06-21-2021, 02:36 PM | #21 | |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: [DF] Swashbucklers... but with whips!
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And the full 8 lb shouldn't be counted when figuring out what it can Parry without breaking, but your weapon is unbreakable anyway, so you're good there. It also shouldn't count when determining if a weapon Parrying it risks breakage; I don't recall if there are any rules covering that issue, but then again her super-special-awesome whip breaking lesser weapons is probably perfectly fine.
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06-21-2021, 02:54 PM | #22 |
Join Date: May 2021
Location: I'd rather be alone than be with people who make me feel alone.
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Re: [DF] Swashbucklers... but with whips!
Now, I think I should go more into detail behind the design intentions of the character. It is in fact meant to seem superficial at the surface, but there's a lot of smart commentary on pop culture, the history of fantasy gaming, and feminism put into Adeline's characterization.
The "Pop Feminism" (Popular, viral feminism that's so shallow in its reasoning and logic that it ultimately detracts from the goals of truly meaningful feminism) of today says that the sexualization of women is inherently objectifying them, that sexy women depicted in fiction only serve to please the patriarchy. The glaring problem with this is that it completely disregards the women in our society that appreciate women's bodies, the people who are non-binary who appreciate women, or even the people who simply have unconventional gender expression for their binary gender. Taking pleasure from female sexuality is not exclusive to toxic masculinity. Beauty-shaming feminine icons within fiction is not conducive to the empowerment of women, and to suggest otherwise like today's Pop Feminism is to unwittingly feed into the toxic narrative. This does in fact tie directly into Adeline's character design. On the meta level, she's a rebel against destructive contemporary trends within feminism in gaming, a anti-heroine who says "I can be sexy, and empowered by it!", while simultaneously taking the very tropes within fiction that supposedly objectify women (one could argue that the tropes are used in fiction with ignorance to realism, but why not have them be as effective as they believe themselves to be? Run with the gonzo!) and go full ham with them to humorous effect, taking what was just benign fan-service and making it even more entertaining. Part of the conceit of the Dungeon Fantasy genre is the multitude of tropes within it that, in any other context, would at least be distasteful to the prudish or reason to not touch the genre to begin with because of their nonsensical logic. DF, at least as I understand it, assumes this absurdity to be the default realism expected to be played out in the typical campaign. Adeline just takes these expectations to their natural conclusion. Heck, we've got homoerotic half-naked Barbarians with Rage Powers running around, so why question it? |
06-21-2021, 03:02 PM | #23 | |
Join Date: Apr 2005
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Re: [DF] Swashbucklers... but with whips!
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It would be a bit unusual, but there's no reason why you couldn't, particularly if you used a tsuba-type guard. The base of a whip is sufficiently rigid that the "tail" seldom doubles back in a way that it would interfere with the guard. The only time it is likely is if you're fast-drawing a coiled whip. In that case, the coils might get tangled in the guard. "Drover" type whips have handles which are long enough that they could conceivably used to parry like a baton if properly reinforced. The only drawback is that a parry attempt might damage or break the whip , since the braids which make up the thong or falls must be firmly attached to the handle. |
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06-21-2021, 03:11 PM | #24 | |
Join Date: Apr 2019
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Re: [DF] Swashbucklers... but with whips!
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Why is 16 so much more valuable than 15?* For starters, it brings your unarmed parry up to 11 from 10 - in other words, an increase to nearly 2/3 chance success from 1/2 chance success. This is the greatest benefit. Second, rolling against 16 rather than 15, you are going to roll a success 49 out of 50 times rather than 19 out of 20 times. You'll roll a critical success more than twice as often (9.3% of the time rather than 4.6% of the time) and - more importantly - roll a critical failure 66% less often: only on an 18 (1 out of 216 possibilities, or less than .5% of the time) instead of on a 17 or 18 (3 possibilities out of 216). So for 1 CP to bring Brawling from 15 to 16, your character becomes a LOT more reliable in close combat - a situation where you probably want the best possible odds. That 1 CP to bring Brawling up to 16 is the first point I'd spend on this character. *I'm not a mathematician, just somewhat familiar with the breakpoints with 3d6. |
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06-21-2021, 03:14 PM | #25 | |
Join Date: May 2021
Location: I'd rather be alone than be with people who make me feel alone.
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Re: [DF] Swashbucklers... but with whips!
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06-21-2021, 05:37 PM | #26 |
Join Date: May 2021
Location: I'd rather be alone than be with people who make me feel alone.
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Re: [DF] Swashbucklers... but with whips!
All good points that I probably could've noticed if my brain wasn't so ADHD-addled. Can't argue with the math! :^P
I could argue that she might want to still only Brawling-15... applying my previous discussion on the meta-balance of not wanting to front-load characters. I won't rehash that here though. There's also the meta consideration of the expectancy as a player to design a character that doesn't let down the other characters. What if they're similarly suboptimal, then it's not out of place? Or is there an emphasis on the characters covering each others backs when it comes to competency? These are all questions to be asked during whatever the "Session Zero" happens to be. Of course, we don't have that luxury as this is just a character pre-generated and expected to be modified as necessary for the GM's particular specifications for their campaign. That's probably way more analysis needed for why I may or may not want to throw just one more point into Brawling though. Hmm... that last level of Blinding Strike could get cut perhaps. Getting that extra reaction time for initiative also makes for better survivability, but it appears that the extra point in Brawling is more crucial. |
06-22-2021, 06:09 AM | #27 |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: [DF] Swashbucklers... but with whips!
Inferred from reality, with a touch of the rules involved. Something that's just a flexible weapon with no real parrying surface, would likely be Parry No. For your character and weapon, of course, stating the Parries are actually the character knocking attacks aside with the whippy part is perfectly acceptable - I was responding to how a less-cinematic character would Parry with a normal whip.
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06-22-2021, 05:32 PM | #28 | |
Join Date: May 2021
Location: I'd rather be alone than be with people who make me feel alone.
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Re: [DF] Swashbucklers... but with whips!
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dungeon fantasy, swashbuckler, whip |
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