Swinging from a line without acrobatics ?

[cupbearer]

Hi

I'm Loving the rules for acrobatic movement in MA, but one thing that bothers me is that you need to roll acrobatics to swing on a line (and they don't even give a bonus). I feel like this is pretty easy to do, but I was wondering if there were any other books that line swinging in them where it didn't rely on Acrobatics?

thank you.

[johndallman]

Action 2: Exploits also requires an Acrobatics roll. I suspect that just swinging on a line is fairly easy, but ending up in the right place at the right time in the middle of second-by-second combat is harder.

[Anaraxes]

Action 2, Exploits, pg 19 has a paragraph on swinging. Note that it's concerned with swinging to a specific location on the other side of the rope's reach. (Just swinging back and forth is indeed easy; given those rules, that happens even on a failure.)

Acrobatics presumably comes in for the leap-and-stand-up-again to land on the other side. Swinging out and dropping (say, into a pond for swimming) is presumably easier that reaching the edge of a chasm at equal height, since you don't need to regain your posture or even hit a specific target (other than avoiding your fellow skinny-dippers). But I didn't see any rules drawing that distinction.

When consulting your own experience, don't forget the +4 TDM for non-adventuring situations.

DF 2, Dungeons, pg 8, repeats the rules from Action 2.

DF 16, Wilderness Adventures, pg 29: Some notes on the effective length and strength of natural vines.

PU2, Perks, p16: The No Nuisance Rolls Perk uses swinging as one example application, avoiding endless rolls to properly attach your webs or find convenient vines or whatever while travelling.

Supers, p31: Repeats the Swinging Perk (probably its original appearance). Page 84 has a box on Swinging with some more detailed calculations on line length and effective Move while swinging, as well as the realistic process to spot upcoming attachment points, hit that target, make your swing, etc., for continuous travel. P99, in the section "Four-Color Roleplaying", suggests as an example for cinematic combat not requiring a roll for swinging on a chandelier, but just letting the super do their thing.

[cupbearer]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Action 2, Exploits, pg 19 has a paragraph on swinging. Note that it's concerned with swinging to a specific location on the other side of the rope's reach. (Just swinging back and forth is indeed easy; given those rules, that happens even on a failure.)

Acrobatics presumably comes in for the leap-and-stand-up-again to land on the other side. Swinging out and dropping (say, into a pond for swimming) is presumably easier that reaching the edge of a chasm at equal height, since you don't need to regain your posture or even hit a specific target (other than avoiding your fellow skinny-dippers). But I didn't see any rules drawing that distinction.

When consulting your own experience, don't forget the +4 TDM for non-adventuring situations.

DF 2, Dungeons, pg 8, repeats the rules from Action 2.

DF 16, Wilderness Adventures, pg 29: Some notes on the effective length and strength of natural vines.

PU2, Perks, p16: The No Nuisance Rolls Perk uses swinging as one example application, avoiding endless rolls to properly attach your webs or find convenient vines or whatever while travelling.

Supers, p31: Repeats the Swinging Perk (probably its original appearance). Page 84 has a box on Swinging with some more detailed calculations on line length and effective Move while swinging, as well as the realistic process to spot upcoming attachment points, hit that target, make your swing, etc., for continuous travel. P99, in the section "Four-Color Roleplaying", suggests as an example for cinematic combat not requiring a roll for swinging on a chandelier, but just letting the super do their thing.

Cool I'm going to check that out ! thanks !

[cupbearer]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Action 2: Exploits also requires an Acrobatics roll. I suspect that just swinging on a line is fairly easy, but ending up in the right place at the right time in the middle of second-by-second combat is harder.

yeah definitely. . I just don't like that acrobatics seems to govern every cool thing you can do.

[Culture20]

Don't forget that a *lot* of modern western children have a lot of training for swinging due to.. swings and other ropes on playgrounds. Treat that as maybe a technique for acrobatics? Sailor might also be a good skill to allow rope swinging. Climbing too? At least a default from climbing.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Culture20

Don't forget that a *lot* of modern western children have a lot of training for swinging due to.. swings and other ropes on playgrounds. Treat that as maybe a technique for acrobatics? Sailor might also be a good skill to allow rope swinging. Climbing too? At least a default from climbing.

The One Task Wonder Perk normally lets you do one task with a particular skill at Attribute+0, and applying that to swinging (so can simply roll against DX to do it) could be an option. Kind of a waste of a Perk, though - if you expect to make a lot of use of it, you'd probably make a lot of use of full-fat Acrobatics, so might as well build that up instead. But that could cover "I did this all the time as a kid."

[Pursuivant]

To limit skill proliferation, Acrobatics get reporposed to cover a massive number of "acrobatics-like" stunts in GURPS, almost to the point that it's a Bang! skill.

It seems fair to allow peripheral aspects of Acrobatics (e.g., aerial silks, parkour, pole vaulting, slack-rope or tight-rope walking, swinging, team acrobatics, trapeze) to be their own DX-based Average skills or Hard techniques. Call them Professional Skills or Sports skills if that makes you happier.

Also don't forget Climbing skill as a viable default for swinging movement, lots of rappelling techniques are effectively variants of swinging on a rope.