[Runequest] Charge! (.. and set)

[Tomas Björklund]

I used to fence with the épée and the sabre when I was younger.

In that sport we have a couple of moves that possibly would be equivalent to
the charge. The Fleche for instance. A lightning fast dash, where one leaps
off his leading foot, attempts to make the hit, and then passes the opponent
at a run.

When fencing with sabre you have a similar maneuver too.

I would say from that experience that a charge accomplishes several things.
  - It gets you into contact fast.
  - Our brains are very bad at handling charges against us. When charged you
tend to freeze up or go blank for brief moment. With experience you learn to
reduce that effect, but it takes a very good fencer not to be affected by a
charge, especially if it is accompanied by a scream.
    Note that this concerns charges from a distance of no more than 5-6
meters (about 1 second approach time), beyond that you get your bearing back
and the effect is lost. Though I can imagine that it would take some guts to
stand and take it like a man, when someone runs towards you screaming,
wanting to cut into you with a shiny sharp sword.
  - Your momentum adds to the power of your strike.

The drawbacks of a charge as I recall are:
 - If you miss, you end up running past your opponent which leaves your back
open.
 - A charge sets up a single strike, and thus any alternative uses of your
weapon are hard to accomplish, like parry or deflecting the opponents
counterthrust. So your ability to defend goes down. This is offset by the
fact that your opponent will freeze momentarily (as noted above).

Some thoughts from an old man. Perhaps they are of use in this discussion.

- Tom.



On Mon, Apr 21, 2008 at 5:16 AM, Peter Maranci <pmaranci at gmail.com> wrote:

> This immediately raised in my mind the whole issue of movement. It STILL
> bothers me that every human moves at a rate of 3 - that's simply not
> realistic!
>
> Speaking of realism, what are the drawbacks of charging (apart from the
> danger of running into a set weapon, of course)? I suspect the biggest
> drawback is loss of control. This should probably be reflected as a
> reduction in the chance to hit...possibly not a flat percentage, but a
> percent of the chance to hit, i.e. the charger must roll under 50% of their
> skill. That seems a bit too harsh, but if I said 90% instead, I would
> (justly) be accused of making things too complicated.
>
> ->Peter
>
>
> On Sun, Apr 20, 2008 at 8:00 PM, Lev Lafayette <lev_lafayette at yahoo.com.au>
> wrote:
>
> >
> > The rules for charging in most editions of RQ are
> > acceptable, but certainly can be improved. The
> > following is for RQ 3rd but could easily be adapted
> > for RQ 1st and 2nd editions and probably RQ AiG. I'll
> > have to double-check MRQ because it uses a radically
> > different Strike Ranks system.
> >
> > The basic rule of thumb is that when charging it is
> > the additional velocity that causes extra damage. The
> > greater the velocity, the greater the damage caused.
> >
> > To charge a character must move and attack in a
> > straight line, which means no deviations more than 60
> > degrees at any time during the charge.
> >
> > To charge a character must also build up sufficient
> > momentum. This requires a mimimum of their DEX SR plus
> > 1 in movement. Characters with really quick reflexes
> > (e.g., DEX 20+) can take off and charge with a single
> > SR. Others are a bit slower.
> >
> > The damage bonus caused by a charge is equal to the
> > character's (Move/3)*1d4. A human who charges (Mv 3)
> > will do 1d4 bonus damage with their weapon. A horse
> > charge (Mv 10) will do an additional 3d4.
> >
> > When facing 'set' weapons (e.g., spears, pikes etc) a
> > successful hit means the damage bonus is used against
> > the charger.
> >
> > These are notes I scribbled on the tram this morning
> > whilst reflecting on running the joust tournament
> > yesterday for the Sun County supplement's scenario
> > "Garhound's Contest". Please comment on any glaring
> > mistakes that I may have overlooked prior to having my
> > morning coffee.
> >
> > All the best,
> >
> >
> > Lev
> >
> >
> >
> >  ____________________________________________________________________________________
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>
> --
> Peter Maranci - pmaranci at gmail.com
> Pete's RuneQuest & Roleplaying! http://www.runequest.org/rq.htm
> The Diary of An Invisible Man: http://bobquasit.livejournal.com/
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