Tricky Techniques for Cinematic Games

[SuedodeuS]

(This post is somewhat verbose and scoots around the subject at hand. For a more concise version of what I'm trying to do, skip to the second post in the discussion.)

I recently got access to several 4e GURPS books, and tried to use the system to create my favorite character, Ark Nekris (whom I originally created some time ago). I was extremely impressed by the fact that I was basically able to perfectly model the character using GURPS, although there are a few things I need to tweak. One of them is related to a technique he uses that is one of my favorite, but that doesn't quite work under the GURPS system (or really any system for that matter). Rather than just try to make said technique, however, I think I'd like to come up with a system for making techniques very much like this one. I apologize if there is already a similar thread on this forum - after looking through several pages, I didn't see any titles that looked applicable.

The basic concept is simple - techniques that are weak to one particular way of avoiding them. This generally means a technique that has some "trick" to it, wherein if you figure out the trick you can defend against it much more easily - a great boon, since most of these techniques tend to be quite powerful. The trick could be a specific method of dodging (e.g. ducking and shifting to the left), a signal that gives off the fact that the attack is about to be performed and thus gives a chance to bring up one's shield, or something else entirely.

Looking through the Martial Arts supplement, I think the best way to implement this would be to simply have the technique grant a bonus to one of the enemy's defenses (block, dodge, or parry) and leave the others unaltered, and possibly require some sort of IQ-based skill check to identify the "trick." Unfortunately, the technique creation system (pp. 90-93) in Martial Arts isn't designed for allowing a bonus to a single defense. I tried to do so by increasing all defenses by the wanted amount (and gaining a bonus to skill), followed by decreasing the two defenses I didn't want to raise back down to default. This ends up giving a relationship - for every -1 to skill, the enemy gains +1 to one defense!

Does anybody know of a good way of doing something like this? I originally tried to calculate things out by having it so that every -1 to two of the enemy's defenses increased their third defense by +2 (so a technique that's easy to dodge - with the right trick - but hard to parry/block would cause a -2 to parry and block but a +4 to dodge). Unfortunately, I don't have any experience with GURPS outside of what I've read, so I'm uncertain if something like this would be balanced - and I'm also not certain how to change the values based on the difficulty of recognizing the trick. Input from more experienced players would be greatly appreciated.


Unfortunately, "easy to dodge but hard to block/parry" is only the first part of Ark's technique. The second would take the form of a general enhancement for "trick" techniques - a fail-safe. Again, using the rules from Martial Arts, this would be best modeled as a Combination (p. 80), but with a catch - the attack(s) prior to the fail-safe would have to miss, and they would have to miss because the trick was exploited. I think this could be done by lessening the added penalty of the fail-safe step (the last -6). Would half the penalty be sufficient (such that a 2-attack technique followed by a fail-safe would be at -9 for all attacks, rather than -12)? I also want the fail-safe to not be, by default, as powerful as the original technique, but add a nasty surprise - for example, allowing the character to make a free Ruse (again, from Martial Arts - p.101) between missing with the technique and using the fail-safe. The justification for this would be that, because the "trick" forced the opponent to take one very predictable manner of defending himself, it can potentially put him in a position where it was very difficult for him to defend against further attacks.



The exact technique I'm attempting to model is Ark's Atta Macil Corme Lilta (Two-bladed Rushing Dance). In this attack, Ark charges a short distance toward his target with both blades already in position to strike. As his left foot comes down, he thrusts both blades forward - the blade in his right hand positioned to impale the neck, while the blade in his left tries to skewer through the target's right lung. The violence and spacing of the strikes makes it exceedingly difficult to block or parry both of them. However, simply ducking and shifting to the left (Ark's right) puts the target in a safe, empty pocket where neither blade will strike. If the opponent does this, however, Ark continues moving forward when his left foot reaches the ground, turning the charge into a short jump and slamming his right knee into his opponent's face.

In game terms, I'm thinking of modeling it as an All-Out Attack. The first phase consists of a short charge (probably at least 2 yards) followed by two telegraphic attacks (MA p.113) that are hard to block/parry but easy to dodge. One attack targets the neck, the other the vitals. I'm also considering having the attacks suffer a damage penalty, since Ark probably can't focus entirely on these attacks and still be able to knee. If the enemy dodges using the "trick," Ark immediately gets a Ruse attempt using his Broadsword skill. Regardless of if the Ruse succeeded, Ark then makes a knee strike with bonus damage (and a proportional skill penalty) that is required to attack the head (skull, nose, face, ear, etc) or neck.



EDIT: I failed to mention how I intended for characters to figure out the "trick" of a trick technique. I think it would suffice to use the higher of Tactics or an IQ-based average of the target's highest melee skill and skill with the weapon(s) being used against them. A penalty for being rushed might be appropriate here (and would give characters with ETS an added edge). After seeing a technique performed, any character (target or otherwise) can use an Evaluate maneuver to try and figure out the "trick," rolling as above (but without the penalty for being rushed). For example, a character with IQ 11, Polearm +3 (14), Broadsword -1 (10) would have an unmodified average skill of 12 (average of Polearm and Broadsword). He'd have to roll against this (probably with a penalty for being rushed) to figure out that ducking to the side would avoid the attack. A critical success would probably cause the target to realize that the technique has a fail-safe - although I'm not completely certain how I want the mechanics of this knowledge to work (bonus vs. Ruse, or maybe Ruse becomes impossible?).

I'm also not sure if I want techniques like this modeled so that the "trick" is, mechanically speaking, simply using a given defense (so anyone who dodges Ark's technique automatically ducks to their left) - thus giving a 1-in-3 shot of guessing right even if the Tactics check fails - or if it should actually require the character to succeed on a check (so for Ark's attack, "dodging" is as hard as blocking or parrying - one has to specify that they're "ducking down and dodging to the left" in order to exploit the "trick"). I'm also not certain how players should be informed that a trick maneuver is being performed - after all, one doesn't want players constantly rolling to figure out the "trick" every time you describe an opponent's attack in a manner other than "He swings at you."