From: sos@oz.plymouth.edu (Steffan O'Sullivan)
Subject: GURPS: Quick Melee Combat for High Defense Characters
Reply-To: sos@oz.plymouth.edu (Steffan O'Sullivan)
Organization: Plymouth State College - Plymouth, N.H.
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 93 00:26:27 GMT

Now that I've calmed down from a heated (and pointless) discussion that
I'll bow out of, I decided to post something constructive as a way of
apologizing to the net at large for waste of bandwidth.  Here is an
article I've submitted to Pyramid, SJG's new magazine.  I thought I'd
let the net folk read it first - and, in fact, it might be rejected by
SJ since he's not fond of suggestions to use d% with GURPS.  Since this
has been submitted to a magazine, however, I have to restrict usage and
retain all rights.

Sorry about the Ventura codes - just ignore anything that doesn't look
like English.

This article is copyright 1993 by Steffan O'Sullivan.  All rights
reserved.  It may not be reproduced without written consent.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

@B-HEAD = Quick Melee Combat with High Defenses

When skills and PD get high in <BI>GURPS,<M> melee combat can take a long
time to resolve. You may be brilliant with your attack, but if your
opponent has a high defense, it won't do you much good.

It's not really fair simply to reduce each combatant's offense and defense
statistics by a set amount: it skews how much time elapses in the game
world. This can be important if a non-combatant is trying to pick a lock
during combat, for example.

Therefore, this article is an attempt to allow combat to take a realistic
time in the <MI>game world,<M> but only take a few minutes in the real
world, so the players can get on with roleplaying other incidents. The
charts are based on simple mathematics, but ignore critical results.

@D-HEAD = Defense-Driven Combat

The basic premise of this system is that defense is the key element. You
can make your attack roll all day, but if your foe is also making his
defense roll, it doesn't do you much good. When even one character's
defense is below 13, there is no real problem. Play it out by the rules
<196> it won't take too long, and the blow-by-blow results are exciting.

But if both characters have Active Defense plus Passive Defense plus
Retreat totalling 13 or more, you can use these Defense-Driven Combat
charts to speed play.

Defense-Driven Combat assumes that each opponent can strike at the other
each second. If one combatant has a weapon that requires readying after
every attack, <MI>his opponent<M> doubles the time obtained from the chart.
In fact, since the chart assumes that each character has to defend himself
every second (not really likely), those who want a more realistic combat
time can double all results automatically.

Critical Hits and Failures are also downplayed <196> if you feel this is
unrealistic, accept the fact that you'll have to spend a lot of time
rolling dice to see who gets a critical result first . . .

This system requires percentile dice (d%). While this is not standard
<BI>GURPS<M> equipment, they are not hard to come by. This article assumes
you have access to such dice and know how to read them.

@D-HEAD = Procedure

Once two opponents are in melee striking range, both players roll d% for
their character. Using the chart (below) based on the character's
<MI>defense,<M> read down the chart until the number you rolled appears.
(If it's not on the list, use the next higher number.) Then read across to
the <MI>Sec.<M> column: this is the combat turn your character fails his
first defense roll. Once both characters have determined when they fail
their first defense rolls, see which one has the lower number. The other
player then makes a single attack roll to see if he hit that particular
round. If he succeeds, he then rolls for damage: the defense roll
automatically fails, which is what the d% determined.

Whether or not the attacker successfully hit the defender, the defender (if
able to continue the battle) rolls the d% again, and once again reads off
the number of seconds until his next failure. This number is added to the
first number of seconds he rolled, showing which round he fails his second
defense roll. This may be more or less than the attacker's first defense
failure: whichever player's number is next is hit next. In the meantime,
any activity outside the fight has progressed that many seconds.

<MI>Example:<M> Josiah has a Broadsword attack of 16, and a defense of 15.
Balaam has a Broadsword attack of 18 and defense of 16. Both roll d%:
Josiah gets a 64 and Balaam a 38. Reading across on their respective
charts, Josiah successfully defends until the 22nd second, while Balaam
successfully defends until the 26th second. So, at round 22, Balaam rolls
to see if his attack lands. It does, and he then rolls for damage. Assuming
Josiah isn't crippled by this blow, Josiah then rolls the d% again to see
how many more turns he can successfully defend. This time he rolls a 21:
only 5 more seconds, which brings it to round 27, since he was hit on round
22. But Balaam's original roll showed that he finally failed a defense roll
on round 26 <196> so Josiah gets a chance to hit Balaam then. If Balaam
survives the attack (he's already failed his defense roll, remember), he'll
have to roll d% again to see when his next defense failure is. In the
meantime, he'll get to hit Josiah on turn 27. Since this is only one turn
after he was hit by Josiah, however, any Shock penalties not nullified by
High Pain Threshold are in effect. And all the while this is going on,
Josiah's friends have had 26 seconds to climb the cliff, which the GM said
would take them 30 seconds to climb . . .

When a players rolls double zero (00), he doesn't fail a defense roll yet!
He notes the number of seconds listed, and rolls again. He adds the two
numbers together to determine where he first fails. If he keeps rolling 00,
he keeps adding and rerolling!

If a player rolls a critical result while rolling for an attack, that
result counts, of course. This may have the effect of bringing the combat
out of the Defense-Driven Combat mode into Blow-by-Blow play for a while.
If things then stabilize again after a couple of rounds, you can go back to
the charts <196> but both players start over again in this case. Coming out
of the Defense-Driven Combat mode into Blow-by-Blow mode for more than one
round cancels all previous d% rolls. This should only occur by mutual
consent.

 Defense of 16+:  Defense of 16+:     Defense of 15:      Defense of 14:
   d%    Sec:      (Continued)          d%    Sec:          d%    Sec:
   02      1        d%    Sec:          05      1           09      1
   04      2        68     61           09      2           18      2
   05      3        69     62           13      3           25      3
   07      4        70     64           17      4           32      4
   09      5        71     66           21      5           38      5
   11      6        72     68           25      6           44      6
   12      7        73     70           28      7           49      7
   14      8        74     72           32      8           54      8
   15      9        75     74           35      9           58      9
   17     10        76     76           38     10           62     10
   19     11        77     78           41     11           66     11
   20     12        78     80           43     12           69     12
   22     13        79     83           46     13           72     13
   23     14        80     85           49     14           74     14
   24     15        81     88           51     15           77     15
   26     16        82     91           53     16           79     16
   27     17        83     94           55     17           81     17
   29     18        84     97           57     18           83     18
   30     19        85    100           59     19           84     19
   31     20        86    104           61     20           86     20
   32     21        87    108           63     21           87     21
   34     22        88    112           65     22           88     22
   35     23        89    116           66     23           89     23
   36     24        90    121           68     24           90     24
   37     25        91    126           69     25           91     25
   38     26        92    132           71     26           92     26
   40     27        93    139           72     27           93     27
   41     28        94    147           73     28           94     29
   42     29        95    156           75     29           95     30
   43     30        96    166           76     30           96     32
   44     31        97    180           77     31           97     35
   45     32        98    198           78     32           98     38
   46     33        99    225           79     33           99     44
   47     34        00    284+          80     34           00     55+
   48     35                            81     35
   49     36                            82     36         Defense of 13:
   50     37                            83     37           d%    Sec:
   51     38                            84     39           16      1
   52     39                            85     40           30      2
   53     40                            86     41           41      3
   54     41                            87     43           51      4
   55     43                            88     44           59      5
   56     44                            89     46           65      6
   57     45                            90     48           71      7
   58     46                            91     50           76      8
   59     48                            92     53           80      9
   60     49                            93     55           83     10
   61     50                            94     58           86     11
   62     52                            95     62           88     12
   63     53                            96     66           90     13
   64     54                            97     71           92     14
   65     56                            98     78           93     15
   66     57                            99     89           94     16
   67     59                            00    112+          95     17
                                                            96     18
                                                            97     19
                                                            98     21
                                                            99     24
                                                            00     30+

-- 
  - Steffan O'Sullivan		         sos@oz.plymouth.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc