> From: "steven mathers" <stevenmathers_at_...>
>One weird thing that came to mind is missile combat.
>
>The rules suggest playing this as an extended combat, but that doesnt
>make logical or dramatic sense to me.
>
>For instance, as one of the dog-headed beings was fleeing the combat,
>one of the player characters, a hunter, tossed a spear after it. Now
>this seems to me to be an absolute outcome thing. Dramatically
>speaking, either the spear lodges in the creatures back, or hits it
>in the leg or whatever, and the thing is brought down, or else it
>misses and the dog-head scoots off into the darkness.
>
>Surely this must be a simple contest of spear throwing ability vs.
>speed/agility/dodge or distance or something? The degree of success
>of the simple contest giving the degree of harm to the target from
>"none, and thanks for the spear" at one end of the scale to "urk,
>gurgle, thud" at the other?
>
>I just dont see missile combat in any situation being an extended
>contest at all -- dramatically or otherwise. Every movie Ive ever
>seen of such things...the targets of the missile fire either take it
>on the shield and laugh, or go down in a heap.
I had the same experience and (nearly always) resolve missile combat as
simple contests. Other narrators differ. My advice to go with whatever
works in context and which your players feel comfortable with. The main
drawbacks of this approach are: factoring in weapon/armour (so far
something we've been able to ignore), missile weapon being potentially very
deadly (I've tried to avoid this by making opportunities for missile combat
less frequent).
Thom