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Old 04-25-2017, 01:53 AM   #44
Tom H.
 
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Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Central Texas, north of Austin
Default Re: Balanced games for archers

Quote:
Originally Posted by lordabdul View Post
. . .
4) Note that I _don't_ want to make archers more powerful or anything. I want to make them _interesting_. Again, the main problem so far is in relation to the _players_ who, when they play archers, spend half their turns (at best) not doing anything interesting besides maybe a Fast-Draw roll.
. . .
I think you've come across a real issue.

For better or worse, it's a casualty of the one second turn mechanic and the simulation nature of GURPS.

The approach some other games take to deciding a turn mechanic is to abstract it so that a turn is more significant and relevant from a player's standpoint. In that case, the abstraction has to be designed so that it makes realistic sense for the extra time in a turn.

I prefer more realistic games myself so that I can compare my characters to real people.

The problem with the one second turn is that we keep trying to justify it with unrealistic techniques to make it more playable.

The breaking point for me was the Heroic Archer advantage in Dungeon Fantasy 1. I'm still trying to figure out what to replace it with in my Scouts. It was just so integral to that template.

Now this is CGI and Hollywood, but I recently watched the Hobbit. I was trying to time Legolas's attacks on the orcs or goblins in the barrels and river scene. He was popping arrows off pretty fast. It could have been close to every second. But many times he was near melee range.

In grappling with the GURPS turn structure myself, I had found some old posts.

I think this is the best philosophical answer you will get about your question from Kromm himself (although he seems a bit defensive here.)
http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.p...7&postcount=29

In case you're interested, I had also found this old thread where the short turn was discussed.
http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=38525
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