Hand to Hand Combat

[username_3688833]

Yeah. Totally this. Totally, utterly this. We've all been there, although not for years, fortunately, and this gap you speak of is huge in games, PnP and others.

I understand PnP is fun and fights are not, same for video games, but even more than FPP or TPP, the ability to carefully plan out all your attacks or defenses just smashes all the disbelief-suspension I've been employing up until then. If any.

In PnP, I usually hold up a few fingers and start counting down once something crazy starts, whether it be fighting, important conversation or a serious hack attempt.

Unless the player is Anderson Silva, of course. Or the character. Maybe.


I'm told I run pretty fun games and exciting fight sequences and I really feel that tension is key. Not confusion, so much, although that is going to happen for sure, but the sense of Things Happening Now. To You.

Tension and drive.

It means later, if they survive and/or triumph, they really appreciate the chance to relax and enjoy the rewards.

So with you on the counting down and the tension. In one of the more fast-paced, seat-of-your-pants games I ran, I liked to start combat or time-stressed rounds by turning suddenly to one player and almost bellowing "WHAT DO YOU DO?!??!? QUICKLY! THREE! TWO! ONE!" and if no coherent reply came, I'd turn to my next victim and say "(character name) is standing there, bug eyed and in shock, what do you do? THREE! TWO!" and so on. Actually had a lot of fun through that game, a lot of seat-of-your-pants fun and momentary flashes of genius/stupidity abounded. Also when I look back on it, most everyone froze up in their first firefight, but after that they coped for the most part. How like real life that run was, with the usual notable exceptions

 

[Sardukhar]

Yeah, it's the briiliant under-pressure improv I love, when the players suddenly start to gel as a team. Makes suffering through the "you're doing WHAT?" moments bearable.

 

[thewarsend]

I would like to be able to learn some complex special moves.. (Like in Fallout New Vegas where you could learn Ranger Takedown.)

 

[Meccanical]

Let me ask y'all somethin' while we're on this subject.

What is the point of Brawling skill? With Martial Arts being there, and considering it offers absolutely no bonuses whatsoever why have it?

 

[thewarsend]

Let me ask y'all somethin' while we're on this subject.

What is the point of Brawling skill? With Martial Arts being there, and considering it offers absolutely no bonuses whatsoever why have it?

I think with brawl skill you get no bonuses but it effects how you dodge incoming attacks and it cannot be thought.. (You have to learn it yourself, no one can teach you.) But with martial arts skill you both get bonuses and it can be thought. Thats all i know, but i might be wrong...

 

[chriswebb2020.736]

For me, brawling includes the use of improvised weapons, like bar stools, pipes, 2x4's and beer bottles. It also grants the use of your surroundings.

A good street fighter can whoop a martial artist if they are on the right environment.

 

[guidokpd]

Let me ask y'all somethin' while we're on this subject.

What is the point of Brawling skill? With Martial Arts being there, and considering it offers absolutely no bonuses whatsoever why have it?

Brawling is learned by doing. Martial Arts is learned by training. I make my players justify why the character has Martial Arts.

 

[chriswebb2020.736]

Brawling is learned by doing. Martial Arts is learned by training. I make my players justify why the character has Martial Arts.

And that is why brawling, (or street fighting as people prefer to call it,) is far more instinctive and unpredicatable. Good Street Fighters are creative, innovative and devious. A martial artist will fall back onto the moves and styles they have been trained to use, this can make them predicatable, (and dead!) Maybe a martial artist can kick harder and punch harder, but that doesn't mean shit if said martial artist takes a chair to the face.

When I worked on the doors, I had a guy offer to fight me in the street, I turned him down but he wasn't having any of it. He started bouncing around, doing a few high kicks around my head to show off and try to intimidate me. His mates thought it was funny as hell. I decided enough was enough, I walked into the rouad with him, told him it was all one on one, first man to hit the deck lost. He agreed and told his mates to stay out of it. I told the guys working with me to do the same. He started bouncing around again while I was taking off my coat. I threw my coat at him and as he tried to knock it away I kicked him in the nads. He hit the deck like a sack of shit and puked his guts up. (Bad luck for him, that night I was wearing my steel toe combat boots.)
I told his mates to take him home and I paid for his taxi. Never saw him again.

That is why street fighting is better than martial arts when you are fighting in the street. Martial arts has rules, the street has none.

I say let people have martial arts, It's a niche combat form. Brawling can be much nastier.

 

[Meccanical]

Brawling is learned by doing. Martial Arts is learned by training. I make my players justify why the character has Martial Arts.

For me, brawling includes the use of improvised weapons, like bar stools, pipes, 2x4's and beer bottles. It also grants the use of your surroundings.

A good street fighter can whoop a martial artist if they are on the right environment.

That's a good way to do it.

Thanks.

 

[chriswebb2020.736]

That's a good way to do it.

Thanks.

Your welcome.

To be honest, I thought everyone did it that way...

 

[guidokpd]

I believe Melee is for improvised weapons. If we are talking house rules I: changed the IP mod on Martial arts. None of the Martial Arts have an IP mod of 1. Brawling and melee get a damage bonus equal to half the skill level rounded down.

 

[chriswebb2020.736]

I believe Melee is for improvised weapons. If we are talking house rules I: changed the IP mod on Martial arts. None of the Martial Arts have an IP mod of 1. Brawling and melee get a damage bonus equal to half the skill level rounded down.

As part of my house rules, Melee is strictly for aactual weapons: Knives, Bats, Crowbars...

Brawl would cover things like a Brick-in-a-Sock, a Chair, Length of chain wrapped around a fist...

 

[thewarsend]

Doesn't brawl cover dodge? Anyone? I remember reading dodge skill was no longer there because it was added to brawl..

 

[guidokpd]

That is for Interlock Unlimited. Everyone does things a little different. The key is to find something that works for you and your group and be consistent.

The dodge/escape skill in Interlock is used for dodging attacks. Or escaping from grapples and holds. It like brawling is something learned by doing, not training.

 

[chriswebb2020.736]

Dodge is an 'action' that is linked to all the H-t-H skills; Melee, Martial Arts and Brawl.

 

[cycoholic]

Don't forget that Brawling is cheaper to learn, ie no IP multiplyer. Brawling as mentioned is a raw ability to fight & defend yourself. Note that even Boxing is classed as a Martial Art.

Hmm, actually we totally reworked the Martial Arts, there isn't any M.Art with an IP mod of 1, they're 2 or more.

Dodge/Escape is a separate skill, and if you have a M.Art with bonus to Dodge, you can add that bonus to your Dodge skill.

 

[Sardukhar]

Well, you may be able to add the bonus to the skill. More typically, you add it to your Martial Arts skill when Dodging in a martial arts context.

 

[chriswebb2020.736]

Don't forget that Brawling is cheaper to learn, ie no IP multiplyer. Brawling as mentioned is a raw ability to fight & defend yourself. Note that even Boxing is classed as a Martial Art.

Hmm, actually we totally reworked the Martial Arts, there isn't any M.Art with an IP mod of 1, they're 2 or more.

Dodge/Escape is a separate skill, and if you have a M.Art with bonus to Dodge, you can add that bonus to your Dodge skill.

"Arasakate" has an IP multiplyer of 1

You also get benefits towards specific move types with martial arts.

 

[cycoholic]

"Arasakate" has an IP multiplyer of 1

You also get benefits towards specific move types with martial arts.

That's certainly true. I think there were one or two others with an IP multiplier of 1. When I started typing that post, I had forgotten that we totally reworked the Martial Art rules. One being that no M.Art had a multiplier of 1, but had a minimum multiplier of 2. This makes M.Arts a little harder to gain, and also gave reason to have Brawling as a skill, as it still had a multiplier of 1.

 

[quartermaim]

Well, you may be able to add the bonus to the skill. More typically, you add it to your Martial Arts skill when Dodging in a martial arts context.

Doesn't Boxing and Judo also have a multiplier of 1?