Two-Handed Martial Arts Styles

[alex_greene]

The combat chapter of the Core Rulebook states that it's possible for a combatant to fight with two melee weapons in each hand simultaneously, and that they suffer a -2 DM to strike with both weapons.

I beg to differ.

Escrima / Kali / Arnis / Sinawali is designed for two-handed weapons use. It's almost useless with one stick only. Also, escrima attacks can have the Stun trait.

That's it. That's the post.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Do you mean one in each hand or two actual weapons per hand?

An awful lot of rpg combat doesn't stand up to real world practice.

 

[alex_greene]

This mayhem.

One big stick in each hand. Two simultaneous strikes per combat round, or one strike and one block. Hells, two blocks even.

 

[Arkathan]

If it is made to be used as a two weapon attack, it would be a single attack, with plusses = to the dice of a single weapon.
Just like turrets.

 

[Shadowblayde99]

Hero faces down the Guy. The Guy pulls out his escrima fighting sticks and does a whirling fandango. Hero has an upset tummy from the food he ate the day before and needs the toilet. Hero laconically pulls out his gun and shoots the Guy

 

[alex_greene]

Nobody starts a fight from forty feet away. If the guy's swinging sticks around, it's practice, or he's just obnoxious about wanting to make space for himself. If someone's really invested in killing Laconic Guy With A Gun, he'd draw Laconic's attention long enough for his buddy the sniper to draw bead on the guy in the hat.

 

[alex_greene]

Six metres.
If somebody's six metres away from you, you don't draw sticks. You run.
If they're closer than that, they're yours.

 

[Condottiere]

There's athletics/sport, and there's melee.

You could specialize, and I rather suspect it would have to be dexterity based.

 

[Annatar Giftbringer]

They might be designed for paired use, but it still requires extensive training to get to the point where two weapons even match one, let alone surpass them.

I can just as easily block-and-strike with one weapon, especially two-handed, with the added benefit of being much “stronger in the center” with a twohander.

To accurately model the intricacies of martial arms combat, you’d need to either break down the combat round into a much shorter timeframe with a system for act and react, or accept that the flurry of blows, counterattacks, parry’s and blocks are all summarized and represented by one attack roll and one damage roll.

I’d argue that a -DM to hit using two weapons is very appropriate though, and to balance that you’d need a higher skill level to compensate. Or, have the paired weapons count as and represent a single regular melee attack game mechanics-wise, despite being lots and lots of strikes “in reality”.

 

[Condottiere]

In theory, sword and shield is superior.

And that is actually two handed, especially is the shield is actively used to impede the opponent, if not outright punch him.

 

[alex_greene]

In theory, sword and shield is superior.

And that is actually two handed, especially is the shield is actively used to impede the opponent, if not outright punch him.

Spear and shield vs. sword and shield - sword + shield prevails more often than not, because spears' Size works against it, and a sword wielder can use their shield to block the spear, then cut in under the deflected spear and strike at leisure.

I've seen escrima fighters. They can strike like a fiend. Each strike is full damage. None of the "-2 DM for both strikes" garbage. You can strike for a full 4D to one opponent, if you like. I don't hear anybody objecting to carrying around a gun 1/3 of the size that does a full 4D damage in a combat round.

 

[Vormaerin]

Combat in general is more lethal than most games, including Traveller, make it out to be. It isn't designed to reflect reality. It is designed to reflect adventure fiction.

Gun fights are nothing like they are in reality. (Accuracy is generally too high, for one thing). Martial arts are not described appropriately, either.

You can just decide that unarmed combat is always 2 attacks if you want. That's the effect of deciding that a particular fighting style works that way. No one is going to take other fighting styles unless they have some comparable advantage. There are games that, in fact, put lots of effort into modelling different martial arts. Traveller isn't one of them. I'm more inclined to model double weapons like double turrets: a bonus to damage rather than a separate attack. Or just not bother with that level of detail in a game that uses pretty abstract combat.

 

[wingsday]

Spear and shield vs. sword and shield - sword + shield prevails more often than not, because spears' Size works against it, and a sword wielder can use their shield to block the spear, then cut in under the deflected spear and strike at leisure.

I've seen escrima fighters. They can strike like a fiend. Each strike is full damage. None of the "-2 DM for both strikes" garbage. You can strike for a full 4D to one opponent, if you like. I don't hear anybody objecting to carrying around a gun 1/3 of the size that does a full 4D damage in a combat round.

Iirc, the main thing about (spear vs sword) + shield is that one dude with a sword beats one dude with a spear, the same with 2 dudes each, and so on, until you reach some point where theres enough guys that the spears can form up and exploit their reach, and the swords cant just run around the flank of the spear wall efficiently enough to overcome the spears advantage in front

Also, I mostly agree with you about the double weapon stuff. something to keep in mind is that there's a pretty hard upper limit to the size of weapons that you can use doubled and reach is a very substantial advantage not really modeled by most games, but also that there are many other more practical advantages to smaller weapons.