From: guest@chopin.Physics.McGill.CA (Muhep Guest account)
Subject: GURPS: Armor / Martial-Arts / Guts / Glory 
Organization: SOCS, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 17:14:22 GMT

Bryce Koike writes

> [On the subject of how unfair it is for martial artists to "destroy"
> armed opponents]
> 	The main problem is that the Fear of the Weapon doesn't seem
> to exist.  Isn't there a danger involved in closing with an enemy?
> enemy.  The main reason unarmed and unarmored people don't like
> closing into combat is because they risk getting hurt.  Most
> role-playing games don't stress this enough, I feel, but I'd feel
> uncomfortable with some mechanic that controls my character's
> actions.  "Nope, you can't do that.  You're too afraid of his sword
> to close in."  "WHAAAAT?!"
> 	But if players value their character's lives, then they'd do
> well to be afraid of that swinging piece of steel... (what if your
> martial artist fails his dodge/parry?  If he's stunned by the blow,
> hasta la vista Bruce Lee...)

     This is, perhaps, the most valid point as of yet brought into the  
discussion: the reality of the fact that just because a PC possesses great  
skill in unarmed combat, he does not necessarily have a suicidal tendency  
to *use* that that skill against an armed foe without thought. I do agree,  
however, that an artifical mechanic to force any character (especially a  
PC) to cower or retreat when the player wants to go on the offensive, is  
*bad* (I'll contradict myself below, in a few lines). 
     The interesting thing here is that a while back, I found myself  
embroiled in a similar debate which involved a lot of folks arguing about  
how easy it is to face down gunfire in GURPS. (I believe a fellow named  
Frazer, at Mindlink, was one of the main voices in this argument...hello,  
you still out there?)
     So perhaps this gives us the real question:

NOT: "Can a skilled martial artist defeat an armed and armoured foe?"
     Which has the trivial answer "Physically, yes; psychologically, I  
don't know."

BUT: "Does there exist the need for a rule in GURPS to realistically  
represent the fear and indecision that would, realistically, come with  
facing a foe armed with a weapon of greater range and killing power?"
      This would be the same rule for someone with a hand-to-hand weapon  
facing a gun as for someone with no weapons facing someone armed with a  
hand-to-hand weapon. The rules in High Tech (2nd) are a bit too  
gun-specific, methinks. Perhaps such a rule should involve Will, Combat  
Reflexes, and the skill of the fighter with the inferior weapon? It should  
also apply modifiers for Overconfidence, Glory Hound, On The Edge,  
Impulsiveness, Bad temper, Berserk, Bloodlust, etc, etc, etc...
 
> 	The main problem seems to be with the GURPS Martial Arts
> parrying rules which I don't have with me.  If the swordsman and the
> martial artist are of equal points, though, then what I suspect the
> greatest problem, really, is that the martial artist is just a
> combat freak...

Gee...this is exactly what I said ages ago to John Kim :-) I.E., that is,  
I essentially suspect that most GURPS martial-artists are built to cinema  
specs, and have ridiculous DX and Speed compared to other warriors, and  
tend to be combat optimized. I think I will evoke few flames by stating  
that everyone knows ST is about half as useful as DX in GURPS, when doing  
low-tech (TL4 or less) combat...and martial-artists just tend to have DX,  
while swordsmen tend to follow the Conan paradigm (ST, High Pain  
Threshold, et al.). Note that *swashbuckling* swordsmen in GURPS, with  
their Fencing parries, Main-Gauche for close-combat, and high DX, *can*  
hold their own against unarmed martial-artists! This is because they, too,  
are generally made to cinema specs (blinding speed, amazing grace (;->),  
absurd skill...).

-Dr Kromm, who can only read r.g.f.misc from this weird node still!