Quick questions on cloaks

[FeiLin]

I don't get the deal with cloaks. Just by wearing it I get +1 or +2 to all Active Defences? I guess it only applies to attacks from behind, though, right? From the side as well?

How are they used actively to feint, I mean wouldn't I need arms for that and how do I attack in that case? Also, how do you defend from a feint with a cloak, as it says you can on B365?

If I use one to grapple at reach 1, how does that work subsequently? How does range 1 limit stuff? Do I have to close in or can I remain at range 1?

I'm trying to picture all this in a fantasy setting, but the closest I get is a locker room towel fight, but with Aragorn's cape...

[Dalillama]

Using a cloak with the Cloak skill precludes wearing it. You grasp the cloak near the neck, sometimes wrapping it partially around your forearm, and use it to distract or mislead the enemy, or catch their weapon enough to move it aside. Or whip it over their head to blind them and then hit with your main weapon.

[Anaraxes]

Cloaks used in a manner to grant DB or to attack look like this. Those rules don't apply to people just wearing them on their backs. They're a kind of shield. (See B404.) Note that Cloak is one of the melee weapon skills (B184) -- you need training in using a Cloak as a weapon.

As shields, their benefits would only apply to the appropriate front and shield-side hexes. (See B374.)

If you have a cloak readied as a weapon, you can use it to Feint as you would any other weapon. You can't Feint with a cloak worn as an article of clothing. (Though you might talk me into it in a sufficiently cinematic campaign. The Shadow or Zorro might pull it off by grabbing the one they're wearing for a swirl. But then, that might just be Fast-Draw (Cloak).)

If you grapple with a cloak, it works like a grapple. (B370, or MA "Armed Grapple", or TG, depending on which rules you're using.) The biggest benefit here is going to be the -4 DX the target gets for being grappled. You also get range 1 (grappling normally requires human grapplers to be at range C). You might want to try a takedown. If you're really strong, you might be able to use the dragging rules (B371). Think of it like a whip or lasso.

[FeiLin]

Kool, thanks!

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Cloaked used in a manner to grant DB or to attack look like this.

Oh, I was way off! Didn't know that was a common enough phenomenon to deserve lack of explicit mention of how it was used. Couldn't find any mention of wrapping it around the arm, so naturally assumed it was on the back.

Originally Posted by Culture20

What if you use it like Bat-Man (and Dracula), hiding your form and body positioning?

Yeah, that would've made sense in my mind...

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

If you grapple with a cloak, it works like a grapple. (B370, or MA "Armed Grapple", or TG, depending on which rules you're using.)

Heh, grappling seems to be a complicated topic...

[Dalin]

Originally Posted by FeiLin

Oh, I was way off! Didn't know that was a common enough phenomenon to deserve lack of explicit mention of how it was used. Couldn't find any mention of wrapping it around the arm, so naturally assumed it was on the back.

I am surprised that this isn't explicit in the Basic Set. DFRPG provides a bit more detail in its description of the Cloak skill:

Originally Posted by Adventurers, p. 74

To use a garment this way, you must take it off and hold it in your hand. This requires a number of Ready maneuvers equal to its Defense Bonus. However, either hand will do – there’s no “off” hand when using a cloak.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Dalin

I am surprised that this isn't explicit in the Basic Set. DFRPG provides a bit more detail in its description of the Cloak skill:

To be fair, DFRPG has about 20 years of extra experience in its writing.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by FeiLin

Kool, thanks!
Oh, I was way off! Didn't know that was a common enough phenomenon to deserve lack of explicit mention of how it was used. Couldn't find any mention of wrapping it around the arm, so naturally assumed it was on the back.

It's a civilian fencing tactic, using something you are likely to have in ordinary life as a weapon. There are plenty of martial arts that do stuff like this. Admittedly a lot of them seem to have stylized this sort of thing to dances with fabric streamers rather than anything practical. Not that the capes in bullfighting that might have some actual descent connections are any less of a performance art.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by malloyd

It's a civilian fencing tactic, using something you are likely to have in ordinary life as a weapon. There are plenty of martial arts that do stuff like this. Admittedly a lot of them seem to have stylized this sort of thing to dances with fabric streamers rather than anything practical. Not that the capes in bullfighting that might have some actual descent connections are any less of a performance art.

Never thought of those styles with scarves as feinting but that makes sense for how I see them used. Now I need to build a style :)

[Michele]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

If you grapple with a cloak, it works like a grapple. (B370, or MA "Armed Grapple", or TG, depending on which rules you're using.) The biggest benefit here is going to be the -4 DX the target gets for being grappled. You also get range 1 (grappling normally requires human grapplers to be at range C). You might want to try a takedown. If you're really strong, you might be able to use the dragging rules (B371). Think of it like a whip or lasso.

I remember a cloak-and-dagger campaign from long ago in which a PC with a smallsword faced an opponent with a rapier. The latter had Reach 2, and kept stepping back so as to maintain his Reach advantage. The PC came to Reach 1 and used the cloak to grapple, he succeeded notwithstanding the penalty for moving and attacking (one step would not have been enough), and by grappling the enemy with the cloak he reduced his mobility. On top of that, if he had grappled into close combat, using the smallsword's tip would have become nigh impossible; but by keeping the foe grappled at Reach 1, he could then thrust at him.

Note this was with GURPS 3e... I don't guarantee this works exactly like that now...

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Michele

a PC with a smallsword faced an opponent with a rapier

Clever.

One of the reasons I always liked GURPS was that tactics matter, and there are benefits and drawbacks to using different types of weapons. While not perfect, it's less susceptible than, say, D&D (especially AD&D 1e) on having to choose the obviously superior weapon, dominant in the game theoretic sense -- or just choose to suck, of course. There's more room for character individuality and color when everything doesn't just boil down to how much DPS you do.