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A Study in Velvet Mech tweak: Grapples, Knockdowns and Takedowns

Mina Haplo 11 Jan 2019 03:06

This post is about recent tweaks I made to three types of attack: the grapple, the knockdown and the takedown.

Knockdowns and Takedowns

As part of an attempt to streamline and make consistent the attacks in the game, Knockdowns and Takedowns have both been rewritten.

KNOCKDOWNS ARE NOW NORMAL:
In the past, Knockdowns required an opposed Strength test to knock down and had a host of extra effects based around possibly dealing damage or, if you failed badly, risking knocking yourself down. These are all gone. Instead, knockdowns work like any other attack: you roll a WS attack to hit, which the target can evade. If the attack hits and deals damage past soak, instead of depleting wounds it knocks the target down. Furthermore they can be used in place of a standard melee attack or a charge.

REDUCING THE CHOKEPOINTS OF TAKEDOWNS:
In the past, the takedown action, which stunned a character, could be unwieldy to use. Effectively, succeeding at a Takedown had four chokepoints- four possible chances to fail:

• First you had to roll to hit.
• Then the target could evade.
• Then you had to deal damage.
• Then the target got a -second- chance to evade by passing a toughness test.

Takedown is useful, but at this point it starts to become complex to use and falls to the old "Death is the best ailment" status effect. So we've brought Takedown in line with every other attack. Takedowns now work like every other attack: you roll a WS attack to hit, which the target can evade. If the attack hits and deals damage past soak, instead of depleting wounds it stuns. HOWEVER, a character is now permitted to test Endurance as part of their evasion, giving them the option between Dodge, Parry and Endurance. Thus, it allows high-toughness characters to still get their resistance against takedowns without giving them a special fourth chokepoint. This mechanic has also been applied to Knockdown.

Grapples

GRAPPLES ARE NOW USABLE:
Grapple rules in RPGs have a reputation for being overly complex, confusing and slowing everything down. Our rules were similar, due to requiring a whole new host of rules and checks. Furthermore, once you were in a grapple, you then had to chart who was controlling the grapple, and THEN you had a new list of actions to take in. It raised a lot of questions: you needed a free hand to start a grapple, but grappled targets did not apparently need one to take the grapple back. What happens when multiple characters are involved in a grapple? So on and so forth.

Grapples have thus been streamlined down into a more usable form. This is how grapples now work:

• Grapples are a WS attack against the target. This NO LONGER requires a hand to be free. It can also be used as part of a charge. This makes grappling more streamlined as it removes the "Do I have a hand free?" rule that people forget usually anyway.
• The target of a Grapple attack may evade as normal, including by parrying. However, they alternatively can make an Attack of Opportunity; if this attack inflicts wounds on the grappler or forces them to evade, then the attempt fails. The Attack of Opportunity option gives grapples an extra dimension of risk against particularly dangerous melee opponents, and means that you always have some line of defense against a grapple. This is especially useful for boss characters to keep themselves from being easily swarmed.
• Once you are in a grapple, we no longer care who is 'controlling' it. Instead, once you start in on a grapple you have the 'Grappling' condition.
• Characters who are Grappling can do everything they would normally be able to do. They can do any action they want (including evasion), the cost of actions is unchanged and so on. HOWEVER, before they can start their action they must pass a Grapple test, which is an opposed Strength, Athletics, Endurance or Acrobatics test, opposed against every other enemy they are in a grapple with. Essentially a character can act as they usually would except every action has an extra check, making things harder.
• You exit a grapple by moving away from it, which requires you to win a Grapple test.
• Attacks against grappled characters take a +20 bonus, so long as you are not grappled. This allows teammates to pile into a grapple easier if they want.

Essentially, grappling is now far more easy to understand and doesn't substitute our entire action/ruleset for a new one.

SOME OTHER GRAPPLE THINGS
To simulate pinning a target down and restraining them, the Prone condition has extra effects when grappling.

• Prone characters suffer a -20 penalty to their Grapple tests, so long as one of their grapple enemies is standing. (Two prone targets thus do not take the penalty)
• Prone characters who fail a Grapple test against a standing enemy suffer a rank of fatigue. This means that prone, grappled characters risk being worn down or knocked unconscious if they struggle too much.

This makes grappling and knockdown, together, a far more reliable way of non-lethally subduing a target than it used to be.

Trait/Talent/Equipment Changes

TRAIT CHANGES
The following traits have been altered to reflect the rules.

• SIZE: Size now gives a flat penalty or bonus to Grapples based on size. Every bracket below Size 4 takes a cumulative -10 penalty to Grapple tests, with Size 1 having a -30 penalty, Size 2 having a -20 penalty etc. Sizes 5 and over take a cumulative +10 bonus to Grapple tests per level, with Size 5 having +10 and Size 10 having +60. Because the grapple test is now just a regular opposed check, this means that size has a clearer, simpler effect on Grappling.
• STURDY: The Sturdy trait is now more distinctive because it grants unlimited Endurance reactions against Takedowns and Knockdowns. It also provides a +20 bonus to Grapple tests.

EQUIPMENT QUALITY CHANGES
The following traits have been altered to reflect the rules.

• CRUSHING: Crushing weapons had a rather odd quality, where if you did a burst attack with them you could swap extra hits for extra penetration. Fiddly and dubious, the effect has now been changed to a far more distinctive and effective one: Crushing Weapons ignore enemy AP when using Takedown or Knockdown. This means that crushing weapons are much more able to inflict knockdowns and takedowns, giving them a special edge in disabling enemies.
• LIGHT: Light weapons were special in the old system as being one of the only weapons usable in grapples. The system has now changed so that any weapon is usable in grapples. Light weapons instead get a hefty +20 bonus to attack grappled targets, representing how easy they are to use in close quarters.
• UNWIELDY: Unwieldy weapons were one of many weapons that couldn't be used in grapples because of their size, but even worse they are almost always two-handed, meaning that if you wanted to grapple you had to drop it. In the new method, you can grapple with two handed weapons. But to reflect how difficult it is to use them, and to prevent 2-handed weapons from dominating grapples, grapplers now take a massive -30 penalty to attack tests with unwieldy weapons.

TALENT CHANGES
The Grappler and Unarmed Master talents have been amended lightly to match the new mech.

Last edited on 11 Jan 2019 03:07 by Mina Haplo Show more