| From: | Marc Renouf renouf@********.com |
|---|---|
| Subject: | CC Martial Arts |
| Date: | Tue, 6 Jun 2000 12:05:25 -0400 (EDT) |
> Clarification: Body should be used as the Power of an unarmed combat
> *strike* (punch/kick).
>
> If you use locks and throws, then Quickness should be used to determine the
> Power of the lock/throw, IMHO.
No, and no. :)
All kidding aside, though, I see where you're coming from but I
tend to disagree. Yes, phsical momentum (and by extension weight, and
thus Body) are important for the purposes of figuring damage, but I have a
hard time buying that Body is a straight representation of weight. It
seems to reflect so much more (body weight isn't really all that useful in
resisting disease or determining how long you can hold your breath). I
know people who are tough as iron and can take a serious amount of hurt
but are wiry little lightweights.
As such, it seems kind of silly to just make the flat statement
that Body should be the sole determining factor in determining the power
level of an unarmed attack.
As for locks and pins, I *strongly* disagree with Quickness,
especially in the case of joint locks. In virtually all of the locks we
do (and we do a *lot* of joint locks), you're either using momentum
(dynamic locks) or leverage (static locks). While a tortuous argument
could be made that Quickness influences momentum, leverage is pretty much
all about Strength. Most of the time it's about applying as many muscles
as you can to a situation where the opponent can resist with only a few,
or with just the structural integrity of the joint itself.
Next you'll be telling me that this implies that proper knowledge
of the principles of leverage is what's most important, so the power
of joint-lock attacks should be based off Intelligence. Further, an
excellent argument could be made that combat is a test of wills that's
over before the first punch is thrown, so all attacks should be made using
your Willpower rather than skill.
See what I'm getting at? You could come up with any justification
you wanted for any attribute you wanted to base things off. So many
attributes play a factor in melee combat, either directly (through power
level or damage resistance in the case of Strength and Body respectively),
or indirectly (through the Combat Pool in the case of Intelligence,
Willpower, and Quickness). That leaves only Charisma of the base
attributes that isn't used in combat (and it's usually used right *before*
combat in the real world). With a system that is *supposed* to be
somewhat abstract, I think that SR models things fairly well, all things
considered. Real combat is immensely complicated, and doesn't lend itself
well to direct modelling. So while SR melee combat is abstract, it's
not broken. Why "fix" it? :)
Marc Renouf (ShadowRN GridSec - "Bad Cop" Division)
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