Re: a coup de grace is not a parting shot

From: Roderick and Ellen Robertson <rjremr_at_...>
Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2000 10:24:37 -0700

>> I thought you meant parting shots. Coup de grace is for killing
>> helpless opponents; it's not a way to increase the victory level,
>> like parting shots are (explained in HW p141).

>Oh, but it is. A 'dead' (well, 'dying') opponent is at the 'complete
>defeat' victory level.

The Coup de Grace rule was intended to let the players kill their opponents in combat - kill, not "render mostly dead" and still subject to healing/Last-gasp heroics, etc.

A Non-combat coup de grace is possible, but the person recieving the coup would be "dead" in the area of the struggle - The great Orator hit with a coup de grace would lose his "Orate" skill (or at least any chance of using it among the listeners of the contest in which he was defeated).

I would not allow a coup to Integrate a spirit, as Mikaal says it would Kill the spirit (make it unusable for anything).

Complete defeat isn't (quite) death, that is up to the narrator. A coup *is* death.

RR