Exposition on a battle on a flight of stairs, using the GURPS rules

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

One - The SCA isn't 'real' combat. It's Sport versions of the melee skills, which means you aren't doing full power strikes.

While SCA fighters are trained to pull their blows, they ARE capable of launching full-power strikes, and occasionally do so. The bigger problems with the style are the restricted target areas, lack of close-combat or grappling techniques, lack of training in properly parrying "live steel" weapons, and polearms and other mass weapons which can be a bit lighter than their live steel equivalents.

The bigger problem for a fight in a narrow corridor or staircase is the lack of space. Although, if you use a low stance and a low guard, you can deliver a decent vertical strike with a two-handed sword or dueling glaive (i.e., nothing more than about 5' long) the recovery for the next strike or defense will be a problem.

That's why I suggested that Telegraphic or All-Out (Strong) attacks either shouldn't be allowed or should have greater penalties, in such conditions. Or, to make it simpler, rule that any attack made without using a Defensive Grip will take (additional) penalties.

Originally Posted by evileeyore

Two - You can still thrust with no penalty in a corridor, even under the harsh rules in Martial Arts and Underground Adventures.

Then RAW are wrong.

If you've got a long "pole weapon" and you've "choked up" on the grip, you'll have a lot of the haft behind you. That "extra" length will get in your way in close quarters.

I'd suggest that you need a horizontal distance of (weapon length + 3') between you and your target, and you and whatever obstacles are behind you, in order to effectively use a polearm or spear in a narrow space. Anything less than that gives you a -3 penalty to hit or to defend per missing foot of distance, assuming the GM allows the attack at all.

If you choke up on the weapon, so that you can strike a nearby opponent, you're effectively assuming a "Defensive Grip." In any case, the minimum space required to use your weapon doesn't change.

If you've got rising ground behind you, like if you're defending a staircase using a spear, you'll have additional problems since the weapon's haft will bang against the ground, limiting your angles of attack and defense against opponents who are at the same height as you are (e.g., fliers, or people thrusting or shooting at you from a balcony that overlooks the stairs). In cases like those, double penalties for lack of space and give a further -3 penalty per yard of ground rise behind you.

For example, if you're using a 12' pike to defend a 15' corridor, you can thrust without problems since you have sufficient clearance behind you. But, if an opponent gets within your guard and you have to choke up by 3' to get the pike point between you and him, you will have a -9 penalty because you've effectively only got 12' of space to maneuver a 12' long weapon.

If you were using the same 12' pike to defend an 18' staircase, you're sufficiently far down the staircase that you're 15' away from your foes, and there is 3' of staircase rise behind you, the same conditions apply, but you have a -3 penalty because of the staircase behind you interfering with your ability to move the weapon.