Saturday, March 25, 2017

Minimized Unarmed Options in my DF Felltower Game

In my DF Felltower game, I tried to cut down on the options available to cut down decision analysis-paralysis.

In other words, although GURPS Martial Arts is full of techniques, in order to keep rules lookups down and keep play moving, I basically cut all techniques down to a minimum:


Strikes

Punch - per Basic Set
Kick - per Basic Set
Headbutt, Elbow, Forearm smash, etc. - as a Punch, but -1 to hit, uses a different striking surface. Surface determines penalties and damage bonuses (grappled and both hands locked up? Head butt works. Plate on your arms and do a forearm smash? +1 damage, etc. Elbow strikes can hit behind while you are grappled, etc.) Generally I'll find a way to allow almost any kind of strike for a -1 and a slight change.
Knees - per Basic Set

Everything else fits in there somewhere.

Grapples

Grapple - per Technical Grappling, inflicts CP.
Break Free - per Technical Grappling, inflicts CP against CP.

Locks & Wrenches

Arm Lock - per Basic Set
Neck Snap - per Basic Set
Wrench (anything) - per Martial Arts
Chokes, Constriction Attack, etc. - per Basic Set
Judo Throw - per Basic Set's attack variation, never uses a contest.

Not a lot of changes, so much as a simplification. So if you see someone toss a headbutt in my games, or a knee, or smash down an elbow, or whatever, it's just a single change. We don't have to look up a lot to get people striking in all sorts of interesting ways.

And it should go without saying, but if I ran a Martial Arts centered game, I'd turn on the options and use all the detail in the book.

6 comments:

  1. Im trying to find a way to insert some of TG into my game and it keeps being too much. How exactly do you use CP in your game? Does it provide the penalty to DX and ST? Does the reduced ST affect that person's CP available to break free? Does that change every round?

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    Replies
    1. I can't say exactly, because Doug and I are still looking at writing something based on what I've done to it. Basically it's simplified but the core mechanical ideas - grapples inflict CP, breaking free reduces them, CP reduces ST and DX, reduce ST and DX reduce damage - are the same. We just made some of them broader and simpler so things don't change every turn.

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  2. What about sweet flying kicks for the martial artists?

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