Topic: Rules question: Charging

[lwCoyote]

There is a section in RMC Arms Law for charging, but the rules surrounding it seem kind of vague. Specifically, how many % activity does charging use? Is it just movement+attack, or is there some other way of figuring it?

If just movement+attack, it seems like the purpose of it is to offset the penalty for using less than 100% activity in attack, that would be lost using %activity movement to reach the target. Am I correct in that?

[yammahoper]

mounts move independantly of pc's activity.  however, a pc may need to spend some activity to control the mount, depending on many variables.

with a pointy attack, mounted attacks recieve a +1/ten feet of movement.  +1/twenty feet with a non pointy attack.

Horses also provide a bonus, from +10 for a pony to 30+ for a war horse (+45 is the highest I have seen).

Normally, the bonuses are added to the attck roll AFTER the maximum OB has been calculated for mounted combat.

A pc charging on foot gets the same ob mods as for mounted combat and only suffers 1/2 activity penalty for movement/  Finally, a charge must be basically a straight line.

[lwCoyote]

The question was primarily for attackers on foot, rather than mounted. I shall review the mounted combat rules.

[lachancery]

Here's how I have been applying the charging rules in RMC:

The PC has a 50' movement rate and the target is 35' away reachable in a straight line. In order to have an attack, normal or charging, the PC must be running (2x movement); walking to the target would be a 70% activity (35'/50').

If the PC runs to the target and attack without charging, the attack would be at -35 because the movement is a 35% activity (35'/100').

If the PC charges in, he gets +35 to OB because the "final approach" is 35'. The charge effectively negates the penalty from the movement. The PC also gets a penalty of -35 to his DB, the same as the bonus to the OB.

In this example, the PC's decision is whether to go offensive (charge attack +0 OB, -35 DB) or defensive (normal attack -35 OB, normal DB).

The OB bonus differs from the movement penalty when either a) the movement required in the round is not all in a straight line to the target or b) the PC's base movement rate is different than 50.

[Witchking20k]

If you were using tables with damage caps for weapons I would remove them.

[Kristen Mork]

This is how I treat charge attacks:

• The attacker must choose a Walk, Jog or Run pace (Run is default in our combats).  Sprint and faster requires too much focus, and a moving maneuver roll.
• The party with the longer weapon attacks first.
• The attacker cannot parry.
• Both parties get a bonus of speed/10 to the attack, doubled for pole arms (from SoHK).
• If the defender has a pole arm and wins initiative, he can brace the pole arm to do double damage (a form of delaying).
• If the attacker keeps moving and passes by other opponents, they can make an attack as well, provided they won initiative (again, a form of delaying).

Admittedly, I play RMSS, so YMMV.

[intothatdarkness]

I thought there was some sort of guidance about this in RoCoIII, but I might be wrong.

[Witchking20k]

RMX has charging rules.