Parrying weapons with Karate/Judo

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by mlangsdorf

Could I get a page reference for that rule, please? Nothing in the description of Slip on MA124 talks about parrying the arm/limb instead of the weapon, and I can't find any other references in MA to this.

Yeah that rule is more about giving the defender a chance to force Close Combat rather than allow arm parries.

[Kalzazz]

Force Swords damage the body part or weapon used to parry them except on a critical success, so I always have interpreted parrying weapons as parrying the weapon itself, not the arm. Normal swords not being lightsabres/force swords, when you parry them you do not take appreciable damage from a normal success

However, I find the idea that when an unarmed attack gets parried that its the limb rather than the extremity that takes the hit is very unworking feeling to me. I want people to wear gauntlets not sleeves etc. And I think a horses hooves should protect it somewhat against its hoof strikes being parried.

Parrying with the arm makes sense, but, you usually try to hit someone with the fist rather than the forearm, so this seems a more proper place to get hit.

Also, if you parry someones punch by running their forearm into your sword, it seems equally valid to parry someones knife blow in the same fashion, and only slightly less valid to parry their sword blow thusly

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

However, I find the idea that when an unarmed attack gets parried that its the limb rather than the extremity that takes the hit is very unworking feeling to me. I want people to wear gauntlets not sleeves etc. And I think a horses hooves should protect it somewhat against its hoof strikes being parried.

Parrying with the arm makes sense, but, you usually try to hit someone with the fist rather than the forearm, so this seems a more proper place to get hit.

Je pense que je vais donner une mention honorable au poste de Gollum . . .

Originally Posted by Gollum

Having said that, Basic Set, page 377, is more precise:

"A failed parry means you are hit. If you are using hit locations, a failed parry against a weapon means your attacker may choose to hit his original target or the arm you parried with!"

I think that the author of this rule learned martial arts and know that karate parries (age-uke, shudan-uke, gedan-uke, ko-uke, skui-uke, harai-uke, hura-uke, tomoe-uke, and so on) are done with the arm or the wrist and not the hand. The hand is usually used immediately after the parry to grapple the foe's weapon arm.

. . . and point out that this seems to work both ways:
E.g. a cleanly executed age uke seems to cause a fore-arm-on-forearm contact; a badly executed one results in a hand-on-forearm contact, i.e. getting hit in your forearm with the enemy fist instead of parrying it.