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Old 04-15-2020, 01:48 AM   #40
maximara
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Default Re: Fixing round length in GURPS

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tomsdad View Post
I think maximara's point was that "Do Nothing" suggests in some people's mind literately doing nothing. But in GURPS you can still defend (and thus retreat, sidestep and slip), you can step IIRC. I'd certainly allow reasonable perception rolls.
Exactly.

Quote:
Originally Posted by kirbwarrior View Post
That makes sense, but what I was responding to was someone saying "If your players aren't fast enough, they Do Nothing on their turn" which is incredibly punishing to players not equipped to think quickly on their feet while also remembering everything their character is capable of. My suggestion was 'have a fall back plan'. Even if the rule was 'If you aren't fast enough, you AoD (Dodge*)', that would be far superior and even make sense in more realistic fights (people unprepared to fight well tend to over-rely on surviving vs winning).

*Dodge is picked because unless you are built to use another defense very well the bonus to a defense that won't go down with repeated use and always gets +3 when retreating makes you harder to get hit than the other three options. AoD (Double) is usually better with high skill dual-wielders/shieldbearers with WM.
In GURPS Dodge is an Active Defense and can be performed under Do Nothing even if you are stunned. Dodge, Block, and Parry are all available.

I should mention that Basic Speed determines the order combat happens in. So a 4.25 beats a 4.00.

Here is what would happen with a reasonably competent GM:

GM: The orc (has a 4.25) swings his ax at you.
Player: (Character has a 4.00) I Do nothing.
GM: Ok. You can Dodge, Block, or Parry his blow. Which do you do?
If the player continues to freeze then GM whould choose the best Active Defense (which would include All-Out Defense) and have the player roll against that.

The only Maneuver that prevents you from doing an Active Defense is All-Out Attack.

As the D&D to GURPS page on the GURPSwiki points out:
"Combat in GURPS is fast in terms of game time (a second). A D&D 3.0+ combat round is 6 seconds long (6 GURPS turns) and an AD&D 1-2 combat round is about a minute (60 GURPS turns). For this reason it is best to have a general idea on how skilled a character is regarding combat skills in relation to the D&D combat round because in GURPS terms they are pathetic."

Speaking of D&D: "These hit points represent how much damage (actual or potential) the character can withstand before being killed. A certain amount of these hit points represent the actual physical punishment which can be sustained. The remainder, a significant portion of hit points at higher levels, stands for skill, luck, and/or magical factors." Elsewhere it is flat out stated "As has been detailed, hit points are not actually a measure of physical damage, by and large, as far as characters (and some other creatures as well) are concerned."

So even in D&D the character isn't just standing there if the player is in Do nothing mode - per the hit points they are Dodging, Blocking, and Parrying blows. All GURPS is remove that abstraction so you don't have the silliness of Tiamat unleashing all five of her breath weapons into a fighter's face, the fighter surviving, and then introducing Tiamat to his Hammer of Thunderbolts. A variant of this nonsense was outlined in "History of a game that failed" Dragon #99 (July 1985) and was quite possible with the way D&D hit points worked back then.
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Last edited by maximara; 04-15-2020 at 02:11 AM.
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