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Wednesday, June 1, 2022

Defensive Aura of Nobility

I know GURPS has a rule like this, but I can't find it anywhere.

This is mostly tongue in cheek, but it might work. Plus it lets me quote the extremely quotable English Bob, who pretty much just has amazing lines from start to finish.

In any case, let's go nuts with one of his lines.

Aura of Nobility
"Well there's a dignity to royalty. A majesty that precludes the likelihood of assassination. If you were to point a pistol at a king or a queen your hands would shake as though palsied."
- English Bob, Unforgiven

Sufficient status is defensive - a serf, a commoner, a plebian just can't willy-nilly use violence against knights, dukes, and kings. Against an armed, higher-status foe, you suffer a -1 to hit and -1 to defend for every 2 levels of Status above your own, round up. For example, a Status 0 commoner would be at a -1 to hit or defend against a Status 1 or 2 noble, -2 against one of Status 3 or 4, etc.

Against an unarmed noble, you are at -1 per rank of Status above your own. A Status -2 serf would have a -9 against a Status 7 royal! Unmarred by a threat of reciprocal violence, their dignity and majesty can overwhelm a potential assassin.




This hasn't been remotely tested and is likely completely unfair. Enjoy!

5 comments:

  1. I think that it first shows up in GURPS Goblins, with slightly different parameters.

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    1. That sounds about right. I don't have that book anymore to look at, unless it's in storage somewhere.

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  2. I like this, and would probably just give the lower class attacker Disadvantage.

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    1. I think that makes sense for a game that uses Disadvantage.

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  3. I like that it's sort of like a social scaling mook rule. You might even be able to convert that to a Mookiness trait so people just not worthy of you will fall before you mook-style and only real opponents will face you. That seems like it'd be at home in a kungfu movie-style game

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