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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 8799636" data-attributes="member: 4937">Well, theoretically, yes.  I agree with you.  You can do that.But then you run into the next problem.  If you have a FATE type system where the proposition also sets the stakes, how hard should you make the fortune given that the stake may be effectively "I win."?   Like what happens when NPCs start setting stakes like, "I stab the PC in the armpit/groin/throat/eye"?  Are NPCs not allowed to set stakes in order protect the PCs from instant death?  But if NPCs and PCs are playing by different rules are you losing an aesthetic of challenge since PCs just are inherently advantaged and everyone can see that from the rules?  One problem I've had with implementing called shots is that it's very hard to set the difficulty of a called shot in such a way that attacking a particular body part every time isn't the winning strategy in all situations.  This happens whether you make the called shot an optional stunt or required declaration of each attack.  An example of the breaking point for me is I realized in one system that I created and thought was looking pretty good was that "called shot (eye)" was pretty much what you should do every round versus a dragon or other heavily armored beast.  Does it make sense for Robin Hood to shoot out the eyes of a dragon?  At some level yes, but at the same time we now have a horrible balance problem.  Turning back to Pendragon, how much more difficult does the attack roll need to be if the reward is effectively +16 damage?  Bypassing armor is like getting a critical hit on every successful attack.  So it's hard to set one linear modifier that balances the advantage of the attack versus difficulty of achieving it.So then if you start trying to break down what goes into making a called shot difficulty you end up with potential fiddly status effects like, "Does the opponent suspect what body part you want to attack?"  And that could get really fiddly in a hurry if you are going to test that, but it's even fiddly if you just assign an additional penalty if you called a shot on that body part for your last attack.  The sort of cinematic fights people love and want to have happen in their fiction involve fighters pulling all sorts of tricks, but if you do this process of play and don't have fiddly conditions and stances one result you get is everyone is trying to pull the same trick every single time.  Abstract systems may avoid that by allowing you to apply different narrations to the abstract results.Another thing that I have tried is that you have to obtain some advantage over the opponent before you can call a shot on difficult target.  So maybe you have to do a successful feint maneuver the prior round in order to get a chance to hit a target like an armpit, groin, or throat.  But again, you see how this increases the complexity of the rules way past "if they roll well, then it happens".And what exactly should the implementation of that stake look like?  For example, should the target now suffer a specific status effect like "Crippled left shoulder" given that we know now the fiction has been changed by the concrete event of a dagger in the arm pit?</blockquote>

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