Topic: Terrain for parrying?

[Athelstaine]

Some one in my group mentioned that in arms law there is a terrain option to parry an incoming missile attack. I looked it up, but the explanation is very vague. According to Arms Law(RMFRP edition) on p.111:

Terrain (variable) — To be determined by the referee (e.g., a stone
wall could be used to "parry" a missile attack).

So i how you interpret that? i can not find any other information on the subject that has any kind of clarification.

[Cory Magel]

I don't know why it wouldn't just be treated as 'cover'.  Using terrain to 'parry' implies that you are dodging behind it... so I'd say use movement to dodge and apply a cover bonus.

[Athelstaine]

I agree, it pretty much the same as cover. Just throws me off to see that would specifically say that, when the cover bonus section is just a couple paragraphs away.

 So we were having a discussion on it. Majority of my friends thinks it is an additional DB bonus on top of any cover bonuses. It just does not seem logical to me.

[yammahoper]

There is a cover table.  You can find it in Fire arms Law and Space Master books.  Probably in Arms Law too but I have been using a photo copied table in my Master Table book for so long I forget which books it is in.

There are a few.  Cover is defined as Hard to Soft and Full/partial/etc.

[Cory Magel]

So we were having a discussion on it. Majority of my friends thinks it is an additional DB bonus on top of any cover bonuses. It just does not seem logical to me.

lol... you can't hide behind a wall (or any 'terrain') twice.  You might try what ends a lot of our past debates... remind them, whatever they decide, the foes can do it too.

[markc]

For terrain they may be talking about such things as jungle fighting, fighting on ice, tunnel fighting, fighting in close quarters, fighting on a rolling deck (ie ship or boat) or other such things where various terrain or objects may get in the way of attacks and defense (ie hinders the attackers so it would also hinder the defenders).
MDC

[Athelstaine]

Okay, thanks for the replies. I think i will just use the regular cover bonuses and worry about terrain mods when/if it becomes important.

The argument my most vocal player used is as follows:
- You have a guy behind a tree and he moves right from tree and fires an arrow and then ducks back to just move left and fire another arrow. He says that is terrain mod, I am like, NO , that is cover bonus. He says that he is using his skill to dodge and can apply weapon OB to DB via terrain. For some reason i just can not grasp the concept.

Anywho, once again thanks for the help. Like i said above i'll just cover mods and worry about terrain as neccessary.

[markc]

  IMHO if a player is doing so then the archer would get some penalty IMHO to their OB as they are not completely free to follow the target. And if the target can see the archer behind the tree/obstacle/cover then they will use that to there advantage (if the know how).
 So IMHO cover can work both ways in specific situations.
MDC

[Cory Magel]

"You have a guy behind a tree and he moves right from tree and fires an arrow and then ducks back to just move left and fire another arrow." He says that is terrain mod, I am like, NO , that is cover bonus.

I think I might see where he's trying to come from.

We can assume if he is not firing, he's using the tree for cover.  I'd consider a tree full cover, so there's nothing to dodge so long as you don't expose yourself.  If you want to fire at your foe, then you are coming out from cover to fire your bow so now you have only partial cover for the round (however much you want assign, I'd say 50%-75% depending on how generous you want to be).

So, using a tree for partial cover and attacking your foe: Hiding behind a tree, and popping out to fire... at which point the foe (who is likely holding on you) fires at you, and you dodge back behind the tree, only then to pop back out and fire back.  That's not a terrain bonus, that's dodging.  So if he specifically has a dodge skill, and wants to dedicate action to using the dodge skill, I might allow that.  Now it's a question of if you have or want to allow such a skill.  I don't believe here is one in RMSS (there's tumbling evasion, but you must dedicate the entire round to it).  In my opinion his Qu, and therefore DB, are dodging.

[Greylorn]

I would interpret the rule as combining movement with cover.  Instead of giving the base cover bonus, you would combine movement and the natural terrain to provide you with a DB, and the movement becomes a penalty to OB.  How much of a DB would depend on the type of terrain and how the character is moving to take advantage of the terrain.  I would give a portion of the cover bonus as a guideline, but the OB penalty would, I think, be the big difference between just using the cover rules and using this rule.

As an example of this thought:

A battle is taking place in a forest with light foliage.  Two archers are standing some sixty feet away sniping at the group.  The warrior decides to close in on the archers, attacking with his own bow, but using the trees to help provide him with cover (effectively using the terrain to parry the shots).

Assuming a movement of 30%, he will also spend a 10% action to use the terrain (add 10 to his DB) resulting in a -40 to his attack with his bow.