Re: Move through

[Joel Gunderson <belgarat@expert.cc.purdue.edu>]

*raises his hand about the reduced cranial capacity part*

On Fri, 28 Aug 1998, Kris Ames wrote:

> Dan,
> 
> I agree that you are always very, very good at putting combat on the
> board and drawing everything to scale, but some GMs (myself
> included) are not as consistent about this.  It takes both an
> experienced player and a really good GM to pull this off.  Orion who
> has played for years and is more than moderately intelligent can
> pull off your suggestion.  A newby or someone who isn't majoring in
> physics because they can't (lets say due to limited spatial ability)
> will have a hard time doing this.  Their character on the other hand
> could be able to if a skill existed.
> 
> Take one of my favorite sports Skeet (it involves a shot gun and
> flying clay disks moving at about 55 mph and the shooter moves to 8
> different positions along a semi circle and try's to hit the targets
> when they come out).  At first a novice shooter (spellcaster) has no
> concept of "leading the target" so that the target collides with the
> shot (spell).  After years of practice a good shooter can hit 23-25
> out of 25 targets.  This feat involves distance judgement, sighting
> (LOS), as well as a little bit of tactics (know where the target
> will be by the time the shot reaches it).
> 
> Just my two cents...something to think about.
> 
> -Kris
> 
> ----------
> > From: Daniel Lawrence <dan@aquest.com>
> > To: 'Orion Furmanski' <thelaw@expert.cc.purdue.edu>; Wright
> Frazier <khelek@ns1.cioe.com>
> > Cc: Steve Ames <steve@ns1.cioe.com>; gmlist@ns1.cioe.com
> > Subject: RE: Move through
> > Date: Friday, August 28, 1998 3:07 AM
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From:	Orion Furmanski [SMTP:thelaw@expert.cc.purdue.edu]
> > Sent:	Friday, August 28, 1998 2:24 AM
> > To:	Wright Frazier
> > Cc:	Steve Ames; gmlist@ns1.cioe.com
> > Subject:	Re: Move through
> > 
> > 
> > Another excellent point: do mages have to have line of sight....?
> > 
> > There is already some skill that permits mages to jockey for line
> of sight
> > in combat, no?  However, I think this single skill doesn't cover
> the full
> > extent of combat targeting that mages need to NOT toast their own
> party
> > (was my grammar ok? Lotsa negatives..)  75% of my AQ characters
> have been
> > mages, all of which have been combat-ready. Time and time again,
> people
> > jump in the way of a Bolt, run into a 'Ball, etc.  Dammit, Alyx
> has
> > adventured for about 20 game years, give or take, and GM's claim
> she STILL
> > cant guess-timate casting distances. "Are you an elf?"--"No,
> dickhead, I'm
> > fucking OLD and should be GOOD at this by now!!"  Pardon my venom.
> =(
> > 
> > [Daniel Lawrence]  Then you will excuse mine.... after about the
> two millionth time having
> > combat slowed to a crawl cause everyone has to know distances from
> each combatant to
> > each other combatant.... if i hear that particular question it
> always sets me off. I am very
> > specific about saying how long 10 feet is on the board... and if
> you have been in combat
> > that many times... then you should be damn good at figuring out
> how far you are. And lastly 
> > I would wonder why you would play in a game run by so called
> 'dickhead'?  Its no fun for us
> > dickheads either.....
> > 
> > 	The best I've seen as a rule for the above is an intelligence
> > check. Why not extend the "line-of-sight" skill to include
> movement, AND
> > account for innocent 'Bolt bystanders. Or make a new couple of
> skills out
> > of this. Also, lets make a distance-judgement skill for mages to
> reflect
> > that with experience comes ability. It's like learning to play
> darts:
> > concentrate, then put the dart in a 3-square inch area.  With
> Fireball or
> > Bobble, this translates to dropping the edge of the spell in
> between two
> > people in melee w/each other--very tricky.
> > 
> > OK, my rant has made me a target; fire away!
> > Orion
> > 
> > 
>