[NickMiddleton]

Originally Posted by Harshax

BRP already has many of what 4e thinks is new: Brutal critical hits, knockback with bludgeon weapons, impales with piercing weapons. All it is missing is simple mechanics for feints, or to borrow from Savage Worlds 'Tricks'.

A 'Trick' is any maneuver in combat that is meant to lower someone's defenses. It could be anything from the classic [looking over opponent's should] and saying 'Glad you finally showed up', to throwing sand in someone's face, or an intimidating shout.

Tricks can be Agility tricks (feints), Psychological (POW, eg: intimidate), or Intellectual.

This is resolved with opposed rolls on the resistance table. Dex vs Dex, Pow vs Pow, or Int vs Int. If successful, you lower your opponent's defense by 10% until the beginning of your next turn. Optionally, crits could lower defenses even more.

I like the idea of tricks, and started roughing out some ideas for a BRP system - then I thought again:

So the lucky farm boy (POW 18) is better at Intimidation than the veteran Soldier (POW 12), the smart kid (INT 18) better than the average adult hustler (INT 12), the graceful apprentice (DEX 18) better than the normally co-ordinated Guard (DEX 12)?

I concluded after some thought that a) a lot of this stuff is covered in the new BRP in the Spot Rules and b) they are functions of skill (i.e. experience and training) not raw ability (i.e. stats).

If I was to implement a generalised mechanic for non-combat skills aiding in combat I'd use a variant something like this: a character with a sufficiently high skill (e.g. Fast Talk 50+) can use it in an opposed test vs. an opponents appropriate skill (e.g. for a bluff, or taunt use of fast Talk, probably Insight) and if they win either penalise the opponents defensive skill or add to their attacking skill an amount equal to their special success chance with their winning skill e.g. in the Bluff example, one fifth of their Fast Talk could be applied as either a penalty to the defenders parry or Dodge, or as a bonus to the Attackers weapon skill.

Feints force your opponent to move 1m in any direction. If this would cause them to fall off a cliff or into lava, they get to make a DEX or Luck roll to fall prone.

There are Entangle and Knock-back rules in BRP already - I think the issue is as much getting players to THINK about what their characters options are in a combat as it is a rules issue. And, funnily enough, I know of at least one Savage Worlds GM who has had problems getting players to engage with SW combat properly because they didn't know or understand the options available...

To summarise, tricks and manoeuvres offer more combat options without excessive rules. Use tricks when you cannot overwhelm your opponents defences. Use feints to control the battlefield. Optionally, Feints could be a skill.

I think much of this is, as I said, already covered in the BRP spot rules, and that the vast majority should be skill based... But I still want to sit down with a copy of SW and the BRP Spot Rule chapter as I think I think a "Guide to BRP Action Sequences" with suggestions for both players and GM's on how to implement and exploit the Spot Rules stuff might be useful.

No, BRP doesn't need feats and powers. It might be able to use a method for players to exert some narrative control through spending temporary POW, such as temporarily improving damage, skill competencies, or just damage soaking. Very minor things, IMO.

For 1 pt. Temporary POW =
+5% to Skill Check
+1 damage
Soak 1 HP
Be Heroic

Or something like that. You get the picture

This is covered in the optional "Fate point" mechanic in BRP. I've yet to try them in play, but I know Jason and others have used these sorts of things a lot and think well of them... I think it's worth looking at skills over 100% and considering how big a deal it is: in an SB style game, skills over 100 are sufficiently common that they don't nee extra rules. In a RQII/III game where skills over 100 are theoretically possible but rare and noteworthy then I think some extra benefits of exceptional skill would be good - whether something like Land of Ninja's ki skills or MRQ's Legendary Abilities done right.

RuneLords in RQII got specific unique abilities for weapon skills over 100, which might be a source of inspiration.

Cheers,

Nick