On Tuesday, January 20, 2004 3:17 PM, Rob wrote:
>
> If a player (Humakti) says I want to 'Decapitate Foe' (Death
> Affinity) and scores a complete victory (through bumps, good dice or
> sheer mastery!) as a narrator do we assume the foe is decapitated if
> the AP's are not reduced to zero let alone -30 or more. And if
> allowed, what happens when fighting a major 'baddie'?
How I'd handle it depends on the situation:
- The Humakti is facing goons.
If he's fighting the equivalent of a bunch of stormtroopers in Star Wars, then
it's probably a Simple Contest rather than an Extended Contest. In this case,
it's all a single roll, so our Humakti *has* got a Complete Victory. Generally,
though, I assume that goons aren't important, so you could treat any level of
victory as being good enough to go lopping off heads if you want and it seems
like a cool thing to do.
- Facing a more "important" foe.
In this case, we're definitely looking at an Extended Contest. In this case,
I'd play everything by the AP. You only chop someone's head off if you get a
Complete Victory (-30 AP). I find it helpful to assume an implicit "Try To" at
the start of feats like Decapitate Foe. It only does what it says on the packet
if you perform the feat very well. The way this translates into AP bids does
give us a nice cinematic feel to combat, though. Where you might have:
> An "all or nothing" attempt to sever that head (high AP bid) that could leave
you open to a devastating counter.
> Spending some time "wearing down" the opponent by making smaller AP bids and
other actions before you finish him off with your decapitation attack. This
simulates the fight scenes in, say, Highlander, staking vampires in Buffy the
Vampire Slayer* or cinematic martial arts movies/games where people have a
spectacular "finishing move".
And, like Andy said, if you're facing someone who has followers, then a large
loss of AP might represent the fact that you chopped a follower's head off.
Regards,
Bruce