Set Spear vs. charging opponent

From: Dick Kingman <rtkingman_at_...>
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 00:58:29 -0400

The following are some thoughts I have had after reading some of the various discussions the last few weeks. And as a standard disclaimer: Your Gloranthan May Vary (mine certainly does based on some of the examples I have seen).

Set Spear vs. charging opponent:
This is one of those times that I think need to you decide what you think should happen and then look for ways to make it happen within the rules you are using, with as little bending as possible. Here is one suggestion, with options:
A combat opens and the attacker (actor) states that his character mounted on a horse will charge the enemy spearman. The defender (opponent) states that he will set his spear to defend against the charging enemy. You as narrator have decided that "set spear vs charge" is an acceptable tactic in cases like this. The horse is providing 25AP for its rider. You expect that if the spearman is successful, he will, at the least, make the horse shy away and quite possibly take out the horse. The AP bid is resolved. If the actor (horseman) wins, resolve normally. If the spearman wins, you apply your "special rules". Say a 1x loss victory is the horse shied away from the spear and the actor's character is trying to regain control. A 2x or 3x loss skewered the horse, but in order for the horse to be taken out, the AP lost needs to at least be equal to the horse's AP provided to the rider. You could give a "situational modifier" to the spearman that is bonus equal to the 25AP the horse provided. You have to decide whether to apply it before the multipliers, like a normal edge, or after as simply additional APs lost. (If before, it really becomes 50 or 75APs lost, which is seems pretty grim.) And the horse is out of the fight and the rider is now dismounted.
Other considerations-
- Make the extra AP loss added after the fact for a 2x loss 25APs and 50APs
for a 3x loss.
- The horse is out of the fight and probably should be seriously injured or
dying, even if the horseman wins.
- The horse is out of the fight, unless the horseman gets enough APs back by
transfers to bring the horse back into the fight. It only looked like the horse was skewered, it actually stumbled trying to avoid the spear and fell down. Take an unrelated action to remount.
- This assumed that the horse provided APs to the horseman. If the horse is
only being used to provide an augmentation or edge, then this is not appropriate. Appling an edge to the spearman based on the horse would work. Maybe equal to the edge the horseman was trying for (or the edge equivalent of the augmentation, that is, 2 times the augmentation). Or a flat value based an ability of the horse (like as run fast or large) such as +2 edge for each 5 points of the ability. Or let the spearman roll for the edge he gets if he wins the bid.

Dick