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[ziizo]

Attack snake with the sling

[Rautherdir]

Throw my phasestrike Javelin at it.

[randomgenericusername]

"The beast has a strong leather! We have to pierce it!"
Attack using my pick! Try to hit a weak spot in the "armor" of the beast!

[Starver]

Given I'm still at the back, I probably see that the zerg-rush isn't necessarily mopping up this 'easy' enemy, and mindful that there are many people likely in the area if I try to push through, I shall load up a Skull and take a few moments to make sure I'm not going to strike the back of the head of some charging hero. Pick my moment.

(Useless to cry 'incoming!', as that might just get people turning round to see, and that could be worse.)

[dustywayfarer]

Louis grimaces and backs away, attacking only if there's an opening.

[Sir Knight]

Well, if you carefully loaded a spiked ball into your sling and launched it at something, would you expect most of the damage to come from the ball or the spikes on it?

That's the sort of conundrum I had been considering.  Say, a baseball bat with a spike in it: what on earth is a combat system to do if it cares about "damage type"?

Yet I keep going back to a lesson I learned when reading GURPS (back in the day when GURPS was new).  They classed all the weapons (oh yes, they had rules for way too many things), and they called the bullets fired from a gun "crushing damage."  Up to that point I'd thought only of bullets as punching holes in things.  Bullets are really tiny.  And armor-piercing bullets surely would have to be "piercing," right?  But a regular bullet "punches" those holes, after all, instead of "pierces," and the way one defends against a bullet is by treating it like blunt force and constructing armor to match.

So on to the case with a slingstone.  (First off, an aside: sling "stones" are also called "bullets.")  In this game these are irregular chunks you pick up off of the ground.  Unless you can throw them with the precision that a bullet is fired, an "armor-piercing" bit on a rock is going to be unreliable, isn't it?

Even if so . . . there's another issue I've deliberately left ambiguous.  A typical "fantasy-game mace" is a rod with spikes on the end.  Why spikes?  Because they look cool.  Historical maces didn't strictly require them.  Either way, classic D&D suggested that "clerics follow rules based on their order; for example, some can't use bladed weapons," and in with this system clerics still used spiked maces in the "not-sharp weapons" category.  Every game since then seems to agree with this artistic license.  So much for understanding baseball bats with nails.

As so, I've left it up to your imagination whether you think of the maces wielded by hoarding wastrels as having spikes on them.  It's just not worth it to debate whether a little bit of sharpness changes the rules for them.

In the end, when compared to the clear function of a pick to swing its point into the target, and a sword to run its edge along a target, I'd imagine that when the spinning shale chunk strikes the hydra in the head, tearing apart the eye, it probably did so from the force of the throw itself.

. . .

Right!  Could still use a reply from Bob (magmaholic).  And, for that matter, an assertion of action from Dustan (Dustan Hache) after all that discussion.

[dustywayfarer]

I think the only route to futher pendantry after Sir Knight's post would be to look up images of various wounds and try to classify weapons based on an underlying classification of wounds. That's overkill, as far as I'm concerned. It is an interesting discussion, though. Does anyone know whether the bladed/blunt split for clerics is actually historical? It just sounds like remnants of a clever nerf from years gone by.

[Sir Knight]

Does anyone know whether the bladed/blunt split for clerics is actually historical? It just sounds like remnants of a clever nerf from years gone by.

I can't say anything about "historical" (but probably nonsense, since Christian priests didn't have too many Bible verses on the subject to instruct their followers, and what you do if you want to kill people is use whatever contemporary killing devices you've got), but I was quite serious about the D&D part.  Lamentably, I cannot find a .pdf online that says anything of the sort, but there is at least one version out there with words to the effect of "The different orders of clerics will follow different rules, such as not being allowed to use bladed weapons.  The players are welcome to come up with their own orders."  All I can find right now is discussion (without instruction) that good and evil clerics should use different subsets of the available spells, which has been soundly ignored over the years.

[Imic]

Is it possible to join this at some point?

[magmaholic]

"MASSIVE HORSIE POOPS!"shouts Bob,pulling the pick out of his gut,and swinging at the triple snek again.

[Sir Knight]

Is it possible to join this at some point?

Yes!  I have a waitlist in the first post which I scour for four people to dump into the game once four of the current people die.  They're proving remarkably hard-to-kill, but gimme the character information listed there and I'll reserve you a spot.  And, uh, good luck choosing an icon color.

. . . And now I'll just need Dustan to confirm an action, as stated.

[Dustan Hache]

let's try something different. Grab a handful of smaller rocks, load them in my sling all at once, and attempt to use them like a shotgun spread to strike against the Hydra multiple times.

[Sir Knight]

let's try something different. Grab a handful of smaller rocks, load them in my sling all at once, and attempt to use them like a shotgun spread to strike against the Hydra multiple times.

Sitting here blinking at you, dude.

Sure, I'll narrate it.  But you personally provide all the force behind the blow(s), so, you know, no statistical improvement.

And I have a smirk firmly on my face as I observe, again, that you people love making the GM's job a fun one.

[Dustan Hache]

I test the boundaries of what a GM will allow while trying to keep things realistic and balanced. It's a hobby.

[Sir Knight]

Previous -- Next

Is that everything?  I think that's everything.

Spoiler: Combat round order (click to show/hide)

5, 7, 3, 6, 2, 9, 8, 4, 1

. . . Gary, Louis, Alyssa Alpine, Bob, John, the rock hydra, Tohil, Dwain, Dustan.

Spoiler: Attack!  But first, retreat! (click to show/hide)

Gary's fine.  Louis goes before the enemy does, so it should be easy to avoid being attacked:

Louis's retreat roll: 4, Succeed!
Rock hydra's but-you're-tasty roll: 3, Succeed weakly!

. . . Louis clearly surpasses on all counts.

Now a quick interruption.  You can see on the map that the older exiles are shuttled toward a choke point, and apparently all of them are using ranged attacks, meaning they will be getting no closer than that point.  They, in fact, will be "rubbing shoulders."  One never-fully-answered question has been "What happens with John's damaged amnesiac robe?"  Does it discriminate friend from foe?

I made sure to describe it with the words "Everyone who could touch you adds Fail by succeeding (with paralysis)," meaning . . . it doesn't know the difference.  So everybody swinging their limbs right next to John in this next batch of rolls has to consider the teensy little risk of paralyzing themselves with forgetfulness.

This battle is a great big paralysis party.  Whee!

Spoiler: Back to the rolls! (click to show/hide)

Alyssa Alpine's combat table, phasestrike javelin, near an individual wearing an amnesiac robe:

1: Fail terribly
2: Fail
3: Succeed weakly
4: Succeed
5: Succeed
6: Succeed greatly
7: Fail by succeeding (with paralysis)

Alyssa Alpine's attack roll: 4, Succeed!
Damage roll (1d6+1): 2+1 = 3!
Rock hydra, HP: 12/32

Bob's combat table as before

Bob's attack roll: 2, Fail!

John's combat table, now using sling and rocks, is the same as Dustan's from before

John's attack roll: 1, Fail terribly!

Rock hydra's initial combat table as before

Rock hydra attack roll: 5, Succeed (with paralysis)!
(Randomly starting with Bob this time . . . )
Damage roll (1d6+1): 2+1 = 3!
Bob, HP: 2/10
Paralysis roll (1d6+3)/2: (5+3)/2 = 4!

Continuing to attack Tohil:

1: Fail terribly
2: Fail
3: Succeed weakly
4: Succeed weakly
5: Succeed weakly (with paralysis)
6: Succeed
7: Succeed (with paralysis)
8: Fail by succeeding

Rock hydra attack roll: 5, Succeed weakly (with paralysis)!
Damage roll (1d4-1): 4-1 = 3!
Tohil, HP: 5/10
Paralysis roll (1d4+3)/2: (3+3)/2 = 3!

Tohil's combat table, now using iron pick, is the same as Bob's from before

Tohil's attack roll: 2, Fail!

Dwain's combat table, sling and seeker skull, near an individual wearing an amnesiac robe:

1: Fail terribly
2: Fail
3: Succeed weakly
4: Succeed
5: Succeed
6: Succeed greatly
7: Fail by succeeding
8: Fail by succeeding (with paralysis)

Dwain's attack roll: 2, Fail!

(Lots of failure this time)

Dustan's combat table, now near an individual wearing an amnesiac robe:

1: Fail terribly
2: Fail terribly
3: Fail
4: Succeed weakly
5: Succeed weakly
6: Succeed
7: Succeed greatly
8: Fail by succeeding
9: Fail by succeeding (with paralysis)

Dustan's attack roll: 8, Fail by succeeding!
Damage to rock hydra (1d6+1): 4+1 = 5!
Rock hydra, HP: 7/32
Damage to self (1d6+1): 1+1 = 2!
Dustan, HP: 14/18

(So you all avoided amnesiac paralysis (as opposed to the rock hydra version), but that last roll is just funny in context)

Gary is staying put--that feeling of paralysis is pretty good at occupying all your attention.  Louis, stung slightly, backs off a pace or two.  You don't see an opening.  That thing has three heads and only two people are attacking it in melee; getting involved would be a bad idea.

So Alyssa keeps to the distance!  You throws that phasestrike javelin which has served you so well in the past.  It scores some damage on the creature's . . . shoulder? . . . and clatters to the ground nearby.

Bob is distracting it with a second swing of the pick, but sadly you miss.  Your punishment is a direct bite!  Argh, now you see what was messing with Gary so much: the saliva is paralyzing your muscles!  The same occurs with the rock hydra and Tohil: a whiffed swing with an iron pick, and a paralyzing bite!

Bob now has -4 to his next damage roll in combat!

Tohil now has -3 to his next damage roll in combat!

John experiences no such problems and you peg a chunk of shale into the battle.  Your hand slips!  The sling itself sails out of your hand to hit the rock hydra in the face with a splap!  Well, one face . . .

The bout of clumsiness continues, and Dwain, trying not to bump into John's amnesiac robe, hurls a seeker skull only to watch it sail harmlessly into the water.  Dustan tries a shattershot approach--literally--and rock pieces go everywhere.  Some of them brutally pound into the creature's neck muscles!  And one, apparently, sails straight up into the air, to strike you a moment later across the side of the nose.  Ow!  Oh, great, it's bleeding.  Isn't your mining helmet supposed to protect you from this nonsense?!



A lot of misses, though you've still made progress.  Both melee fighters are now suffering paralysis.  Ranged combat is in a risky position.  I think it likely you'll mop up this encounter in the next update, but how exactly will you do it?