RE: Re: My AP problems

From: Richard Develyn <Richard.Develyn_at_...>
Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2000 17:23:20 +0100


From: Michael W. Ryan [mailto:mryan_at_...]
>> If Arab is first actor, he tries the Flashy sword play, then switches to
>> sword. APs are Indy 6, Arab 17. Indy can at most gamble 6 APs per bullet
>> shot (switching action), whereas the Arab with his sword can gamble 17.
Even
>> if the Arab hands over APs on the first encounter, unless he hands over
>> *lots* allowing Indy to make his bullets worth more than 6, the odds are
>> still that he'll win it.

>This isn't the case.

I'm not quite sure what you're saying isn't.

>You are not required to defend with the same skill
>as the attacker. Indy could defend with any ability that he felt was
>appropriate/advantagous, subject to improvisation modifiers.

It comes to the same thing, though. You are either forced to use an ability you're weak at or an ability you're strong at with a hefty improv penalty. This wouldn't be a problem if it was just for one round but unfortunately what is used in the first round determines your starting APs (and, through this, the maximum you can bid if you have fewer APs in your pool than this).

From: Hannu Kokko [mailto:Hannu.Kokko_at_...]

>I think this might be thought that the Assassin 1 decides to force Duke to
>use secondary ability by getting very,very close to him and grabbing him
>hand-to-hand. Duke did not have the sword out at the start of the fight.
>Duke struggles by using his Strength or Hand-to-hand which apparently is
>very much poorer than his mighty Swordmanship xw1 or whatever. Assassin
>continues to hold him in a lengthy fight while assassin's partners
overpower
>the duke and someone delivers after a fight coup de grace. During the fight
>Duke manages to kill or wound several of the assassins by using improvised
>weapon on his poorer arm. IMHO this might be the way to picture what it
>means "to force someone to use their poorer ability". YMMV.

I would handle the above scenario using the assassin 1's attempt as a separate contest. Then the Duke takes on the group (disabled or not) using extended contest.

Doing the whole lot with extended contest runs into problems if the assassin fails. Even if he fails miserably, the Duke is still forced to use his lower skill to determine his initial APs. That doesn't seem right.

Richard

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