Erol K. Bayburt <ErolB1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes:
> Has anyone played, or even heard of, a combat system where "studying
> an opponent" works as a short term combat tactic? Where the longer a
> character fights an opponent (or observes an opponent being fought)
> the bigger the bonus the character has to hit that opponent?
GURPS 4e divides combat into one-second rounds; each character in the
combat chooses one maneuver each round. What you describe is, in GURPS
4e, the "Evaluate" maneuver.
GURPS 4e Basic Set, page 364:
Evaluate
This maneuver is the melee combat equivalent of Aim. It lets you
take time to study an adversary in order to gain a combat bonus on
a subsequent attack. ... You are sizing him up and looking for the
right moment to strike.
An Evaluate maneuver gives you +1 to skill for the purpose of an
[attack maneuver] made against *that opponent*, *on your next turn
only*. You may take multiple, consecutive Evaluate maneuvers
before you strike, giving a ***ulative +1 per turn, to a maximum
of +3.
> I'm thinking that such a system might be a way to use an
> "experienced combatants are hard to hit" mechanic rather than an
> "experienced combatants have a lot of hit points" one, without
> running into the high-variance problem of the former.
Yes, that's exactly what the GURPS 4e "Evaluate" maneuver is meant to
simulate: using one's skill, rather than massive force, to increase
the odds of hitting a combatant with high defenses.
> This could also reduce the power of surprise, and might encourage
> the sort of "omega strike" tactics seen in cinematic
> combats. Instead of leading off with their best attacks as "alpha
> strikes," combatants would exchange shots while saving their best,
> "special" attacks for as long as possible to maximize their
> effectiveness - using them as what I call "omega strikes" by analogy
> to the standard real-world tactic of opening with alpha strikes.
Another maneuver in GURPS 4e is "All-Out Attack" (Basic Set p. 365),
which is essentially choosing to lower one's own defenses in an effort
to emphasise an attack. The emphasis can be one of "Determined" (to
increase the skill to hit), "Double" (to attack the foe twice),
"Feint" (to make a quick feint lowering the opponent's defense and an
immediate follow-up attack), and "Strong" (to increase the damage if
the attack succeeds).
These and other mechanics allow for highly-skilled fighters to face
each other and, rather than both of them waiting for a lucky blow that
gets past the other's high defenses, actually use their high combat
skills to lower those defenses. (This addresses a common complaint of
previous GURPS editions: that combat between highly-skilled combatants
dragged on forever since only critical hits would have any effect.)
It also allows highly-skilled fighters to be outnumbered by
low-skilled foes and (in following with fictional tradition) use their
high skills to even the odds in various ways.
--
\ "I was trying to daydream, but my mind kept wandering." -- |
`\ Steven Wright |
_o__) |
Ben Finney
|
