The 3d6 bell curve keeps the probabilities of defenses reasonable so that combat doesn't turn into a game of who misses their roll first. Unlike other systems every roll represent a single physical actions which makes visualization of combat easy. Round 6: I attack the Orc on the ground (Orc is stunned and utterly fails his parry) Round 5: I attack the Orc (The orc fails and falls to the ground stunned) Round 5: I drink my potion and step away (Orc steps and attack, Bod dodges again) Round 4: I pull out my potion and step away (Orc steps and attack, Bob Dodges) Round 3: I get up (Fails to defend and gets hit again) Round 2: I step to the right and swing at the Orc (and fails to defend) Round 1: I move up to the orc (and dodges the Orc's blow) In GURPS you do one thing and one thing only. Like move and attack, quaff a potion and attack, quaff a potion and run like hell. In most other combat system you can two or more things in a round. The biggest thing people have trouble with is the one second combat round. So what is like? What pitfalls are there? I will get into the other options in a later post. If he is below -HP then a failed Health roll could mean death. If he below zero then he must roll his Health or below or fall unconscious. If he below 1/3 HP then his dodge and movement are cut. If he take more than 1/2 HP in one shot he could wind up stunned.
The defender has a number of hit points based on his Strength. Any damage that get through may be multiplied if you do cutting (1.5x) or impaling damage (2x) If the defender fails you roll damage and subtract the Damage Resistance of the armor the defender is wearing. If the defender succeeds that it for the attack. If you hit, the defender most of the time get to make a defense roll picking either a parry, a block, or a dodge. You roll 3d6 less than or equal to your skill.
If you don't do a full move you can generally take a step and do your one thing. The Basic combat system is fairly simple.Ĭombat Round are 1 second, you can do one thing a round. But it can still be played the same way as it was in 3rd edition. GURPS 4th edition doesn't present it in quite the same way. This made a lot of people happy as the roleplaying folks got a solid simple system to use and the grognards could drink deeply from the realism cup. GURPS 3rd Edition has a pretty good setup where they explained basic combat and then had a chapter where they added movement, the hex grid, and other advanced combat rules.
Now that I explained what a character is like now combat!