Active defenses as modifiers

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Tinman

my big problem with this is: as a PC it takes away all agency I have as a player.
I should be able to adjust my defenses, use retreat or FP as I see fit & then rely on MY luck/roll to determine if I get hurt or not. I don't like that it's all on some other guy's roll.

I came into the hobby in the late 70s with a _lot_ of combat in Chivalry & Sorcery 1e which worked a lot like this. It was nice when you were the more skilled fighter that it was more difficult to be parried or dodged.

I found Gurps with its' "flat" defenses to be somewhat annoying. Some of this may have been before I appreciated the ability of crits on attacks to be always successful.

Runequest 2 may have had some of this "A successful defense always beats a successful attack" problem.