New GURPS Hardcore Battle system (fan made)

[sjard]

Originally Posted by mhd

Weapon speeds have been done since the time of the ancients (AD&D1), but I'm still not sure whether that properly models an actual real world concept.

I doubt that in a real world situation you'll get much difference between someone stabbing with a dagger than with a rapier or spear. You'll get some difference between swings and thrusts, but even that gets really muddled when you consider all the "non-attack" movements the weapon makes in a turn (parrying, feinting, overcoming reach). So you'll have to include all kinds of combo maneuvers, different degrees of stop thrusts, ripostes etc.

If it's done for game balance reasons, i.e. making every weapon interesting to PCs, that might be a good idea, if a bit complex. But for realism's sake?

While some of the historical combat manuals do make distinctions in attack times, they're usually based on what type of movement you're making.

For example, I believe it was George Silver who made distinctions between what he called The Time of the Hand, The Time of the Foot, The Time of the Arm, etc.

Basically, an attack made just by moving your hand tends to be the fastest, the arm to the elbow slightly slower, the whole arm slower still, any of those combined with a small step longer, etc.

But in general you're correct, weapon speeds are done in games occasionally for balancing purposes, and because in actual combat there is far too much variation to really put into rules. You'll have brief moments, in GURPS terms, 1-3 seconds of a flurry of activity (I'm one of those that think even 2 attacks per second can be a bit slow) followed by 3-10 seconds of Evaluation, then another shorter time of flurry of activity. But also in my experience with HEMA most 1v1 fights tend to be over within 1-6 blows, usually within about .5-15 seconds.

Edit: However, I also don't consider the evaluate time, if taking more than about 3 seconds, to be in combat any longer.