Parrying unarmed attacks
 

From this thread.

People are saying that doing full swing damage when you parry an unarmed attack is to much, and I agree.

My thought was base damage on thrust for all weapons and use the "Long Weapons in Close Combat" penalty from MA117 on the weapon skill roll to inflict damage.

How does that sound?

Re: Parrying unarmed attacks
 

Sounds fine - I would only apply the Close Combat penalty if the attacker spent the whole round in Close Combat, though. An incoming Slam attack, for example, allows plenty of initial room to bring the parrying weapon to bear.

For damage, we've had good results just with half damage on a parry, but thrust might make even more sense. Main thing is to have something quick to calculate.

Re: Parrying unarmed attacks
 

Sounds good to me too, you don't really use the leverage of your weapon when you parry.

I would note that the damage type should be as though swung, though (e.g. Spears only do crushing when parrying an unarmed attack, swords do cutting and not impaling, etc... if you want to stab an incoming fist you must Stop Hit), just to avoid silliness.

Re: Parrying unarmed attacks
 

I'd be happy for it to do reduced damage like an Aggressive Parry.

Re: Parrying unarmed attacks
 

I would say that it all depends on the player's description.

GM: He tries to punch your jaws.
Player: Really? I cut his arm off with my sword!

Rules as they are written: full swing damage.

GM: He tries to punch your jaws.
Player: I parry his arm with my sword.

Half damage or, best, the very good idea of The Benj: Agressive Parry rule, but with cutting damage.

Re: Parrying unarmed attacks
 

This is notably missing any motivation for any player not to use the more-aggressive version, once they figure out what wordings you reward.

Re: Parrying unarmed attacks
 

It all depends on their intent... Does their character really want to dismember his foe? It can be just a silent warning: surrender or it will hurt again!

But my purpose was also to show that full swing damage while parying is not completely stupid. There are some situations where it sounds very realistic.

Another example that happened in one of my games:

I (GM): The wolf jump on you to bite your throat.
Player: I impale it on my sword!

I used the parry rules as they are written for this situation (parry - the wolf was attacking -, attack roll and, then, normal damage - but thrusting/impaling one, this time).

Re: Parrying unarmed attacks
 

That's better handled by giving people the option of pulling their blows if they don't want to hurt the person much.

I'd call this situation a Stop Thrust or a simple special effect of attacking when it comes round to your turn.

Re: Parrying unarmed attacks
 

Yes, that is another solution.

Not in this precise case. It was the turn of the wolf. And this one succeeded its attack!

But my cousin (the player) didn't say: "I dodge it" or "I parry it." He did just say: "I impale it on my sword!". Which, indeed, is a possibility in such a situation. Many movies show that: the foe throws himself on the hero and this one kill him thanks to a sword or a knife (Willow, The never ending story...). So I was very happy to find a coherent rule which allow that in GURPS:

• the parry roll to know if the character is fast enough to do it before being hurt by the attack;
• the attack roll to know if the weapon is used efficiently enough to injure the attacker;
• and the damage roll to know how much harm it does to the attacker.

Re: Parrying unarmed attacks
 

Simpler rule that I've used for over a decade: Parries do half damage to parried limbs.

Note this still makes half-ogres doing 5d (2) cut horrifically nasty, but you shouldn't punch people like that in the first place.