Topic: pushing an opponent

[mistrornge]

I have not seen rules for pushing an opponent.
We came into a situation last weekend where the fighter was holding an extremely narrow corridor against 3 mobs with 2 other party members stuck behind unable to really attack.
I was asked by the fighter could he push the mobs out into the open area behind them. How would you simulate that?

[Kristen Mork]

Option 1 (RAW): The fighter can make an unarmed attack (Blocking), which (IIRC) replaces the normal Sweeps critical with an Unbalancing critical.  If he's lucky, the critical will move the opponent.

Option 2 (not-RAW): I allow each melee participant to assume an aggressive or defensive stance.  If both parties choose an aggressive stance, nothing happens.  If one choose offense and the other defensive then: a) the defender gets +5 DB and b) the aggressor moves the fight 5' forward.  (If both are defensive, they back away from each other and neither gets an attack.)

Option 3 (not-RAW): Introduce a Combat Maneuver (or Special Attack) that allows a fighter to control the flow of combat.  I use Swashbuckling as a skill that allows a fighter to maneuver around his opponent.  "Push" might be a similar maneuver that lets a fighter move the fight forwards.

[arakish]

In addition to Peter's post, I have also used these:

Use the Ram/Butt/Bash/Knock Down table with a maximum of Medium results.

Or, you can have the fighter use his Shield Bash skill.

Or, use the Brawling attack table using Unbalance criticals.

rmfr

[Jinor]

Quick idea - Press & melee. Give the pusher an OB minus equal to the distance he needs to push usually around -5 or -10, but more importantly have both sides make a conflicting actions rolls based on their intentions and strengths. You might give a bonus from succesful criticals to either side. After all trying to push someone is not that hard.

[providence13]

That's a good question and I don't know anything RAW.

We did have a similar situation a while back.
Our Mystic was trying to push some orcs into a crevasse. I thought the Blocking skill would be appropriate, even though it's normally used just to prevent people from crossing a line; ie. American football.
This character is a big guy, very strong and had a spear to help push them back. This gave a few bonuses.. a DR mod might be easier.

Since he opposed a group, I (think I) gave them the Coordinated Efforts bonus (SoHK, pg 6).

Then it was a MM vs MM. He won and % of the chart was how far he pushed them back that round based on 1/10th his BMR. IIRC, he had to roll twice (2 rnds total) to push them into the hole.

[mistrornge]

I do like the MM idea. Though instead of Agi use Str-str-body. Would be nice if you could simulate mass in some manner.

[Cory Magel]

I've seen this done a number of ways in our various campaigns.

A good generic way... All creatures involved add their Str Stat Bonus x 2 and Ag Stat Bonus x 1 and add it all to a 1d100 roll.  Highest result wins.  In the case where you are trying to push multiple targets this might be difficult.

We once had two players grab either end of a long wooden bench and charge an opponent to drive him off a ledge.  Situations like this we just resort to the Moving Maneuvers table then, if the 'attack' is successful, see if the target has any skills that will allow it to try and avoid the intended result (Tumbling, for example, in this case).

There are all kinds of skills you could use depending on what skills you're using in your game, but we have the generic fall-back for any situations that fall out of the norm.

[arakish]

I do like the MM idea. Though instead of Agi use Str-str-body. Would be nice if you could simulate mass in some manner.

RMC1, pp 64-67, 6.4 Mass and Force Considerations has some material I found useful for this.

rmfr

[Ecthelion]

We have a house rule for this, which you can find in the RM House Rules document on my homepage.

[mistrornge]

How do I get to your homepage Etchelion?

[providence13]

Click the globe under his pic.
I've had to ask the same thing. 

[mistrornge]

Thank you

[bpowell]

Love it I will be placing this in place in my game as soon as I can.