RE: [HOE] HtH vs. ranged combat penalties

["Jeff Yates" <jyates@primaryfunction.com>]

I'm late to the discussion, but here goes:

One reason it's hard to hit in HtH is because the defender is actively
defending.  If skilled, then the defender is using his weapon, or at least
hands, to block.  In addition to moving and jumping around like you mention.
Some weapons are very suited to defense, or are long enough to help keep an
enemy at bay, and so have a defensive bonus.  If some cowpoke goes after
another with a knife, the defender is probably going to try to grab the
attackers wrist, etc.  It can be quite hard to land a decent stab.

In ranged combat, all the defender has is to avoid standing still.  In a
knife fight, you can try to block my arm's swing.  In a gunfight, if you
hold your hands up to block the bullet, you get shot in the hands.  However,
if you've got a knife and are close enough to use it, then I've got to get
my gun into a position where I can hit you without getting stabbed in the
arms while you defend -- then your Fightin':Knife and the knife's DB count
against my Shootin' roll.

So that's why I think it's so hard to hit in HtH -- comparing target numbers
from HtH to ranged weapons.

As far as darkness penalties in HtH, other than complete darkness, you can
see your target well enough when it's inside of arm's length.  The darkness
impedes the defender's ability to see the attacker, too, making it harder to
use your Fightin' score to defend yourself.  They cancel out.  Now, if
blinded or otherwise lacking any sight ability, it is _really_ hard to hit
the other guy, and _really_ hard to see the blow coming to try to
avoid/block it.  So for my game total darkness does impose a to-hit penalty
for HtH, and it eliminates defensive bonuses or using Fightin' defensively.
Basically it's -10 to-hit, you can't call the shot, and you can't move a hit
location if you have any raises.  You can't see the target, so you can't aim
for particular spots on the target.

This is probably more than two cents worth, but there you go...

Jeff Y.
Marshal for the Dynamite Gang

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-hoe@gamerz.net [mailto:owner-hoe@gamerz.net]On Behalf Of
> Theo McGuckin
> Sent: Friday, May 25, 2001 3:38 PM
> To: Hell on Earth
> Subject: [HOE] HtH vs. ranged combat penalties
>
>
>
> The other marshal and myself were having a discussion on ranged combat and
> HtH combat penalties and I thought to open it to the list:
>
> My concern was that it's really hard to hit in HtH. One way that my group
> addressed this is that you only get 1/2 your fightin skill added to your
> TN to be hit in HtH instead of all of it. We've had this rule in place for
> awhile and it's worked out nicely for our group.
>
> The next question was why it was harder to hit in HtH than range. The
> argument was put forth that in HtH your moving around, in ranged combat
> your not. This seemed odd until it occured to me that of late we've
> finally been really enforcing darkness and movement penalties for ranged
> combat. So with the -2 for shooting at a moving target (we do -2 for
> walking, -4 for running) that puts your TN at 7. And if you are fighting a
> compentant HtH foe with a 4 or 5 in fightin then that TN is 7 as well. So
> it all worked out nicely.
>
> So this was the question that was raised:
> -----------------------------------------
>
> Here's a marshal question for you. Do you think that darkness penalties
> should apply in HtH the same as ranged? It seems like at range the
> darkness makes it harder to pick out a target, but in HtH that's less of
> an issue.
> That's why (well, one reason) people sneak up and knife each other at
> night. It's easier to hit them that way.
> Maybe 1/2 penalties?
>
> 	You know, I was kind of thinking the same thing.