Forwarded on behalf of Paul T, who doesn't subscribe but reads the
archives on the web.
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Hello, everyone.
I have a question about the vanilla Fudge damage system. It seems to
produce very reasonable results most of the time, and clearly many people
are quite happy with it--the only complaints/issues I've seen tend to come
from people who find the rules too crunchy or "un-Fudgelike".
I haven't tried them in play (I've either used crunchier systems like
GURPS, or run Fudge with Story Element Combat), but looking them over I
see a potential problem. As I said, they seem to me to generate reasonable
results in most situations... except those where a low Strength character
attacks a character with higher Strength/Damage Capacity/Scale.
For instance, a character with a Strength just two levels below their
target's Damage Capacity/Strength will find it incredibly difficult to
even cause a "Scratch" result in unarmed combat (unless he or she is
highly skilled). A small person (say, Poor strength) armed with a knife
attacking a "barbarian" type with Great or Superb strength and no armor
can be pretty much safely ignored--and will almost never do any damage if
the bigger guy is actually defending himself. Against a defenseless
target, said person needs to make a Great or Superb roll just to Scratch
them! Now, if I was a big football player (say), and someone significantly
smaller (a youth, perhaps, or an elderly person) was coming at me with a
knife in real life, I would imagine I would still feel it quite worthwhile
to defend myself. From the playability side of things, it also seems like
it would be a drag--extremely frustrating for the players of low-strength
characters.
This sounds like a problem to me, and I haven't been able to come up with
any good fixes. What has your experience playing Fudge borne out? Is this
a problem? If so, have you thought of any ways to fix it? I really like
the results the standard system generates for characters of the same
stature or for those bigger than their targets.
Much thanks,
Paul T.
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