situational question, Oscar (again) and a wargamer's pitch on HW combat

From: Steve Lieb <styopa_at_...>
Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 15:42:54 -0800


As was just posted in the Digest, Gonn Orta has "Large 5w5".

Could this be used as a defense in the sense of "ignore puny attacker"?

As a Narrator, could you then give an attacker a major edge - on the order of a bump-up - because said Giant is practically impossible to miss?

Oh yeah - in regards the Oscar Wilde vs. Berserk Troll, I would treat the skills much like I would have treated them in RQ. I.e. Oscar wants to use his Rapier Wit 15w3 as an attack or defense? Sure, go ahead and declare it.

Then I, as the evil narrator get to determine a) the chance of Oscar even speaking a tongue that the Troll could understand sufficiently to make instant sense of - i.e. a native or near-native level of speech.
b) probably grant the troll the use of his Berserk as a defense versus (i.e. to ignore) the Rapier Wit. If Oscar's using Rapier Wit as a defense, he'd have to initially win a simple contest to even have his rapier wit APPLY. If not, he'd be considered not defending.

As a narrator, I would probably strongly suggest that Oscar use his Wit to give him an edge while he was dodging or something (a, above, would still apply, tho) - but even WITH Rapier Wit 15w3, Oscar would be rather stupid to rely on it to save his life.

In regards the somewhat fanciful nature of HW combat, I'm finding myself roughly agreeing with Michael Cule. I prefer a more simulationist combat, rather than a "movielike" combat. But I think that with enough tweaking, the HW combat rules could be made to suit even grognards.
For example, one might apply the rule that AP losses MUST be taken as wounds. I think that would lead to a "wearing down" of combatants that feels more realistic. Possibly requiring a minimum bid of 5 or even 6 AP would FORCE combats to be more nasty, brutish, and short. Forcing each combatant to accumulate d6 AP's in "fatigue" (used as a penalty for any subsequent contest without rest) for each bid might do the same, so even a winning combatant of a long fight WOULD seek to rest and recouperate.

These are top-of-the-head suggestions, feel free to demolish. I'm just thinking that I like the AP mechanic fundamentally, and that it will only take some tweaking to get it to result in outcomes that make sense to me.

My $.02.

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