge" thing, like a video game: The fighter strikes on Second 10, is free to do what he likes (except attack) on Seconds 11, 12, and 13, and then becomes free to do what he likes (including attack) on Second 14 or later?

From what I can tell, it's the former of your examples. Though HackMaster doesn't seem to have a number of maneuvers that aren't strictly tied to attacks, like Aim or Evaluate (there's nothing much to do besides attacking and defending)

Without giving much thought about balance, here are some examples of how I think it may work:

Let's assume ST 10 attacking with a Katana, giving him a final "recovery period" of 4 (the time between his attacks). He may attack on 1, and the again on 5.

He attacks on 1. He may, during his recovery period, Block or Dodge as usual. No rules change. As for Parry, he may parry as usual, but his cumulative penalty for parries are tallied for his entire recovery period, e.g. if he parries an attack at count 2, and then another at count 3, he would be at -4 for his second Parry. Unbalanced weapons are only allowed to parry after half of the recovery period has passed.
All-out attack:he may not actively defend for his entire recovery period.
All-out defense: he commits to this maneuver for a period equivalent to his recovery period.
Aim and evaluate: work as usual, but a character may only select these maneuvers if he's allowed to make an attack at that same second. Otherwise everybody would just stack up these maneuvers while in their recovery period.
Feint: as usual, but your bonus apply to the second your recovery ends, not to your next attack on the next second.
Rapid strike: it's easier for this to work as it is, meaning if you have an attack to make, you can make it as rapid strike describes it. Alternatively, this could be changed to "you may make an attack at half your recovery period, at -6 to hit. This then resets your recovery period as if you had just made a regular attack."
Deceptive attack: as usual.
A more intricate question might be movement. Should characters during the recovery period be allowed to move? As you said, can they only take steps? I'd say this is a fair compromise, though I haven't given much thought to the implications yet.

As an interesting note, reading up on Reddit I came across The Last Gasp rules. Upon taking a look at them, it's alternative "short term fatigue" seems to be capable of simulating the "give and take" of combat that I'm striving to achieve with recovery periods, albeit with a very different system. I wonder which would suit my players better, if any.

Edit:

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Originally Posted by DouglasCole (Post 2103955)

Alas, no. We had all video, no audio. Nothing to transcribe.

I had not realized Last Gasp was your idea! Seems very solid!