Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Water Bob" data-source="post: 5684456" data-attributes="member: 92305">I haven't used it enough yet for an honest reply.  We're only had four game sessions so far, with the fifth coming up in two days.  We've done a lot of roleplaying and really no combat to speak of--one one fight.  In that fight, a tie came up and the result was a sunder.  That actually worked quite well, turning the combat into something more than just I-hit-you-hit. You're not a fan of Critical Fumble System, but make note that this isn't a critical fumble system.  It's just a fumble system.  Notice the results on the chart are all non-lethal (the Counter Attacks are not on the Fumble Chart).  No real damage results from any of the outcomes (though the fumble can certainly lead to some deadly situations). The outcomes damage your equipment, can make you prone or make you drop your weapon, or you take non-lethal damage. I don't think I will make a similar chart for ranged weapons--the same idea doesn't "play" with distance weapons.       Example of the System in Use, rolling real dice with two PCs from my game.  I'll write as I roll.... Caelis wins nish, approaches Silaigne, and attacks him.  Caelis is using two hatchets, while Silaigne uses a spear and shield. The swing is too early.  Caelis overreaches, and Silaigne easily counters with a poke of his critter sticker.  Caelis bats the spear away with his right hand hatchet, then moves deeper inside Silaigne's guard with slamming both hatches down on his enemy.  One swings for his shoulder, while the other is an uppercut to Silaigne's rib cage. Silaigne bats away the shoulder attack with his shield but takes the full brunt of the uppercut.  (With a 1st level character, this blow of 10 points nearly kills him.  He's got 3 points left. The spearman staggers backward, favoring his side, then jabs his spear at Caelis right thigh.  Caelis bats the speartip away and returns two more blows, but Silaigne's shield deflects both of them. A quick jerk, and Silaigne rams his spear up towards his opponent's chin.  Caelis is too slow.  The tip catches him under the jawbone and draws a bloody streak across his cheek almost to his ear.  (Siliagne now does 9 pts on Caelis, leaving Caelis with just 1 hit point.  Whomever hits next will win the fight). Caelis screams a war cry and uses both hatches to chop at his foe like praying mantis piercing prey.  Both impact on Silaigne's shield. Then, the Cimmerian follows through with a low, piercing motion to Caelis' gut.  The strike is just about mortal.  Silaigne shoves the spear deep into Caelis' stomach--so much so that the spear's metal tip disappears into flesh.   Caelis' eyes go wide.  He drops both hatchets just before his knees buckle.  Silaigne rips the spear backwards, retrieving it, as Caelis hands move to cover his wound...just as Caelis' eyes flutter and roll back in his head as he passes out.  (Caelis is at -9 HP from that blow.  It doesn't look good for him.)   Since I didn't force the system above to happen, waiting to see what would happen, this didn't turn out to be a very good example of the system in play, did it?  But, it does show that the system above is uses sparingly.   The system is supposed to reproduce the type of fighting seen in this combat scene from the movie Centurion: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b6got4G4Ys]Fight scene from the film Centurion 2010. - YouTube[/ame]   So far, I think it does that quite well. For example, say Caelis rolls a "1" on his attack throw, and Silaigne gets a "grapple" result.  Silaigne doesn't have to take advantage of the grapple.  The grapple counts as one of Silaigne's Attacks of Opportunity.  But, this allows Silaigne the opportunity to drop his spear, grab Caelis (with the grapple), and then on the next round, draw his hunting blade and slit Caelis' throat as with some of the moments in the scene I post above.     One of the things this system does do is bring Sunder, Disarm, Trip, Grapple, and Unarmed Non-lethal Attacks into the game much more often than they are used in the game now.  I think these types of attacks aren't used often because, with the foe getting an AoO on the attacker, most players won't risk the extra damage that can come from the AoO. With this system, the foe doesn't get that AoO, and thus attempting a Sunder or a Trip is more "safe". The game is still "fair" because it's all decided by dice.  A player can't abuse the system.  If a player wants to attempt a Disarm normally, then he also has to suffer the AoO the foe gets normally.     One other thing that this system does is keep characters alive a bit longer.  How?  Well, normally, if an attacker rolls a tie, then the attack succeeds.  With this system, that attack is replaced by an attack that does non-lethal damage or no damage at all. The same thing when a "1" is rolled for defense.  That attack would normally do damage to the character but is, instead, replaced by a non-lethal attack. And, as another balancing factor, the number of attacks provided by this system is limited to a character's total number of AoOs for the round. Most characters only get one AoO per round.  Thus, if a character gets unlucky and rolls a "1" on his attack and then again on his defense, most foes will only be able to take advantage of one of those fumble attacks (Combat Reflexes and a High Dex needed to take adavante of more AoOs).     This rule makes Combat Reflexes more important than it was before, and I like that.       To sum up... 1.  The rule makes melee combat more exciting by allowing attacks not normally used in a game. 2.  The rule is geared towards keeping PCs alive longer by replacing some normal attacks that would hit with non-lethal attacks that may or may not hit and cause damage on the PC. 3.  The rule makes Combat Reflexes a more valuable Feat than it was before.</blockquote>

Verification