RE: defense

[Lyle H Janney <lhjanney@adpc.purdue.edu>]

Thanks for the examples, Wright.  The only one that has
any real bearing as far as we are concerned here is the
Jai Alai example.  I say that because we are talking about
very small profile, very fast missiles approaching a person
directly, and all that person has to defend themselves with
is a long, skinny piece of metal.  _And_ you are further
distracted from your goal of defending against such by
the guy or two that are currently _in_your_face_, so the
incoming missile does not have your full attention (as
opposed to the outfielder).  Shield examples don't count
(we're talking about weapon defense here, not shield
defense), and this would apply to the gunsen as well.
Finally, the defensive tackle is primarily trying to merely
slough off the offensive linemen as he strives to knock
down the ball (which. I might add, is moving much slower
than an arrow and has a much larger profile).

So, the only real example with any credibility is the Jai
Alai example.  Hmmm, my only counter to this is that
Jai Alai is not a _contact_ sport (i.e., the players are not
also having to block and dodge their opponents), so they
get to apply full attention to the movement of that very
fast little critter as it whips around the court.  You're
asking me to accept that a person in combat can keep
track of all these variables and react swiftly enough to
all of them that he should get bonuses against missiles.
I agree that it would be nice, but I still don't see it as
even remotely possible except by the super-human, or
in exciting and fun to watch martial arts films.

Lyle

-----Original Message-----
From:	Wright Frazier [SMTP:khelek@ns1.cioe.com]
Sent:	Friday, October 02, 1998 10:42 AM
To:	Lyle H Janney
Cc:	gmlist@cioe.com
Subject:	Re: defense


Catching a ball in the outfield.  You have a baseball headed right at
your head.  So you stick out your heavy leather glove and catch it to
avoid it hitting you.

Japanese Gunsen.  Its an iron fan, one of the ways it was employed was
to deflect missiles.  

A defensive tackle batting down balls while they are mixing it up on the
line of scrimmage with an offensive tackle and offensive guard in a game
of football.

Hyli(sp?) players catching and whipping those balls around the court that
will _KILL_ people with ease.

The use of a shield by the franks to block a thrown roman pilum.  

The use of a shield to block a thrown bearded war axe by a frank.

The use of a shield in general.

I can't remember the name of it, but a martial arts technique known as
	'arrow-cutting'.

That enough?

Wright

Bunting in baseball(watch any baseball game for examples).




> Excuse me?  _Far_ from impossible?
> 
> Time for a reality check...
> 
> Why don't you give me an example of _any_ individual
> who can, even on the off chance, whack an arrow out
> of the air as it bears down on them (and while they are
> busily engaged in killing and defending against the
> person(s) in front of them).  Any concrete example will
> do (and movie theatrics to not count).
> 
> Lyle
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Wright Frazier [SMTP:khelek@ns1.cioe.com]
> 
> [ other stuff removed ]
> 
> I agree you should get some benefit against missile weapons.  If for no
> other reason than the off chance that you wack the arrow out of the way.
> Thats good enough for a 1 in my opinion.
> 
> What about this?
> 	Give the normal bonus that your weapon gives to GDV and CDV to MDV,
> 	and then for the defense option, make it so that you get +1/die
> 	against missiles instead of 2.  This is to reflect the fact
> 	that missile weapons ARE harder to block, but far from impossible.
> 
> Wright
>  
> 
>