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Inactive Forums => The Riddle of Steel => Topic started by: Mokkurkalfe on December 16, 2002, 02:40:09 PM

Title: A few things...
Post by: Mokkurkalfe on December 16, 2002, 02:40:09 PM
Played this weekend and a few things came me up.

* What's the best defence(s) against an evasive attack, if someone uses it instead of defending himself?

* What's the highest roll anyone got on an open d10? Since you get a Luck point for the highest roll, the players keep track of this. So far, the standing record here is 49.

* On a side note, the book says that there is no generic damage or hit points, yet in the appendix, there is a generic damage table.
Title: Re: A few things...
Post by: Bob Richter on December 16, 2002, 06:46:11 PM
Quote from: MokkurkalfePlayed this weekend and a few things came me up.

* What's the best defence(s) against an evasive attack, if someone uses it instead of defending himself?

* What's the highest roll anyone got on an open d10? Since you get a Luck point for the highest roll, the players keep track of this. So far, the standing record here is 49.

* On a side note, the book says that there is no generic damage or hit points, yet in the appendix, there is a generic damage table.

1 -- Armor, and prayer
2 -- Dunno, actually.
3 -- That's for "elemental effects", like fire and acid.
Title: Re: A few things...
Post by: Brian Leybourne on December 16, 2002, 07:02:52 PM
Quote from: Mokkurkalfe* What's the best defence(s) against an evasive attack, if someone uses it instead of defending himself?

Making a small blood sacrifice to the goddess of luck :-)

Essentially, when you attack someone and he responds with Evasive Attack or Simultaneous Block/Strike you're in trouble. Hope your armor and toughness are up to it...

Jake has also mentioned once or twice that Luck dice can be used in that situation as effective blocking dice, i.e. to reduce the attack sucesses against you.

One thing that constant playing around with the combat sim has taught me is that he who strikes rashly is dead. I'm only going to defend if your attack scares me, so if you attack with small die pools I'll just counter attack (evasive and sim b/s being popular picks). If you attack with large pools, I wont because there's no point skewering you if I get mortally wounded in the process.

Brian.
Title: A few things...
Post by: Lyrax on December 16, 2002, 07:20:50 PM
1 (Evasive Attack Defense). Hope he doesn't hit you.

2 (Highest Roll). I once made a 33.  Ashren Va'hale, who is in my group, once achieved a 55.
Title: A few things...
Post by: Jake Norwood on December 16, 2002, 10:26:53 PM
2- 60-something, by my wife, who rolls like that.

3-Bob's right. What I mean by "generic damage" is something that can't be described with any authority...like "you lost 6hp)

Jake
Title: A few things...
Post by: Mokkurkalfe on December 17, 2002, 02:48:43 AM
So the best defence against an evasive attack is to pray hard and fast, then?
Title: A few things...
Post by: Ron Edwards on December 17, 2002, 12:30:27 PM
Hi there,

Speaking as someone who fights folks for fun (and occasionally for not-fun, in the past) ... yup, when you're faced with a competent "evasive attack," it sucks to be you. An enormous part of effective fighting is dealing with someone's very dangerous all-out attack by "defense" that harms him. Easy to say, hard to master.

A lot of mid-level trained fighting has a rock'em sock'em robot look to it. The two opponents square off and try to bludgeon one another with faster, harder hits until one falls. This isn't especially advised, although it can work if you're huge and it is entertaining to many observers (e.g. heavyweight boxing). A more effective mode for most people is to pre-empt one's opponent with (in sword terms) ripostes or stop-thrusts, which relies greatly on speed and reaction time. This is all right, and it's the basis for a lot of sport-competition, especially point-based ones like fencing or martial-arts tournaments.

However, the "way of the intercepting fist," "evasive attack," or "diverting block to strike," or whatever you want to call it, is vastly more dangerous, and I think the rules of TROS reflect that nicely. By dangerous, what I mean is twofold: the consequences to the opponent when you do it well, and the consequences to you when you don't.

Best,
Ron
Title: A few things...
Post by: Warboss Grock on December 18, 2002, 10:48:06 PM
I have allways thought the proper defense against an evasive attack is to have a reputation  for feinting. That makes the opponent think twice about his manuvers, and makes them more careful.

On your third point... the generic damage table, that is based off Energy damage, You know the like, Combusting ones shirt/armor and electrical damage. Bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing just don't work, the effect tends to spread to the whole body, and third degree burns hurt like heck.

I hope i left a bit of insight.