>> A fairly standard fantasy* trope is the unarmored guy who relies on
> Dodge
>> and Precise Strikes (the "Rapier guy takes down fully-armored knight"
>> trick), or just Dodge and wait for the knight to exhaust himself.
>
> Sure, but that just demonstrates that his Dodge skill is at least 5
> higher than the knight's combat skill. Having armour should help, IMO,
> but if the other guy's skill in combat/dodge/whatever is much higher
> than yours, it may not help *enough*.
It's a sraight "Armored Knight 5w vrs Rapier Guy 5w" contest. The Armored guy's armor is offset by Rapier guy's precision strikes, the knight's sword by his Dodge. It's an even fight.
I'll also note that neither Conan nor tarzan ever felt terribly inconvenienced by having no armor :-).
>> My sensai
>> taught Filipino knife strikes designed to go around armor
>
> A specific ability that neutralises the other guy's advantage (as
> would, say, Squirt Poison Gas), rather than a 'dramatically
> appropriate' situation, I'd have said.
No, they were standard strikes. Those strikes were part of "Filipino Knife Fighting" that incidently goes around armor protection (it also neatly evicerates an opponent, or strikes down into the chest cavity behind the collar bone, depending on whether your using a rising or falling strike). The thing is that it's *not* a distinct abiltiy from "Flilipino Knife Fighting, but an integral part.
Now, having armor hidden under your shirt might be a reason for a situational bonus - if I don't know you'rve got armor, I might not use those particular strikes (since there are *many* strikes in knife fighting...) - at least until the armor is revealed, then I can work with that knowledge and strike where the armor isn't..
>>(Helmet and back &
>> breast, rather than full armor, but the "full armor" of, say, the 15th
>> century isn't available on Glorantha).
>
> Away from the main point, but I'm not so sure that's true in Loskalm.
Well, you're the West expert, but "Norman-equivalent" was the description from long ago.
>> Ambush/surprise attacks - Naked Guy with Dagger is able to attack Big
>> Bruiser In Armor before BBIA is able to mount a defense.
>
> If what Robin is talking about is this sort of tactical circumvention
> of the armour bonus then, yeah, I wouldn't disagree with him. Perhaps
> I'm misinterpreting what he means by 'dramatically appropriate'.
No he's saying that unless Armor is dramatically integral to the scene, it's not important enough to model *all* the time.
"Tactical circumvention" is part of the NGWD's repertoire, part of his "Dagger fighting 5w" or whatever; just as the armor, shield and sword are integral to the knight's "Fight like a knight 5w".
RR
He was born with the gift of laughter and the sense that the world was mad
R. Sabatini, Scaramouche
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