And I mean both metagame and in-world combat pacing.
I don’t like multiple attacks in GURPS, because I’ve never experienced a snappy fight in the system. So, adding an additional attack to a turn – which might be a set of 3 or more rolls – felt amazing to me as a user, but not so much as an observer or GM. So I’d like to share a train of thought I had today.
High level combat in GURPS could run quicker if multiple attacks were done with single attack/defense roll. Probably with some penalty to the roll and a margin-based number of hits. The question arises, how do you deal with the varying penalties to hit different locations in the same combo? The simplest solution: you don’t. As I’ve mentioned… uh, a couple of years ago, I’m a fan of random hit locations – but always rolled at the same time as the attack roll. In my view it represents hitting what presents itself in a given situation.
Following on that, I’d rather see hitting a specific location not only something that the player needs to ponder a little, but the character, too. As such, I’d make Evaluate a requirement before attacking a specific hit location – looking for a specific opening. Evaluate would still grant it’s to-hit bonus, the maneuver does not need nerfing. The neat side-effect is: maybe someone would actually take the maneuver and slow down the onslaught of attack rolls.
This begs for a new advantage available to the players: being able to roll two random hit locations with each roll and being able to select, which one is hit would be somewhere between Luck and Extra Attack – definitely worth less then the latter. I’d gauge it around 8-10 points. 5 points feels too much like a no-brainer.
This leaves a question open on how to handle multiple attacks that target specific locations. I don’t know, but I don’t really need this, either. As such, I leave it to the reader.
Gnomish workden 