Campaign with even focus on melee and ranged weapons?

[Natael]

Originally Posted by Skotodes

As pi weapons, guns do reduced damage to limbs.

I don't specifically doubt this statement, but do not recall seeing this rule before, can someone give me a citation? It'd be quite useful to be able to include it in my games.


Back on topic, even if people are wearing armor (I'm assuming a basic wild west type setting, not sure what armor you're adding with the steam punk theme), the armor pretty much only covers the torso (and is surprising to have, remember Back to the Future 3, when Marty had the stove cover under his shirt and it surprised everyone?). If you disable a limb (easy as all hell to do with a sword and even 10 st) your opponent is going to be unable to reliably use a gun, or walk. Personally saying, if I were in a fight and my knee cap was blown out, I would not be doing much more than lying in pain on the ground. A gun fighter is also liable to have extremely low parry against a melee weapon.

It seems to me the main trick a lower tech fighter will have to use is surprise and get into melee range, along with other dirty tricks (I'll slice his neck unless you drop your weapons), or just closing melee before they've had a chance to draw and aim (which reasonably can take 3-4 seconds). Or throw things, if you have someone with a boomerang/bola type weapon (or heck, a base ball sized rock) you can knock a knee cap out or disarm a gun easily enough). Stealth and acrobatics are good elements to look for as well.

As cinematic and cool as it may be to want to have melee be on equal ground with ranged, ranged was created so melee could be eliminated before it got to you (from the age old invention of the thrown spear and sling, through bows, and guns). It has always been this way.

[SonofJohn]

You could go go for magnetic repulsion shields wich work for bullets but not for baldes, because of the demagnetising process for metal objects needs at least knife sized object to have a crystal structure wich can be reshaped in a way that it ignores personal magnetic protection fields.

The repulsor shields arent cheap for sure and there maybe some kind of ballistic trajectory technique wich alows to at least partially decrease its effect ... special ammunation from some kind of exotic lead wood would be an option to.

An A-State like setting were you cant afford a good gun would work too.

[jason taylor]

Traveller's way to do that is good. There is varying levels of tech, justified by econmic or political quirks or whatever the GM fancies; given that we are talking about myriads of whole planets it is not inconceivable. Furthermore even at high tech melee weapons have specialized uses. Dueling is obvious. And more mundanly a noble-merchant might prefer to have a sword with him if he has to go into a bazaar(a sword can be a lethal or non-lethal depending on the intentions and skill of the weilder, which gives it an advantage over a gun).

[Voren]

Cop/security based adventures make it easy to keep ranged and melee combat relevant without straining people's suspension of disbelief. Armor is limited; you have restricted rules of engagement; most combat happens at short ranges where you could well come to blows even if someone has a gun.

The best part is, it's all a matter of culture: apply laws and policies about 'reasonable use of force' to any tech level or setting.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

Traveller's way to do that is good. .

In my experience with Traveller, the only melee weapon that was ever used by PCs was a knife. In the back.

[Skotodes]

Originally Posted by Natael

I don't specifically doubt this statement, but do not recall seeing this rule before, can someone give me a citation? It'd be quite useful to be able to include it in my games.

Check the descriptions of hit locations in Campaigns. pi+ and pi++ weapons, as well as imp weapons, have reduced damage multipliers against limbs. If the PCs have large-caliber guns, this will reduce their effectiveness against limbs. Smaller-caliber guns aren't affected for some reason.

Sorry I can't give a page reference; I'm away from my books.

[combatmedic]

Originally Posted by jackbosha

So, I'm working on a sort of steampunky campaign with a pretty even focus on melee weapons (mostly fencing swords) and ranged weapons, but i've run into a problem: DR. If i have a party of a few players, some who primarily use melee weapons and some who primarily use firearms, I have no idea what equipment to give their foes. Any DR low enough that weapons like fencing swords (that do about 1d imp damage if ST is around 12 or 13) could have any effect at all would enable firearm using players to blow foes away with ridiculous ease. Any DR high enough to offer decent protection from firearms would make the wearer virtually invulnerable to damage from swords.

How do I make this campaign challenging?

Steampunk? I'm assuming TL 5, then.



My advice is create a society in which melee weapons and sword duels are pefectly legal - but guns are restricted to certain classes: soldiers, maybe aristocratic hunters, etc.

Of course, criminals will use guns, even if they have to make their own. Cheap pot-iron zip guns that occasionaly blow up in your hand might be common. Of course, well-equipped crooks will have stolen military rifles, handguns,etc.

EDIT- A possible expansion for the legal duelling idea: the law allows for the hiring of champions. This has led to the rise of a class of professional swordsmen that handle 'affairs of honor.' These guys fight for real, to first blood and occasionaly to the death. Because of that, they are trained in serious swordsmanship, not just the 'sport form' stuff.

[SuedodeuS]

One option to make melee competitive is breastplates. They protect well against attacks to the front, but leave one exposed from behind. Thus, at melee range, it is possible to maneuver behind the enemy and attack where he is unarmored. Note this will require somewhat-cinematic swordsmen - but if you want melee competitive, you generally have to do that anyway.

Another option is to take advantage of the fact your setting is steampunk, so you can introduce exotic clockwork weapons. One class would be impact weapons. These are basically retractable blades/spikes that are deployed at high speeed by clockwork gears, springs, and maybe some air pressure. The mechanisms give it more punch than the character could muster, and they are activated upon striking. My favorite is the clockwork katar/pata. This is a gauntlet that, upon punching something, deploys a blade into the target. 3d imp or so for the initial deployment (in addition to the punch, although that is unlikely to get through armor) might be appropriate. Thereafter the weapon can be used as a typical katar or pata (GURPS Large Katar). Another example would be a clockwork warhammer. In this case, you have something like a maul/sledgehammer that deploys a spike upon impact.
A second class would be, well, vibroweapons. Using clockwork mechanisms in the hilt, they make the blade vibrate at high speed for short periods of time. Cutting and impaling vibroweapons have a (3) armor divisor and gain +1d6 to any cutting damage. Scaling this (from UT) down due to the fact you're dealing with TL5^ or so would be appropriate.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by jackbosha

How do I make this campaign challenging?

Pimp the swords in the setting. Imagine if they were as good as katanas. Or if that's not enough, make them almost as good as light sabers.

[combatmedic]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

Pimp the swords in the setting. Imagine if they were as good as katanas. Or if that's not enough, make them almost as good as light sabers.

Katanas...LOL!
Good one, Peter.