Exploiting weapon reach in GURPS

I once wrote a sample combat in GURPS between a spearman and a swordman. I was disappointed by the lack of advantage that wielding a longer reach weapon. First, if you haven't seen this video first, have a look:

Easily impressionable people like me will be intrigued by the reach advantage gained by the spearman. Here are some thoughts about making the best of this assymetry, or mitigating its implications.

035 - The wall of walruses, part I

Walruses sighted

There was over 100 miles of water to navigate before the Raven arrive to Hlethui. On the first day of navigation, the open water held nicely and the ship remained in sight of the ice attached to the shore. By mid-day, a moan-like clamor could be heard ahead. Reitu prompted the company members to come to the forecastle of the ship. "This is a lucky day for you, Southrons", he claimed. "These are the moans of a pack of walruses". He told them that the ivory of walruses was ideal for the ritual foundation of a tribe. He instructed to sever their heads, that only an elder should remove the ivory from the skull of these beasts. 

Araliniel tried to get herself out of this "harvest", but Reitu insisted that she participates. He excused himself from the venture as he already belonged to a tribe, and had no desires to count on a bunch of pink-skin Southrons to protect him from the terror. 

The Raven approached the ice and let out a gangway to the ground. The company stumbled down and peered at the colony of walruses some 200 meters to their right. These were not Earth walruses! These beasts were 5 meters long and their head standing over 2 m tall above the ice. More than 200 of them were huddled at the edge of water.  

034 - Everybody's life just got a notch more complicated

Entering the Ice-Bay of Forochel

Gwirith 24 FA 16

The Raven had finally weaved a difficult path through the ice floes into the Bay of Forochel. Forochel was created in the First-Age when the Valars came to destroy Mortgoth's fortress of Utumno. The place is the flooded site of the dark lord's gateway to the underdeep: a place so vast and and dark that Sauron managed to hide and survive the ordeal (with the results that we're all aware of). Keeping this in mind, the company members kept a close eye on the surrounding. The bay, in sharp contrast with the open sea left behind, was eerily quiet. A thick fog was covering the place. The light of day and night were no more than subtle variants in shades of blue.

A porpoise was circling the Raven, underneath Finbert's eyes. Something was out of sort, however. The porpoise was particularly skinny, if not bony. Finbert pointed out his observation to others, but no one could see the beast even when it passed under their eyes. The bony porpoise hit the hull of the ship a few times, but still no one but Finbert could hear the thuds. Finbert grew tired to be looked at as if he was insane. Nerve shot, he packed a pipe choke-full with Longbottom leaf and sat on a pile of ropes.  

033 - A winter in Tharbad

Wintering in a Frontier town

This post documents the abstracted character development of the PC in the campaign between Session 10 and Session 11. The next report referring to a live session is 034 -  The Lossoth people of Laakvesi.

Tharbad, circa Fourth Age 15

Experience for Session 10 the the Palantir Commission

Session 10 has seen some interesting action. This post also covers the Winter spent in Tharbad (Play by Post). Here are the character points award for each character involved:

• Araliniel
• 1 pt - research
• 2 pt - seeker
• Arnadil
• 1 pt - Leadership OR any other social skill
• 1 pt - Tactics
• 3 pt - Strategy and/or Intelligence Analysis
• 1 pt - free (related to your Palantir Commission work)
• Finbert
• 1 pt - search
• 2 pt - Bartending
• 2 pt - Connoiseur (beer)
• 2 pt - Brewing
• 1 pt - Cooking
• Galdor
• 1 pt - Perception
• 3 pt - Leadership
• Halin
• 1 pt - Wrestling or brawling
• 1 pt - Metallurgy
• 2 pt - Architecture
• Irina
• 1 pt - Fast-draw
• 1 pt - Administration (Setting up Marksmanship course)
• 2 pt - Staff or technique of (Sparring each day with her students).
• Reputation 1 (entertainer) now extends to Tharbad (beyond the Shire)
• 100 celebins in Performance proceeds
• Kasper
• 1 pt in Sleep
• 1 pt in Panic
• 1 pt in Two-Handed Sword
• 1 pt in Stop Hits (Two-handed Sword)

Award for K06 - Many doors and Many chambers

Here is the experience for Session 3 - Many Doors and Many Chambers of the Reclaiming Khazad-dum campaign. 

• Bain
• Credits towards Cultural familiarity (Wood elves)
• Credits towards spoken Sindarin
• 2 pt towards an empathy-related skill (Detect lie, psychology (practical), etc.) or Will
• 1 pt Politics
• Donarik
• 1 pt towards tracking or 
• 1 pt towards Drum
• 1 pt bow (lesson from the elves)
• Gimvar
• 1 pt Tracking
• 1 pt Stealth
• 1 pt Acting
• 1 pt bow (lesson from the elves)
• Khazek
• 1 pt Teaching (last part of the session)
• 1 pt Tracking OR stealth
• 1 pt Naturalist
• 1 pt Interrogation

Proposal for a new melee combat option: Evaluate ( combat opening )

This post is a draft of a new combat option for the Evaluate action. Initial thoughts about this was posted here.

The Serendipity Engine

Screen Shot of the alpha version on May 21st 2013

http://serendipity-engine.appspot.com

Objective

Simulate how combats are made of serendipitous opening that perceptive and skilled fighter take advantage of. One can fight according to a plan, or be nimble and go with the flow. This option provides the "flow".

Principle

A skill contest between the Per-based melee combat skill of the attacker against the DX-based melee combat skill of the defender. In case of a success by the attacker, the attacker spot a combat opening with a benefit that is a function of the margin of success. If the margin is negative, but the Per-based skill check was successful, the bonus is applied to the next active defense.

To generate interesting openings, the random "table" is implemented as a web application. This has the potential to generate over a few hundreds different combinations of opening and conditions, and this number of permutations blows up into the thousands if we take into account the range of possible attack bonuses and defense penalties.

Procedure

The phasing player may call an Evaluate(combat opening) as a melee combat move. The skill contest is resolved by the app, determine the success and generate an opening. In case of failure, the phasing player my be compelled to take a Do nothing action. In other cases, the phasing player is free to take advantage of the opening by converting the evaluate into a new action and immediately resolving it to exploit the opening, or take instead a Do Nothing or All-out defense action. The gamble here is that if the opening isn't desirable, the turn will be spent looking  for an opening and deciding not to take it.

1. Declare an Evaluate (combat Opening)
2. Per-skill vs DX-skill (handled by app)
3. Pick Either of:
   1. Immediately convert to attack to exploit opening.
   2. Do Nothing

A critical fail on the Per-based skill check is narrated to the player like a criticl success, but is converted instead into a bonus for the opponent as a bonus to any form of counter attacks.

Discussion

This is not a new idea, if you want a low-tech table instead, try Sean Punch's post of SJG's forum, or +Douglas Cole 's post on Gaming Ballistic. We're going to playtest the idea, but this is out there is anyone else want to give it a go.  Here is what I'm looking for in a playtest:

1. Are players using the the Evaluate (opening)?
2. When presented with an opening, are the players deciding to exploit the opening?
1. If not,
1. is this because of the condition being too restrictive?
2. is it because the bonus doesn't outweigh the limitation?
2. If so,
1. Did it made the combat more fun?
2. Did it incite players to try moves that they usually don't use?
3. Was the bonus conferred too large?
3. Web application, a good idea or would it be better with a much simpler table (see Sean Punch's post linked above).

If you give it a try, by all means, communicate your thoughts and suggestions in the comments section below.

Next steps beyond playtesting

• Adding openings that are more contextual:
• rough terrain.
• Multiple opponents.
• Presence of allies.
• Long reach weapons.
• Two-handed vs one handed with shields.