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Old 12-17-2021, 11:01 AM   #1
hal
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Default I'm starting to hate THE WITCHER

Hi Folks,
As I watch Season 1 yet again so I can have continuity between season 1 and season 2 - I started to pay more attention as a GM watching a movie instead of just enjoying it.

Watching the Witcher knock back the Striga some at least 4 to 6 yards down a hall way made me think of the spell he was using as some sort of telekinetic blow or as a spell that inflicts double knock back damage. The thing is, the Striga seems to have supernatural strength, which means that a knockback type effect would have be something pretty horrendous to do it. Call it ST 16 just for giggles, we'd have to do 14 points of damage to knock it back 1 hex. To knock it back 4 to 6 hexes, we'd have to do 4 x 14/2 or 28 points of knockback (doubled) or up as much as 42 points.

Worst case scenario, we'd have to do 42 points, which is an average of 12 dice of damage. WOWSA.

Now I'm going to be paying more attention to portraying THE WITCHER with GURPS than I will be watching the first season.

CURSE YOU GURPS!

;)
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Old 12-17-2021, 11:31 AM   #2
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Default Re: I'm starting to hate THE WITCHER

It could be that supernaturally-strong creatures, rather than having that strength active 24/7 instead have a switchable strength they call upon when needed?

That way when it's off it wouldn't resist knockback.
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Old 12-17-2021, 12:13 PM   #3
hal
 
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Default Re: I'm starting to hate THE WITCHER

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Originally Posted by Plane View Post
It could be that supernaturally-strong creatures, rather than having that strength active 24/7 instead have a switchable strength they call upon when needed?

That way when it's off it wouldn't resist knockback.
Interesting thought. Frankly, I've never really liked the game mechanics in GURPS 4e for knockback. ST-2 seems to be an odd way to calculate what is necessary for knockback, but hey, them's the rules as writ.

The switchable strength idea does seem to have an issue where it comes to the following:

1) when Geralt strikes with his sword or punches with his (steel?) knuckles, the striga goes FLYING big time. Then again, it almost looks like an attempt to emulate 4 color comic books, but - I'm going to have to read the books to maybe get a better feel for this.

2) The Striga's strength is shown only for a short duration - the fight between the Striga and Geralt. So how would it make sense for the Striga's ST (and hence hit points) to switch on during an attack, but not be on during defense against an attack?

In point #2, it would almost seem as though the Striga may have unkillable, taking/absorbing damage that would kill natural creatures, but not be killed by mortal hands. Add in the idea that the striga's attacks are "powers" rather than strict melee attacks, and we can have a linked power that increases knockback, maybe additional damage - all as a function of the supernatural attack rather than strictly a "mass based natural attack".

Thus perhaps, Normal ST for a Striga may be say, 12, but has enhanced attacks that deal an additional 1d6 cutting damage? Toss in does double knockback attack and maybe it works? When used as "impaling" attacks, the Striga's attack may not gain the bonus of +1d6 swing damage. **shrug**

I can't make the Striga too weak, as it was able to hang upside down from (presumably) the top of the bed canopy and then slash the poor guy's chest open in a manner not unlike SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.

In the end, my best friend gifted me a set of the first three books of the series - largely because he had to buy the COMPLETE series. The most cost effective method to buy the complete series resulted in his owning two sets of the first three books. That implies to me, that he REALLY liked the first three books - darn it! I'm half afraid to get bitten by the same bug!

Ah well, time will tell. Three books to read, possibly play the game on the Xbox 360, and possibly looking at the RPG that came out in 2018 for THE WITCHER. I find it highly ironic that the WITCHER RPG is based on the mostly the same game system as Cyberpunk 2020.

Thank you for the thought Plane, it got me to think in alternative paths.
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Old 12-17-2021, 12:38 PM   #4
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Default Re: I'm starting to hate THE WITCHER

Treat some of the Striga's HP/ST as Massless +0% - it doesn't contribute to resisting knockback, but it also doesn't increase the damage the creature/character takes from falling or being flung into walls. That markedly reduces the damage necessary for knockback. If the Striga only has HP 10 for purposes of calculating the knockback threshold, knocking it back 6 yards (which is pretty impressive) would "only" call for 48 knockback damage - 7d cr dkb will pull that off reliably, but better may be to designate some of the damage as knockback-only (which would be No Wounding, No Blunt Trauma, and Double Knockback). So, say, 2d cr (Double Knockback +10%) [11] + 6d cr (Double Knockback +10%; No Blunt Trauma -10%; No Wounding -50%) [15] (away from books, so you'll want to check those numbers) could be treated as 2d cr with 8x knockback. RAW, I think you might have to add Link +10% to each, but I wouldn't require that.
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Old 12-17-2021, 01:54 PM   #5
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Default Re: I'm starting to hate THE WITCHER

Maybe the Striga's just using Roll With Blow to reduce the damage it takes?

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Treat some of the Striga's HP/ST as Massless +0% -
In all seriousness, this would be my approach.
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Old 12-17-2021, 02:21 PM   #6
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Default Re: I'm starting to hate THE WITCHER

Or well, look. Hollywood. The same place where Antonio Banderas put a shotgun blast in a mook's belly, and blew him over twenty feet and several pews in a church.

Now either the poor GM watching can:

(a) try to stat out the knockback on El Mariachi's +5 Puissance shotgun, loaded with depleted unobtanium rounds and boosted to .15 c, or;

(b) shrug and mutter, "Meh, it's Cinematic, whatever," and stagger on.
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Old 12-17-2021, 04:02 PM   #7
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Default Re: I'm starting to hate THE WITCHER

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Originally Posted by RGTraynor View Post
Or well, look. Hollywood. The same place where Antonio Banderas put a shotgun blast in a mook's belly, and blew him over twenty feet and several pews in a church.

Now either the poor GM watching can:

(a) try to stat out the knockback on El Mariachi's +5 Puissance shotgun, loaded with depleted unobtanium rounds and boosted to .15 c, or;

(b) shrug and mutter, "Meh, it's Cinematic, whatever," and stagger on.
I choose B. In fact, GURPS has something similar to "Hollywood Knockback" in Gun-Fu (and I wanna say the Basic Set, too) for similar stuff where knockback is doubled or even quadrupled for the injury sustained, as either a perk or campaign switch. It's like Bulletproof Nudity, where removing your shirt makes you harder to hit through a bonus to active defenses.
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Old 12-17-2021, 04:12 PM   #8
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Default Re: I'm starting to hate THE WITCHER

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Originally Posted by Phantasm View Post
I choose B. In fact, GURPS has something similar to "Hollywood Knockback" in Gun-Fu (and I wanna say the Basic Set, too) for similar stuff where knockback is doubled or even quadrupled for the injury sustained, as either a perk or campaign switch. It's like Bulletproof Nudity, where removing your shirt makes you harder to hit through a bonus to active defenses.
Also the Double Knockback modifier could be applied here.
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Old 12-17-2021, 05:46 PM   #9
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Default Re: I'm starting to hate THE WITCHER

I'd assume that the spell effect has both Double Knockback and No Wounding. Thus even quite a large attack would do little actual injury (blunt trauma only, plus any 'falling' damage from being slammed into things), but a lot of knockback.
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Old 12-17-2021, 06:37 PM   #10
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Default Re: I'm starting to hate THE WITCHER

I would give the world a cinematic double-knockback on all supernatural attacks.

Then his *fwoom* would include a 4d knockback-only no-damage double-knockback linked crushing attack. That gets you to 4x knockback. It'll get things moving in a hurry.
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