Hi all,
I'm just reading through BRP Zero and toying with a few ideas. One of these is separating Weapon Skill out into two separate Attack and Parry skills, a la Old RuneQuest.
The issue I see with the BRP rules is that because of the Dodge skill, it's hardly worth learning Parry as a separate skill for each weapon. Just Dodge all the time, whack up that one single skill as much as you can, and use it in all circumstances.
Now, if Attack and Parry are a single, dual purpose Weapon Skill (the BRP default option), then the dilemma doesn't arise - of course you want a good Weapon skill, so the choice of whether to use that Weapon Skill to parry, or a separate Dodge skill to dodge, is largely a matter of personal preference and how much damage the BEM is likely to do.
But with a separate Parry Skill - hell, then I'm just gonna Dodge, Dodge, Dodge!
Can anyone see a reason, other than Colour and Good Roleplaying (TM), why you'd ever bother to run up a separate Parry Skill when a single Dodge Skill will serve all your purposes?
Cheers,
Sarah