Going to GenCon

[Jake Norwood]

Okay, we're off to GenCon, so ol' Jake Norwood won't be around for a while. Be nice and kill each other cleanly. Keep the good threads up--when I came back from Origins it was pretty dead in here, but we've got a new burst of life and I like it.

I'll be back Sunday night or Monday morning.

Jake

[Brian Leybourne]

Keep the good threads up--when I came back from Origins it was pretty dead in here, but we've got a new burst of life and I like it.
Jake

Hey, what can we say - without you the world just seemed so dull and grey and we lost the will to post. :-)

Brian.

[Jake Norwood]

Here's a topic to post on:

What is your "style" in combat? Agressive first? Defensive? Favorite maneuvers and weapons?

Why?

Jake

[Mokkurkalfe]

Alright.

I often use something and heater shield. With something, I mean whatever is appropriate for the opponent at hand. If I can, I try to have arming sword and morning star available.

Then, my favourite maneuver is to attack with, say, 70% of my dice. Hopefully the other guy parries with 80%, and probably succeeds. When he uses his remaining 20% to attack, I go for a sim block/strike, blocking with 15-20%(just enough) and attacking with the rest.
Basically, as soon as I have enough dice to guarantee a block, I attack with the "surplus".

Since this usually isn't gonna give any serious wounds, the morning star is excellent for whipping up some serious BL. Obviously, this doesn't work very good against armour.

After the modification, Stop Short is actually quite good. If the attributes are in your favor, then it's an easy way of robbing the other guy for some dice, and he can't do anything about it. Then there's just one exchange left, where one schmacks him over the head.

Overall, I prefer to use the defensive maneuvers to create an opening, and then exploit it.

[Lance D. Allen]

I find in real life combat (SCA style, that is) that I am forced to be very aggressive. I fight with a two-handed bastard sword, and so will usually have length over my opponents (unless they're polearms, spearmen, or greatsworders) but they will usually have superior defense (ie, a shield). If I don't kill them quickly before they can settle into a stout defense, or keep them at distance with aggressive attacks and high mobility, they're going to get into my guard and mince me up. Though I've never fought with a greatsword or similar weapon in TRoS, I've observed a few duels which seem to support this in-game as well. This weapon is not intended for defensive strategies.

With Tiberius, however, it's different. Fighting against a few different styles, I've noted that it's in his best interest to stay on the defense until he can get a shot in against a light defense. Once he's connected, whether or not the shot was sufficient to do damage, then he goes on the aggressive, because he's in their face, and he's going to do his damnedest to stay there, because it gives them a penalty, and keeps him from getting one. Once Tiberius can close with an opponent, it's generally over for them. I'll need to fight a few other weapon styles to be certain, but this appears to work best against those I have fought.

[Lyrax]

My players haven't yet discovered that the all-out first strike isn't the best idea.

>-D

Heheheee

[Lance D. Allen]

It can be, though. I killed a more experienced fighter tonight by doing just that; A single, committed thrust as soon as we were engaged. He landed a light blow to my shoulder, but by then he was already dead. Mind, it didn't work a second time...

It simply takes judgement to know when to do so, and when not to. In this case, I knew a slash was coming, and opted to make it a double red engagement, relying on my own speed, and the additional speed of a thrust to get my attack in first, and committed everything to make sure he was dead before his strike could effect me. Other times I tried it against the same opponent it did not work because he was on his guard for it.

[Mokkurkalfe]

Take heed! Thy doom is upon thee!
Daemons lurk in the swadows, waiting to gnaw the flesh from thy bones, whilst thee cry in agonizing pain.

In other words...Jake is back!!!

[Mike Holmes]

In other words...Jake is back!!!

Heh, you sound like a prophet trumpeting the arrival of some messiah.

As long as we're at it, did you make it back in one peice, Jake?

Mike

[Mokkurkalfe]

Heh, you sound like a prophet trumpeting the arrival of some messiah.

Ain't I?

[Jake Norwood]

Heh, you sound like a prophet trumpeting the arrival of some messiah.

Ain't I?

Uh...what does that make me...?

I'm actually planning on writing up "my first GenCon" for the web page. In short, I ran something like 15 demos of TROS, got to play Sorcerer with Jason Blair (little fears), Ron Edwards, and Peter Adkinson (who owns GenCon and used to own WoTC...in Peter's presidential swuite, no less!).

There were a ton of fun games and other wierdness, and I slept about 24 hours over all 5 nights...not good! But we gamed, ah, did we game. Harass Gordon Landis, Valamir, and Mike Holmes about our visit to Fahal...

Jake

I had one hell of a fan-boy kind of time.

[Mokkurkalfe]

Uh...what does that make me...?

The main character in a movie where an innocent game designer gets mixed up with some messiah.

[Lance D. Allen]

"The Life of Jake", by Monty Python?

[Todd Bogenrief]

Thanks for the demo! It was a blast! Everyone in my gaming group picked up a copy of the book. :)

[Mokkurkalfe]

"The Life of Jake", by Monty Python?

Exactly!