"I am King John of France, and my ransom is 200,000 livres."
substituting your name and ransom. Most armies teach their soldiers how to recognize when their enemies are surrenduring, and ransom can be used to augment the Understand Surrender skill quite nicely (except against Uroxi or Shargashi in full berzerkergang or equivalent). This will tend to stop the enemy's next attack, whereas running away lets that enemy pursue and attack you once you run out of APs, almost assuring your death.
Remember, most armies have the highest death rates when they are routed. The only reason to run away once engaged in combat is that a 60% chance of dying beats a 99% chance almost any time.
Rulewise, I would let the surrendering character's Wealth rating, or that portion devoted to the ransom, at least, augment any other Communication skills (pantomiming stop, yelling in the enemy's language I Surrender, whatever). Thus, you cannot really surrender unless you can begin to make the enemy understand, but any chance can be improved once it exists.
Powered by hypermail