Dodging and combat questions

[Jovus]

Originally Posted by Mister Negative

I've used DECIDE in a Dungeon Fantasy adventure (and I'm about to use it in an Action! adventure, and I can tell you that I really like how it works. I use it for everything, not just fast attacks, and it really makes the combats seem more interactive, not I-go, U-go.

Completely off-topic:

This quote amuses me with its irony, considering the name of the poster. (Not that I'm claiming the name is accurate or anything.)

On-topic: I also really like the DECIDE system, and I plan to use it for a RoS/Action game. Not only will it give the PCs a good feel for combat, but it also makes the distinction between the XNU and XAU units clearer and nastier, with the former being too stupid to bother dodging most of the time.

[Mister Negative]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

Ah, good to know. So you use it for both melee and ranged defenses? How well do you find that works? Can skilled fighters "read" an attack as it's coming in, knowing whether it will hit (ie, declaring after the attack roll) by accepting a penalty to defend?

So far, no one has been willing to try! It seems people would rather duck unnecessarily than risk an axe to the face that they were wrong about. I suspect this is true a lot of the time in real life. If someone asked, I think I would allow it at a -2 to the defense roll, considering it roughly analogous to the hesitation required for determining friend or foe when covering an area. That's off the top of my head, though. Given that dodges are free and unlimited, most people just go with that if they don't want to spend a parry or block.

I'm also not sure that someone who is Aiming should be allowed to split their focus enough to also meaningfully evaluate whether an incoming attacker would hit. I mean, they are deliberately focusing on something else!

What pleased me was that it worked seamlessly. People immediately cottoned onto to "You tell me what my enemy is doing, and I tell you what I am doing, and THEN we roll." Despite all of them but one being experienced with GURPS, we didn't have any hiccups.

The wizard was pleased that he could use his "Fumble" spell, whether or not his opponent would have hit, and one of the more skilled fighters was pleased with a critical parry that ended up disarming his opponent (despite his opponent missing entirely!). GURPS as written means that exceptionally useful defenses (such as ripostes, Fumble spells, and weapon parries vs. unarmed opponents) are able to be used LESS against unskilled opposition than highly trained fighters, as the clumsy opponents make their attack rolls less often!

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by Mister Negative

So far, no one has been willing to try! It seems people would rather duck unnecessarily than risk an axe to the face that they were wrong about. I suspect this is true a lot of the time in real life. If someone asked, I think I would allow it at a -2 to the defense roll, considering it roughly analogous to the hesitation required for determining friend or foe when covering an area. That's off the top of my head, though. Given that dodges are free and unlimited, most people just go with that if they don't want to spend a parry or block.

Which is why I will never use such declarative options as DECIDE especially in games like Action, Monster Hunters and DF. though you might convecse my to play a gritty or noir game with it.

[bcd]

Forcing the use of active defences against attacks that miss would seem to generally reduce the usefulness of affected active defences relative to other means of defence. That is, the points I spent on increasing Parry or Block used to be 100% effective in that their abilities never got expended against something that would have missed anyway; but now they are less than 100% effective in that sometimes I waste a Block on something that would miss. Depending on the sort of enemy you are up against we are realistically talking down to about 50% effectiveness (skill 10 mooks etc.).

Unless this reduction in effectiveness is somehow countered the long term tendency should be for players who want to build effective characters to spend fewer character points on boosting Parry and Block, and more on DR, Dodge and other types of defence that have retained their effectiveness. It specifically makes Shield skill markedly less attractive than it used to be since a shield is mostly a once-a-round defence.

It should also make Defensive Attack with axe/mace and other U-parry weapons less desirable since parries are less effective than usual so there is less incentive for sacrificing offensive capacity to buy into them.