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At 10:55 AM 11/18/2010, you wrote:<br>
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<dd>Not sure I agree. While there's not too much of "aiming
for the head and hitting the foot" I saw plenty of cases both when I
was in martial arts and in fencing where the available target that
presented itself was what you hit, and where you got somewhere near what
you were aiming for but not on it.<br><br>
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That's fine and still modelled in the MRQ2 rules. You get a better level
of success and instead of 'Choose Location' you go for an 'Impale' on a
random target instead. ;)<br><br>
In my real world fighting I nowadays very rarely get caught on adjacent
targets or randomly interposed limbs, When I do hit an unexpected
location I personally consider it a 'miss', since usually the blow has
either been interrupted early, landed late or glanced which normally
results in insufficient force being inflicted. That is true for both
weapons and unarmed strikes, especially the latter where an inch off
precise distance can negate a telling blow.<br><br>
Still MRQ2 combat is an abstract model which I based on my own
experiences. If I gain an tactical advantage in combat (force my opponent
to open a hole where I want one, gain superior position etc) then the
chance of striking something other than my intended location is a lot
less than 1 in 20. Bear in mind also that there are significant
differences in close quarter Medieval fighting styles and the extreme
range, touch kills of modern fencing (if that is what you were doing),
which might explain in part our separate experiences.
:)</blockquote><br>
Note I also mentioned my martial arts experience, which included baton
work, staff and a few other things.<br><br>
The issue is that often there was no reason to wait around for a
"telling blow"; if you can hit someone's arm a good strike with
a staff, that'll move things toward the intent to defeat him too, rather
than wait around for an opening that's actually more likely to come if
you've already numbed that arm. While its' all fine and good to
want that finishing shot, waiting around for it rather than taking the
targets you're presented seems, well, suboptimal.<br><br>
(If anything, it makes less sense to take those in fencing, since many
locations aren't considered "legitimate"; as such I tend to
give the greater attention to my martial arts experience, and I spent
plenty of times hitting what became available there).<br><br>
I'm not suggesting that a completely random location roll is the best
model; I'm just suggesting the opposite may not be a better one.
Reality seems to land somewhere in between to me.</body>
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