Utgardloki said:
I've always felt that the idea that a longer weapon only gives an advantage on the first round (or not at all) is flawed. Many games use a mechanic like that, but it really does not accurately represent how people actually fight. The assumption they're working on is that once the shorter weapon weilder "closes" inside the longer guys reach, he's going to be at an advantage. That is true, but typically not for long. Barring weapons that are actually cumbersome to use at very close range, you're still just as vulnerable up close as you are at the edge of that weapons reach. And no one who wants to survive a fight spends a lot of time inside the effective reach of the opponent. You *will* get hit. Alot.
I'm not sure if the initiative rules are the best place to model this. Perhaps the attack/defense rules would be better.
I've been thinking that there should be movement in combat. In D&D, if one warrior is holding a halberd and another is holding a short sword, what would happen would be that the halberd-wielder would get an AOA as the short sword wielder moved in, then the halberd-wielder would take a five foot step to step back to attack the short sword guy. Also, in D&D, positions are understood to be approximate, and warriors are assumed to be moving about constantly.
I'm thinking that in Runequest, if you're facing a competent opponent, once you run out of reactions, you're in deep trouble. Maybe it would work to give the attacker a penalty if the defender moves out of weapon range. Does 20% sound fair?
It does not quite model reality, but it is just a game. I'm open to suggestions.
A couple of thoughts:
As far as reach goes one of thebest games for handling it is the new
Usagi Yojimbo RPG. Reach plays a big factor, and the game has a lot of retreats in iit so combat is very modbile. You do get a lot of fighters stepping back to get withing striking range for reach weapons, but you also get people being driven back to prevent being hit.
If you put people who are out of CA at a singifincant disadvantage then DEX will be more important han skill. Just use up your foe's reactions and go to town on him. MAybe rather than the all of nothing of the current system, you could use something like a reaction parry where such character can still defend by at a penalty (half ability?).
Putting movement into combat somehow would be nice. Applying a penalty to the attacker might work. Especially if you are doing a lunge tye of attrack. Then the attacker could choose to move in or lust hand back and lunge.
In the old days this could work as a parry mod, but with the new parry rules (and spears having 2AP) a penatly to attack might be better. The only real problem I see is that, like precise attacks, once the character hit a certain point, the penalty won't matter.
Persoannly I like the step & backpedal approach. UY uses it, and also has a lot of feat like gifts that alter the nature of combat. For instance there is a gift called bo mastery (japanese staff) that allows someone to use a staff as either a close weapon or at reach. Stuff like that can rwally shake up the nature of the fight. Just like if someone is using a spear, rather than backpedal, they could use it as a staff. There is even a counterattack option that works wonders. One thing that might help movement wise, and something I've mentioned elsewhere is that in UY on tie rolls defenders can retreat to turn a hit into a miss. Sort of like how in GURPS characters can retrreat for a bonus to defense.
I was thinknig that we could up the parry mutlipler (1xAP to 2xAP, etc) if someone retreats.
I think adding mobility to combat will make it more dynamic and interesting. Especially when you consider what all those advance and retreats will due to the ranks of the combatants.
THe reach thing would be nice to incoprtate, as it is really one of the major advatges of some weapons. For example it is probably the main advatage of a spear over a sword. If moveing required the attacker to either attack the spear (use an action) or block the spea (use a reaction) it would help the spearman maintain his advantage.