RE: A skill that adds CDV (Was: Re: parrying or Multi Skills)

[Lyle H Janney <gwydion@purdue.edu>]

Hmmm, it seems that some people aren't exactly too clear on what
parrying is all about.  For those of you that are 'cut-to-the-chase'
kind of people, I will summarize my thoughts first, then I will explain.

[Weapon] Parry (Warrior Skill)   Base: 2/3 Weapon Skill   Def: Non   CSE

This skill allows an adventurer (or actor) to 'take a defensive posture'
in a combat situation.  The adventurer rolls a number of dice against
this skill, and if successful, adds +2 to their CDV until their next action.
Whether the roll is successful or not, the only other action that may be
taken during the round is a single attack with the weapon in hand (and
up to 1/5 movement).  This means that Parry cannot be used together
with Combat Weapon Skill.  [Possible exception: If an adventurer uses
their Combat Weapon Skill to quickdraw their weapon, they may give
up their 'free' attack and roll their parry skill instead.  Failing the parry
roll equates to having simply readied the weapon for use.]

Now for the explanation.  Please understand as you read this, that
these thoughts are the product of listening to other's ideas, playing
a good few warriors in AQ over the years (and I currently have a 50+
rating warrior in game), discussions with Dan several years ago about
just such a skill, and my real-life activities and experiences in the SCA
where guys dress up in armor and beat the crap out of each other
every day.  Mind you, until I got involved in the SCA, I never felt good
about the idea of someone swinging a sword and hitting someone
else 5 or 6 times in 4 seconds; then I saw a battle between 2 Knights
in the SCA and my eyes couldn't even keep up with a couple of the
flurries these two fired at each other.  I'm now a believer in the power
of a truly skilled fighter.

1) All weapons wield differently, and all weapons parry differently;
	hence, parry skill should be by weapon.
2) Warriors are the only ones who would typically be trained to
	handle a weapon in this manner; hence it is a Warrior skill.
3) Since it is by weapon, the parry skill should be costed in that
	manner.  For weapon skill, the base cost is _always_
	30 * max damage; getting good at parrying with a weapon
	is not easy, so I propose that the base cost for parry should
	be 20 * max damage, or 2/3 of the weapon skill.
4) Of course, this skill is non-defaultable.
5) A person _can_ learn to parry without being particularly skilled at
	hitting with a weapon, so the upper bounds is still CSE and
	not the character's existing weapon skill.
6) Defense is what this skill is all about, and +2/die is consistent with
	several other skills in AQ.
7) This bonus is to CDV only because parrying does not equate to just
	flailing your weapon about.  It is the focused intention to block
	any incoming melee weapons.
8) It works until your next action because that is what you are focusing
	on during combat, defending yourself.
9) And since you are defending, you get to take only one choice shot
	during your round.  Make it a good one.
10) Regarding the possible exception: I am proposing that it be included
	because it makes sense and I can see it's usefulness, both to
	players and to actors.  Plus, it models real life a little better.
11) Note that this proposal does not require any extra die rolls and it
	maintains general consistency with other AQ skills.
12) I'm very curious of whether this matches Steve's criteria of
	simplicity and elegance (it certainly matches mine).

I am pretty much in agreement with the benefits that people are pointing
out for having such a skill, especially several of those that John mentioned.
However, there is one (and in my mind, this is the only one) drawback.
The club has taken to pushing the time envelope too hard again and the
primary causes for this have been slow starting games, too much OOC crap,
and combat.  Each GM needs to figure out how to balance the slow starts
and OOC stuff with having good fun and not taking up everyone else's time
but combat is something else entirely. If the parry skill gets put in and used,
the end result will be much more realistic combats, but also longer combats.
I'm not talking about any extra die rolls because there aren't any. I'm talking
about the fact that with the skill, hitting in melee will get harder and thus it
will take several more rounds to finish combat.  Since combats lately have
been taking a lot longer (mostly due to OOC junk and people not paying
attention to the action), I'm very loath to introduce a skill that will only make
them longer.  But here you go anyway.  Comments are welcome.

Lyle