GURPS Combat Choices: Thrust or Swing?

When a GURPS combatant is deciding what to do in an attack, one of the most basic decisions is whether to Thrust or Swing. In some cases, this is a straightforward decision, either because the weapon's listing doesn't give you any options (brass knuckles, for instance), or because Thrust and Swing attacks do the same kind of damage, but Swings do more (a club, for instance).

But for many weapons, you face a choice between a Thrust for Impaling damage and a Swing for Cutting damage. The Thrust does less damage, but Impaling gets a x2 wounding modifier, versus a x1.5 modifier for Cutting. When does the greater damage for a Swing outweigh the smaller wounding modifier?

A few days ago, I posted a table showing the thrust and swing damage from all weapons with swing-cutting damage and thrust-impaling damage. Grouped according to their damage characteristics, these weapons fall into 23 classes (which number I attribute the the Illuminati at work). In the table below, I've listed each weapon class, with entries for each level of Strength from 5 to 20. The entries show the expected benefit in injury from making a thrusting attack versus a swinging attack. Negative numbers, with a blue background, mean that you are better off thrusting than swinging. Positive numbers, with a yellow background, mean that it's a better bet to swing. Remember, this is injury, not damage. The numbers in the chart reflect what you get after applying the wounding modifier.

	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Katar	-2	-2	-3	-3	-4.01	-3.51	-4.33	-3.33	-4.39	-3.11	-3.72	-2.25	-3.47	-2	-2	-2
Pata	-3.51	-3.51	-4.33	-4.33	-5.33	-4	-4.5	-3	-4.25	-2.75	-3.25	-1.75	-3	-1.5	-1	0.5
Large Katar-LT	-2.67	-2.67	-3.51	-3.51	-4.33	-3.33	-4	-2.5	-3.72	-2.25	-2.75	-1.25	-2.5	-1	-0.5	1
Main Gauche	-1.34	-1.34	-2	-2	-2.67	-2.17	-2.67	-1.67	-2.39	-1.11	-1.72	-0.25	-1.47	0	0	0
Longsword 2	-2.67	-2.67	-3.33	-3.33	-4	-2.5	-3	-1.5	-2.75	-1.25	-1.75	-0.25	-1.5	0	0.5	2
Saber	-1.67	-1.67	-2.17	-2.17	-2.67	-1.67	-2	-0.5	-1.72	-0.25	-0.75	0.75	-0.5	1	1.5	3
Large Knife	-1.34	-1.34	-1.67	-1.67	-2.17	-1.33	-1.67	-0.34	-1.11	0.28	-0.25	1.25	0	1.5	1.5	1.5
Bastard 2	-1.67	-1.67	-2	-2	-2.5	-1	-1.5	0	-1.25	0.25	-0.25	1.25	0	1.5	2	3.5
Small Knife	-1	-1	-1.34	-1.34	-1.67	-1.17	-1.33	-0.33	-0.73	0.55	0.28	0.28	0.28	0.28	0.28	0.28
Broadsword	-1.33	-1.33	-1.67	-1.67	-2	-0.5	-1	0.5	-0.75	0.75	0.25	1.75	0.5	2	2.5	4
Jian	-1.17	-1.17	-1.33	-1.33	-1.67	-0.34	-0.5	1	-0.25	1.25	0.75	2.25	1	2.5	3	4.5
Long Knife	-1.01	-1.01	-1.17	-1.17	-1.33	-0.33	-0.34	1.16	0.28	1.75	1.25	2.75	1.5	3	3.5	5
Glaive	-0.34	-0.34	-0.5	-0.5	-1	0.5	0	1.5	0.25	1.75	1.25	2.75	1.5	3	3.5	5
Katana 1	-0.33	-0.33	-0.33	-0.33	-0.34	1.16	1	2.5	1.25	2.75	2.25	3.75	2.5	4	4.5	6
Kukri	-0.67	-0.67	-0.51	-0.51	-0.33	0.67	1	2.5	1.94	3.41	3.25	4.75	3.5	5	5.44	6.94
Shortsword	-0.51	-0.51	-0.33	-0.33	-0.33	1	1.16	2.66	1.75	3.25	2.75	4.25	3	4.5	5	6.5
Small Falchion	-0.17	-0.17	0.67	0.67	1.34	2.67	3.5	5	4.75	6.25	6.42	7.92	7	8.5	8.78	10.28
Duelling Halberd	1.16	1.16	1	1	0.5	2	1.5	3	1.75	3.25	2.75	4.25	3	4.5	5	6.5
Katana 2	0.67	0.67	1	1	1.16	2.66	2.5	4	2.75	4.25	3.75	5.25	4	5.5	6	7.5
Halberd	2.66	2.66	2.5	2.5	2	3.5	3	4.5	3.25	4.75	4.25	5.75	4.5	6	6.5	8
Dao	1.33	1.33	2	2	2.5	4	4.16	5.66	4.75	6.25	5.75	7.25	6	7.5	8	9.5
Falchion	0.67	0.67	1.67	1.67	2.67	4.17	5	6.5	6.25	7.75	7.92	9.42	8.5	10	10.28	11.78
Large Falchion	1.67	1.67	2.66	2.66	3.5	5	5.5	7	6.41	7.91	7.75	9.25	8	9.5	9.94	11.44

Table 1: Advantage of average swing/cutting attack over thrust/impaling attack in points of injury

Let me just say right now that I'm posting this analysis as I do it. I don't know yet whether this is going to lead to something that will be useful at the table while actually gaming. I made these charts to see what general trends, if any, pop out, and also just for the hell of it. Will it ever pay off, or am I just noodling around? Stay tuned.

Here are the 23 weapon classes. Because GURPS Low-Tech changed the stats for some weapons, the large katar, shortsword, and cutlass appear twice, and are noted with (LT) in the list below. Some weapons can be wielded one-handed or two-handed, so these also appear twice. Note also that the naginata could be used one-handed with Broadsword skill in Basic Set, but Low-Tech removed that.

Eleven weapons are in classes by themselves:

• Katar
• Pata
• Large Katar (LT)
• Main Gauche
• Longsword 2
• Long Knife
• Kukri
• Small Falchion
• Dao
• Falchion
• Large Falchion

I named the other twelve classes after the weapon in the class I thought was most prominent.

• Saber -- saber, light edged rapier, large katar, shotel
• Large Knife -- large knife, bladed hand
• Small Knife -- small knife, bladed hand
• Bastard 2 -- bastard sword 2-handed, naginata 1-handed, dueling bill, dueling glaive
• Broadsword -- broadsword, bastard sword 1-handed, longsword 1-handed
• Jian - jian, edged rapier, shortsword (LT), cutlass (LT)
• Glaive -- naginata 2-handed, greatsword, bill
• Katana 1 -- katana 1-handed, late katana 1-handed, cavalry saber, backsword, qian ku ri yue dao
• Shortsword -- shortsword, cutlass
• Dueling Halberd -- dueling halberd, light horsecutter
• Katana 2 -- katana 2-handed, late katana 2-handed
• Halberd -- halberd, heavy horsecutter

I should point out the rule on maximum effective ST (B270). Your maximum effective ST with a weapon is three times its ST rating. If your ST is higher than that, then you do damage as if your ST were at the lower figure. So given that small knives have an ST rating of 5, if your ST is higher than 15, you do damage as if your ST were 15. This affects the small knife, large knife, katar, and main-gauche classes.

So, what does this chart tell us? Some obvious points are confirmed. If you have a falchion, a weapon designed for swinging, then you should swing it. Conversely, patas are made for thrusting.

Also obvious: swing damage climbs faster with ST than thrust damage does, so stronger characters are better off swinging with weapons where weaker ones are better off thrusting. So even though patas are made for thrusting, when you have enough ST, swinging a pata makes sense.

There are also some non-obvious things that turn up. There is a middle range of weapons that are built to be versatile, and it's good to know how you can best gain the advantage of your Strength with them. At ST 13, there are several weapons you're better thrusting with, where the same weapons in the hands of a ST 14 character would be more useful at a swing.

The real oddity here is that some weapons go back and forth between swing-is-better and thrust-is-better as you go up in ST. That's an artifact of the way the Basic Damage table is structured, with swing damage going up every step, but thrust damage going up only every other step. This is especially noticeable with the Bastard 2 class. I imagine a master-at-arms teaching students to use a bastard sword two-handed: "Alright, I've lined you up from weakest to strongest. You lot, up to here, you're better off making thrusting attacks. Now, you fellows, from here to here, are better off swinging. But from here to here -- you'd better go back to thrusting. Now, from here on, again, swinging is better. Oh, except for you and you -- it doesn't matter which way you go."

It's silly, and more than a little unrealistic, but does it really matter? Here's Table 2, which shows expected swing/cutting injury as a percentage of expected thrust-impaling injury. As before, a blue background, where numbers are less than 100%, means you're better off thrusting, and a yellow background, where numbers are above 100%, means you're better off swinging.

	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Katar	33	33	25	25	25	34	38	52	51	65	66	80	73	85	85	85
Pata	34	34	38	38	41	56	59	73	67	79	78	88	82	91	94	103
Large Katar-LT	33	33	34	34	38	52	56	72	66	80	79	90	83	93	97	106
Main Gauche	43	43	33	33	33	46	50	69	66	84	81	97	87	100	100	100
Longsword 2	50	50	52	52	56	72	73	86	79	90	88	98	91	100	103	111
Saber	44	44	46	46	50	69	71	93	81	97	93	107	96	108	111	121
Large Knife	43	43	44	44	46	67	69	94	84	104	97	114	100	114	114	114
Bastard 2	69	69	71	71	72	89	86	100	90	102	98	108	100	109	111	119
Small Knife	50	50	43	43	44	61	67	92	86	110	104	104	104	104	104	104
Broadsword	67	67	69	69	71	93	89	106	93	107	102	113	103	113	116	125
Jian	61	61	67	67	69	94	93	114	97	114	107	120	108	119	121	132
Long Knife	57	57	61	61	67	92	94	122	104	125	114	131	114	127	129	142
Glaive	94	94	93	93	89	106	100	114	102	113	108	118	109	118	119	128
Katana 1	89	89	92	92	94	122	114	136	114	131	120	134	119	131	132	143
Kukri	67	67	78	78	89	122	125	163	136	164	146	168	139	156	154	169
Shortsword	78	78	89	89	92	125	122	150	125	146	131	147	127	141	142	154
Small Falchion	92	92	134	134	158	215	217	267	219	256	220	249	200	221	207	225
Duelling Halberd	122	122	114	114	106	122	114	127	113	125	118	128	118	126	128	136
Katana 2	122	122	125	125	122	150	136	157	131	147	134	148	131	142	143	154
Halberd	150	150	136	136	122	139	127	141	125	137	128	138	126	135	136	144
Dao	157	157	167	167	163	200	178	206	168	189	164	181	155	168	167	179
Falchion	134	134	184	184	215	279	267	317	256	294	249	277	221	243	225	243
Large Falchion	184	184	214	214	217	267	238	275	220	248	211	232	189	206	199	214

Table 2: Advantage of average swing/cutting attack over thrust/impaling attack in percent

In some cases, I would say it does matter. At the transition from blue to yellow, most values aren't that far from 100%, but a few are large enough to make me want to pay attention. The jian class, for instance, which includes the jian, the edged rapier, and Low-Tech versions of the shortsword and cutlass. At ST 12 and 14, you're taking a 14% discount if you're not swinging. There appears to be no simple way to describe the patterns here, so I guess you just have to know where your advantages are. That's not that bad a problem, since most characters don't change weapons very often, and change ST even less often.

Overall, I think the chart shows that GURPS does a pretty good job of delivering results. The see-sawing effect with with some of the weapons in the middle range looks weird, but it doesn't look broken. I can live with a 14% difference in the blue-yellow border area. For the other weapons, the takeaway lesson is that you should try to use them as they were designed to be used -- thrust with a knife, unless you're very strong. Swing with a polearm, if at all possible.

Now, what about the effect of hit location and Damage Resistance? DR comes off before the wounding modifier, the neck offers a x2 cutting modifier, and the vitals a x3 impaling modifier. I expect that will change things somewhat, but I'll have to take that up at another time.

For the rest of this post, I'm just going to describe how I arrived at the tables above, in case anyone wants to double-check my work. You can ignore everything below here if you're not into the heavy number-crunching.

After compiling the list of all the thrust-impaling/swing-cutting weapons, I found that their damage statistics ran from Thrust-2 to Thrust+3 and Swing-3 to Swing+5. I created tables listing the damage roll for each of these stats at ST levels from 5 to 20.

	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Thr-2	1d-6	1d-6	1d-5	1d-5	1d-4	1d-4	1d-3	1d-3	1d-2	1d-2	1d-1	1d-1	1d	1d	2d-3	2d-3
Thr-1	1d-5	1d-5	1d-4	1d-4	1d-3	1d-3	1d-2	1d-2	1d-1	1d-1	1d	1d	1d+1	1d+1	2d-2	2d-2
Thr	1d-4	1d-4	1d-3	1d-3	1d-2	1d-2	1d-1	1d-1	1d	1d	1d+1	1d+1	1d+2	1d+2	2d-1	2d-1
Thr+1	1d-3	1d-3	1d-2	1d-2	1d-1	1d-1	1d	1d	1d+1	1d+1	1d+2	1d+2	1d+3	1d+3	2d	2d
Thr+2	1d-2	1d-2	1d-1	1d-1	1d	1d	1d+1	1d+1	1d+2	1d+2	1d+3	1d+3	1d+4	1d+4	2d+1	2d+1
Thr+3	1d-1	1d-1	1d	1d	1d+1	1d+1	1d+2	1d+2	1d+3	1d+3	1d+4	1d+4	1d+5	1d+5	2d+2	2d+2

Table 3: Damage rolls for thrusting attacks by ST

	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Sw-3	1d-6	1d-6	1d-5	1d-5	1d-4	1d-3	1d-2	1d-1	2d-4	2d-3	2d-2	2d-1	3d-4	3d-3	3d-2	3d-1
Sw-2	1d-5	1d-5	1d-4	1d-4	1d-3	1d-2	1d-1	1d	2d-3	2d-2	2d-1	2d	3d-3	3d-2	3d-1	3d
Sw-1	1d-4	1d-4	1d-3	1d-3	1d-2	1d-1	1d	1d+1	2d-2	2d-1	2d	2d+1	3d-2	3d-1	3d	3d+1
Sw	1d-3	1d-3	1d-2	1d-2	1d-1	1d	1d+1	1d+2	2d-1	2d	2d+1	2d+2	3d-1	3d	3d+1	3d+2
Sw+1	1d-2	1d-2	1d-1	1d-1	1d	1d+1	1d+2	1d+3	2d	2d+1	2d+2	2d+3	3d	3d+1	3d+2	3d+3
Sw+2	1d-1	1d-1	1d	1d	1d+1	1d+2	1d+3	1d+4	2d+1	2d+2	2d+3	2d+4	3d+1	3d+2	3d+3	3d+4
Sw+3	1d	1d	1d+1	1d+1	1d+2	1d+3	1d+4	1d+5	2d+2	2d+3	2d+4	2d+5	3d+2	3d+3	3d+4	3d+5
Sw+4	1d+1	1d+1	1d+2	1d+2	1d+3	1d+4	1d+5	1d+6	2d+3	2d+4	2d+5	2d+6	3d+3	3d+4	3d+5	3d+6
Sw+5	1d+2	1d+2	1d+3	1d+3	1d+4	1d+5	1d+6	1d+7	2d+4	2d+5	2d+6	2d+7	3d+4	3d+5	3d+6	3d+7

Table 4: Damage rolls for swinging attacks by ST

The next step was to calculate expected injury for each of these damage rolls. It was not possible to take the average of 1d, 2d, or 3d and apply simple arithmetic because of two complications. First, the minimum damage for cutting and impaling attacks is 1. That means it's not possible to say that the average of 1d is 3.5, so the average of 1d-2 is 1.5. In fact, the average of 1d-2 with a minimum of 1 is the average of (1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4), which is 2. Roughly a third of the damage rolls had to be treated this way.

Second, for a x2 injury modifier, you can simply multiply the average damage roll by 2, but because of rounding, you can't treat cutting damage the same. Injury is rounded down, which means that the possible damage results from 1d, which are (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) with an average of 3.5, become (1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9) with the cutting injury modifier of 1.5. This gives an average of 5, rather than an average of 3.5 * 1.5 = 5.25.

The upshot of all this calculating is shown in table 5, which gives the average of the damage, cutting injury, and impaling injury for all the die rolls I worked with.

	Die Roll	x1.5	x2
1d-6	1.00	1.00	2.00
1d-5	1.00	1.00	2.00
1d-4	1.17	1.33	2.33
1d-3	1.50	1.83	3.00
1d-2	2.00	2.67	4.00
1d-1	2.67	3.67	5.33
1d	3.50	5.00	7.00
1d+1	4.50	6.50	9.00
1d+2	5.50	8.00	11.00
1d+3	6.50	9.50	13.00
1d+4	7.50	11.00	15.00
1d+5	8.50	12.50	17.00
1d+6	9.50	14.00	19.00
1d+7	10.50	15.50	21.00
2d-4	3.28	4.61	6.56
2d-3	4.11	5.89	8.22
2d-2	5.03	7.28	10.06
2d-1	6.00	8.75	12.00
2d	7.00	10.25	14.00
2d+1	8.00	11.75	16.00
2d+2	9.00	13.25	18.00
2d+3	10.00	14.75	20.00
2d+4	11.00	16.25	22.00
2d+5	12.00	17.75	24.00
2d+6	13.00	19.25	26.00
2d+7	14.00	20.75	28.00
3d-4	6.52	9.53	13.04
3d-3	7.50	11.00	15.00
3d-2	8.50	12.50	17.00
3d-1	9.50	14.00	19.00
3d	10.50	15.50	21.00
3d+1	11.50	17.00	23.00
3d+2	12.50	18.50	25.00
3d+3	13.50	20.00	27.00
3d+4	14.50	21.50	29.00
3d+5	15.50	23.00	31.00
3d+6	16.50	24.50	33.00
3d+7	17.50	26.00	35.00

Table 5: Expected die rolls and injury for cutting and impaling attacks

Equipped with these results, I converted tables 3 and 4, showing damage rolls, to tables 6 and 7, showing expected injury for thrust and swing attacks.

	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Thr-2	2	2	2	2	2.33	2.33	3	3	4	4	5.33	5.33	7	7	8.22	8.22
Thr-1	2	2	2.34	2.34	3	3	4	4	5.34	5.34	7	7	9	9	10.06	10.06
Thr	2.34	2.34	3	3	4	4	5.34	5.34	7	7	9	9	11	11	12	12
Thr+1	3	3	4	4	5.34	5.34	7	7	9	9	11	11	13	13	14	14
Thr+2	4	4	5.34	5.34	7	7	9	9	11	11	13	13	15	15	16	16
Thr+3	5.34	5.34	7	7	9	9	11	11	13	13	15	15	17	17	18	18

Table 6: Average injury for thrust/impaling attacks by ST

	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Sw-3	1	1	1	1	1.33	1.83	2.67	3.67	4.61	5.89	7.28	8.75	9.53	11	12.5	14
Sw-2	1	1	1.33	1.33	1.83	2.67	3.67	5	5.89	7.28	8.75	10.25	11	12.5	14	15.5
Sw-1	1.33	1.33	1.83	1.83	2.67	3.67	5	6.5	7.28	8.75	10.25	11.75	12.5	14	15.5	17
Sw	1.83	1.83	2.67	2.67	3.67	5	6.5	8	8.75	10.25	11.75	13.25	14	15.5	17	18.5
Sw+1	2.67	2.67	3.67	3.67	5	6.5	8	9.5	10.25	11.75	13.25	14.75	15.5	17	18.5	20
Sw+2	3.67	3.67	5	5	6.5	8	9.5	11	11.75	13.25	14.75	16.25	17	18.5	20	21.5
Sw+3	5	5	6.5	6.5	8	9.5	11	12.5	13.25	14.75	16.25	17.75	18.5	20	21.5	23
Sw+4	6.5	6.5	8	8	9.5	11	12.5	14	14.75	16.25	17.75	19.25	20	21.5	23	24.5
Sw+5	8	8	9.5	9.5	11	12.5	14	15.5	16.25	17.75	19.25	20.75	21.5	23	24.5	26

Table 7: Aveage injury for swing/cutting attacks by ST

Next I listed the weapons and copied their expected damage for thrust and swing attacks from tables 6 and 7 to create tables 8 and 9. Note that maximum effective ST for the katar, main-gauche, and large knife classes is 18, and for the small knife class it is 15.

	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Katar	3	3	4	4	5.34	5.34	7	7	9	9	11	11	13	13	13	13
Pata	5.34	5.34	7	7	9	9	11	11	13	13	15	15	17	17	18	18
Large Katar-LT	4	4	5.34	5.34	7	7	9	9	11	11	13	13	15	15	16	16
Main Gauche	2.34	2.34	3	3	4	4	5.34	5.34	7	7	9	9	11	11	11	11
Longsword 2	5.34	5.34	7	7	9	9	11	11	13	13	15	15	17	17	18	18
Saber	3	3	4	4	5.34	5.34	7	7	9	9	11	11	13	13	14	14
Large Knife	2.34	2.34	3	3	4	4	5.34	5.34	7	7	9	9	11	11	11	11
Bastard 2	5.34	5.34	7	7	9	9	11	11	13	13	15	15	17	17	18	18
Small Knife	2	2	2.34	2.34	3	3	4	4	5.34	5.34	7	7	7	7	7	7
Broadsword	4	4	5.34	5.34	7	7	9	9	11	11	13	13	15	15	16	16
Jian	3	3	4	4	5.34	5.34	7	7	9	9	11	11	13	13	14	14
Long Knife	2.34	2.34	3	3	4	4	5.34	5.34	7	7	9	9	11	11	12	12
Glaive	5.34	5.34	7	7	9	9	11	11	13	13	15	15	17	17	18	18
Katana 1	3	3	4	4	5.34	5.34	7	7	9	9	11	11	13	13	14	14
Kukri	2	2	2.34	2.34	3	3	4	4	5.34	5.34	7	7	9	9	10.06	10.06
Shortsword	2.34	2.34	3	3	4	4	5.34	5.34	7	7	9	9	11	11	12	12
Small Falchion	2	2	2	2	2.33	2.33	3	3	4	4	5.33	5.33	7	7	8.22	8.22
Duelling Halberd	5.34	5.34	7	7	9	9	11	11	13	13	15	15	17	17	18	18
Katana 2	3	3	4	4	5.34	5.34	7	7	9	9	11	11	13	13	14	14
Halberd	5.34	5.34	7	7	9	9	11	11	13	13	15	15	17	17	18	18
Dao	2.34	2.34	3	3	4	4	5.34	5.34	7	7	9	9	11	11	12	12
Falchion	2	2	2	2	2.33	2.33	3	3	4	4	5.33	5.33	7	7	8.22	8.22
Large Falchion	2	2	2.34	2.34	3	3	4	4	5.34	5.34	7	7	9	9	10.06	10.06

Table 8: Average thrust/impaling injury for various weapons by ST

	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Katar	1	1	1	1	1.33	1.83	2.67	3.67	4.61	5.89	7.28	8.75	9.53	11	11	11
Pata	1.83	1.83	2.67	2.67	3.67	5	6.5	8	8.75	10.25	11.75	13.25	14	15.5	17	18.5
Large Katar-LT	1.33	1.33	1.83	1.83	2.67	3.67	5	6.5	7.28	8.75	10.25	11.75	12.5	14	15.5	17
Main Gauche	1	1	1	1	1.33	1.83	2.67	3.67	4.61	5.89	7.28	8.75	9.53	11	11	11
Longsword 2	2.67	2.67	3.67	3.67	5	6.5	8	9.5	10.25	11.75	13.25	14.75	15.5	17	18.5	20
Saber	1.33	1.33	1.83	1.83	2.67	3.67	5	6.5	7.28	8.75	10.25	11.75	12.5	14	15.5	17
Large Knife	1	1	1.33	1.33	1.83	2.67	3.67	5	5.89	7.28	8.75	10.25	11	12.5	12.5	12.5
Bastard 2	3.67	3.67	5	5	6.5	8	9.5	11	11.75	13.25	14.75	16.25	17	18.5	20	21.5
Small Knife	1	1	1	1	1.33	1.83	2.67	3.67	4.61	5.89	7.28	7.28	7.28	7.28	7.28	7.28
Broadsword	2.67	2.67	3.67	3.67	5	6.5	8	9.5	10.25	11.75	13.25	14.75	15.5	17	18.5	20
Jian	1.83	1.83	2.67	2.67	3.67	5	6.5	8	8.75	10.25	11.75	13.25	14	15.5	17	18.5
Long Knife	1.33	1.33	1.83	1.83	2.67	3.67	5	6.5	7.28	8.75	10.25	11.75	12.5	14	15.5	17
Glaive	5	5	6.5	6.5	8	9.5	11	12.5	13.25	14.75	16.25	17.75	18.5	20	21.5	23
Katana 1	2.67	2.67	3.67	3.67	5	6.5	8	9.5	10.25	11.75	13.25	14.75	15.5	17	18.5	20
Kukri	1.33	1.33	1.83	1.83	2.67	3.67	5	6.5	7.28	8.75	10.25	11.75	12.5	14	15.5	17
Shortsword	1.83	1.83	2.67	2.67	3.67	5	6.5	8	8.75	10.25	11.75	13.25	14	15.5	17	18.5
Small Falchion	1.83	1.83	2.67	2.67	3.67	5	6.5	8	8.75	10.25	11.75	13.25	14	15.5	17	18.5
Duelling Halberd	6.5	6.5	8	8	9.5	11	12.5	14	14.75	16.25	17.75	19.25	20	21.5	23	24.5
Katana 2	3.67	3.67	5	5	6.5	8	9.5	11	11.75	13.25	14.75	16.25	17	18.5	20	21.5
Halberd	8	8	9.5	9.5	11	12.5	14	15.5	16.25	17.75	19.25	20.75	21.5	23	24.5	26
Dao	3.67	3.67	5	5	6.5	8	9.5	11	11.75	13.25	14.75	16.25	17	18.5	20	21.5
Falchion	2.67	2.67	3.67	3.67	5	6.5	8	9.5	10.25	11.75	13.25	14.75	15.5	17	18.5	20
Large Falchion	3.67	3.67	5	5	6.5	8	9.5	11	11.75	13.25	14.75	16.25	17	18.5	20	21.5

Table 9: Average swing/cutting injury for various weapons by ST

Finally, I used these two tables to compute tables 1 and 2, above.

That's how we roll

My gaming group has a thing for dice towers, it turns out.

Mike started it with his dice tower, made by VixenTor.

His is the one on the right. VixenTor isn't around any more, sadly, because all of their production equipment and supplies were destroyed in a house fire.

The other tower pictured above is actually Karl's, and he sometimes loans it to Echo, but he doesn't use it any more. Instead, he's got a dice tower he got form a thrift store in a copy of a board game called Chute-5.

It includes a tiltable panel at the bottom so you can make the dice fall either of the two trays, as you choose.

This seems almost useless, but I'm sure it was very important somehow to the game.

Jessica and I decided to make our own towers out of Lego. Here's hers.

She included a reroll-chit holder on the front. Because it's so annoying to lose track of your chit.

Jessica used plates to make side-to-side baffles in her tower. I opted for 2x3 low slopes to make front-to-back baffles, and a more open tower structure.

I also have an optional extension I can add on top, for when I need extra randomness.

At over 26 inches tall, it is easily the mightiest dice tower in the game.

You might think this is going a bit too far, but if you could see how random the numbers I get with this baby are, you'd have to admit it's worth it.

Joe, because he suffers from the delusion that K'Nex is in any way comparable to Lego, decided to make this cheap knock-off.

Yes, that's a dice basket at the top with a chain-driven axle that tilts the dice into the tower. Pathetic, isn't it? And it works about as well as you'd expect, which is to say not at all. I see this as an open admission from Joe that K'Nex are simply inferior to Lego in every respect, and this is a misguided attempt to cover that up by adding unnecessary bells and whistles to what is already a rather ugly design.

Fortunately, Joe came to his senses, and now he uses a dice tower that also comes from a thrifted board game, The Inventors.

And it actually has a bell on it. You stack the dice in the hopper on the right, push the punger next to it, and the dice ring the bell as they fall through.

And no discussion of dice towers and Lego would be complete without a tip of the hat to whoever came up with this brilliant thing here.

Edit: embedding the video failed, so I must link to it in a clumsy fashion instead. Thanks, Blogger.

GURPS Combat Choices: Cutting/Impaling Weapons Chart

Here's a table I've drawn up in preparation of analysis of some thrust/swing mechanics. It shows all the weapons from Basic Set, GURPS Martial Arts, and GURPS Low-Tech that have listings for both thrusting-impaling damage and swinging-cutting damage. It's mostly swords, plus some polearms and a couple of oddities.

	Thrust-2	Thrust-1	Thrust	Thrust+1	Thrust+2	Thrust+3
Swing-3		Small Knife, Balisong	Main-Gauche	Katar
Swing-2			Large Knife, Bladed Hand
Swing-1		Kukri	Long Knife	Saber, Light Edged Rapier, Large Katar, Shotel	Large Katar (LT)
Swing	Small Falchion		Shortsword, Cutlass	Jian, Edged Rapier, Shortsword (LT), Cutlass (LT)		Pata
Swing+1	Falchion			Katana 1-handed, Late Katana 1-handed, Cavalry Saber, Backsword, Qian Ku Ri Yue Dao	Broadsword, Longsword 1-handed, Bastard Sword 1-handed	Longsword 2-handed
Swing+2		Large Falchion	Dao	Katana 2-handed, Late Katana 2-handed		Naginata 1-handed, Bastard Sword 2-handed, Duelling Bill, Duelling Glaive
Swing+3						Glaive, Naginata 2-handed, Greatsword, Bill
Swing+4						Duelling Halberd, Light Horsecutter
Swing+5						Halberd, Heavy Horsecutter

Note that in Low-Tech, some weapon stats changed. Shortswords, cutlasses, and large katars were bumped up one level in thrusting damage, and one-handed use of the naginata was removed.

Two trends really stand out in this table. On a diagonal axis running from upper left to lower right, weapons go from small to large. Not surprisingly, bigger weapons do more damage.

On the other diagonal, from lower left to upper right, weapons go from more choppy to more stabby. (I hope I may be excused for lapsing into technical jargon there.) On one extreme, a falchion has barely any point to it at all, and is nearly an axe. On the other extreme, the katar and the pata are about as far as you can go toward specialization in stabbing while still retaining a cutting edge. I think these two diagonal axes are more important to understanding how the weapons got their stats than the stats themselves are, and if I knew how to do it, I'd rotate this table 45 degrees and make a diamond-shaped chart with size running top to bottom, and choppy vs. stabby running left-right. Sadly, my HTML skills are not up to that.

Another thing that this chart shows is the effect of enchantment and weapon quality. Add Puissance +1 to any weapon, or make it Fine quality, and you move one space diagonally down and to the right. So a Puissance +1 jian becomes, as far as damage is concerned, a broadsword. Very Fine or Puissance +2 moves you two spaces, so a Very Fine small knife hits like a saber -- but it's rather expensive and you still can't parry with it.

In my next post on this subject, I'll crunch a great big pile of numbers and see what I have to say about swinging versus thrusting damage for these weapons.

GM Practices 2: Getting them there on time

I used to have problems getting my players to the game on time. They'd stop for snacks or something and be three, ten, fifteen minutes late. I prefer to have everyone there on time so no one is waiting on anyone else.

So to encourage punctuality, I started offering a chit good for one re-roll once during the game, usable in that session only. It's like a lesser version of luck. It's not much, but the players really enjoy it, so it gets players into seats on time.

I could just tally whether each player has used their re-roll or not during a session, but I find that giving them phyical chits helps them keep the option in mind better. For chits, I use pentagonal pieces from a Jovo construction toy set, which is a cool thing in its own way.

The Internet demands cat pictures

We interrupt this gaming blog to present to you these pictures of a cat.

Because we have a cat now. Her name is Chelsea and she is about 6 months old.

We now return you to our regular programming of grown men and women pretending to be elves and such.

GURPS Combat Choices: Introduction

Over at Gaming Ballistic, +Douglas Cole has been ruminating about GURPS combat, and what options become available to you as you increase in skill (see here, here, and here). His posts do a good job of helping the GURPS combatant deal with the vast array of choices available on each turn.

And they make me want to run some numerical comparisons. If you've got a choice between a Rapid Strike and a Dual-Weapon Attack, which is better? Is it worth it to try for the brain? When does Deceptive Attack improve your chances of landing a blow?

There are literally millions[1] of ways to structure an attack. In forthcoming posts, I hope to use some calculations to help clarify when one option is better than another. For the time being, this post is here to goad me into following up on the idea, and as justification to write this ridiculously long footnote.

[1] Yes, really, millions. In fairly common melee combat situations, it's easy to get that high.

Let's suppose you're squared off against another fighter at a range of one  yard, both of you equipped with thrusting broadswords, both of you standing, neither of you equipped with any armor. Only Basic Set rules apply, but none of the rules marked as optional. You have Broadsword-14 and Karate-14, and you are not incurring any other penalties for such things and darkness or bad footing. You want to make a striking attack on your opponent this turn.

Let's consider armed attacks first. To make an attack, you must decide to Thrust or to Swing, and you must pick a target. The legitimate targets depend on your Thrust/Swing choice, so let's take a look at this handy table.

Target	Thrust	Swing
Torso	yes	yes
Vitals	yes	no
Skull	yes	yes
Eye	yes	no
Face	yes	yes
Neck	no benefit	yes
Groin	yes	yes
Weapon Arm	yes	yes
Other Arm	yes	yes
Leg	yes	yes
Weapon Hand	yes	yes
Other Hand	yes	yes
Foot	yes	yes
Weapon to Disarm	yes	yes
Weapon to Break	yes	yes
Whatever target presents itself	yes	yes

A thrusting attack to the neck grants no benefit compared to the much easier thrust to the torso, so I do not count it as a real choice (keeping in mind for later that there may be other situations in which a thrust to the neck makes sense). Attacking the weapon hand or arm has different results compared to attacking the other hand or arm, so I consider these different targets. Contrariwise, an attack on one leg or foot or the other has the same consequences, and I don't consider those as separate targets. So that makes 15 targets for a thrust attack and 14 targets for a swing attack.

Any attack includes the option of Deceptive Attack (B370), and because a Deceptive Attack is limited to an adjusted skill of at least 10, there are three options: no DA, DA at -2, and DA at -4.

Multiplying these three options by the above number of targets gives us 3 * 15 = 45 ways to make a Thrust, and 3 * 14 = 42 ways to make a Swing. Putting these together, there are 45 + 42 = 87 ways to make a basic armed attack. I will use the letter A (for "armed") to stand for this number in counting the number of ways to use this in a maneuver.

So next you must chose a maneuver. Let's start with the Attack maneuver. You can make this a simple attack, or opt for a Rapid Strike. If you choose a simple attack, there are A different ways to do that, or if you choose a Rapid Strike, you get A choices and then A choices again.  To put it into a formula:

Options for armed Attack manuever = A + A*A

  = 87 + 7569

  = 7656.

This scenario stipulates that you are attacking this turn, and you are only one yard from your opponent, so Do Nothing, Move, Change Posture, Aim, Evaluate, Feint, Move and Attack, All-Out Defense, Concentrate, Ready, and Wait do not enter into the picture. That leaves All-Out Attack in its various forms.

For three forms of All-Out Attack, the arithmetic is the same as Attack:

Options for armed All-Out Attack (Deternined) = A + A*A = 7656.

Options for armed All-Out Attack (Strong) = A + A*A = 7656.

Options for armed All-Out Attack (Feint) = A + A*A = 7656.

For All-Out Attack (Double), either of the attacks can be at any target, and either attack (but not both) can be replaced by a Rapid Strike. That means you get either two or three picks from A attacks.

Options for armed All-Out Attack (Double) = A*A + A*A*A

  = 7569 + 658,503

  = 666,072.

Adding these all together comes to a splendidly pallindromic 696,696 possibilities for making an armed attack this turn. But what about unarmed attacks?

Sure, you're holding a sword, but it's a free action to drop it (B364), or you can hold onto it and attack with your off hand. You can then take a step into close combat and attack with fists, or stay where you are and attack with kicks, or both.

Punching is a thrust attack only and does Crushing damage. The eyes and vitals aren't legitimate hit locations for these punches, so we are left with 14 choices for hit location. As with armed attacks, you have the three options of no Deceptive Attack, DA at -2, or DA at -4. Multiplying those two together gives 3 * 14 = 42 ways to deliver a punch, which I will represent with the letter P.

With kicks, things are slightly different. Kicks are made at -2, and Deceptive Attack limits your adjusted skill to 10 or better, so you can't do a Deceptive Attack at -4, and your two choices are no DA or DA at -2. Multiplying that by the 14 legitimate targets gives 2 * 14 = 28 ways to deliver a kick, which I will represent with the letter K.

In cases where you can either punch or kick, you have to total of P + K = 42 + 28 = 70 ways to make an unarmed attack, which I will represent with the letter U. (I will need to introduce cases where you can kick but not punch later.)

The accouting here looks much the same as the accounting for an armed attack. An Attack maneuver can be either a simple attack with U choices, or a Rapid Strike with U times U choices.

Options for unarmed Attack Maneuver = U + U*U

  = 70 + 4900

  = 4970.

The arithmetic is just the same for three forms of All-Out Attack:

Options for unarmed All-Out Attack (Deternined) = U + U*U = 4970.

Options for unarmed All-Out Attack (Strong) = U + U*U = 4970.

Options for unarmed All-Out Attack (Feint) = U + U*U = 4970.

All-Out Attack (Double) is, again, where the big numbers come in.

Options for unarmed All-Out Attack (Double) = U*U + U*U*U

= 4900 + 343,000

= 347,900.

So the total number of ways to make unarmed attacks is 367,780.

We're not done yet, though. What about mixing armed and unarmed attacks in the same maneuver? For maneuvers other than All-Out Attack (Double), this is only possible with a Rapid Strike. Furthermore, the order matters. The scenario has you starting 1 yard away from your opponent. If you step into close combat to deliver a punch, you cannot then attack with your sword for a second attack. You can, however, kick at range 1 and then make an armed attack. So your options for an Attack maneuver featuring a Rapid Strike with both armed and unarmed strikes are Armed followed by Unarmed or Kick followed by Armed.

Options for mixed armed/unarmed Attack maneuver = A*U + K*A

  = 87 * 70 + 28 * 87

  = 6090 + 2436

  = 8526.

The first three All-Out Attack options are again the same.

Options for mixed armed/unarmed All-Out Attack (Deternined) = A*U + K*A = 8526.

Options for mixed armed/unarmed All-Out Attack (Strong) = A*U + K*A = 8526.

Options for mixed armed/unarmed All-Out Attack (Feint) = A*U + K*A = 8526.

An All-Out Attack (Double) without a Rapid Strike is also the same.

Options for mixed armed/unarmed All-Out Attack (Double), no Rapid Strike = A*U + K*A = 8526.

But for an All-Out Attack (Double) with a Rapid Strike, things get yet more complicated. With three strikes, which may be either armed or unarmed, there are eight possibilities:

Armed/Armed/Armed,
Armed/Armed/Unarmed,
Armed/Unarmed/Armed,
Armed/Unarmed/Unarmed,
Unarmed/Armed/Armed,
Unarmed/Armed/Unarmed,
Unarmed/Unarmed/Armed, and
Unarmed/Unarmed/Unarmed.

The first and last of these eight aren't mixed attacks, so they've already been accounted for in the purely armed or unarmed sections above. That leaves six possibilities. These are further constrained by the requirement that if an unarmed attack is followed by an armed attack, the unarmed attack has to be a kick.

So these are the rest of your choices.

Options for mixed armed/unarmed All-Out Attack (Double) with Rapid Strike
  = A*A*U + A*K*A + A*U*U + K*A*A + K*A*U + K*K*A
  = 529,830 + 211,932 + 426,300 + 211,932 + 170,520 + 68,208
  = 1,618,722.

Adding up all of these mixed armed/unarmed attacks gives us 1,661,352.

Adding that to the totals for purely armed and purely unarmed brings us to

696,696 + 367,780 + 1,661,352 = 2,725,828

total ways to make an attack.

Are we done now? Well, we could go on. I stipulated making striking attacks for this scenario, but of course you also have the option of grappling. Or you could bite instead of punching or kicking. You could also use the Pull your punches rule from B401, which would increase the number of possibilities quite a bit, depending on your Strength.

And then if you begin adding in optional rules such as Dual-Weapon Attack or Extra Effort in Combat, the possibilities increase again. And if you add in the options from GURPS Martial Arts...I think you get the idea. You've got millions of possibilities in even quite simple situation. Millions, at least.

Game Session 2013/03/03

Sophie O'Griffin, human, the leader and ringmaster. Played by Echo.

Esmond Gellert, human, trick-shot archer and dog trainer. Played by Mike.

Ganz, elf, stage magician and wizard. Played by Jessica.

Quexechetl, lizard man, strongman and wrestler. Played by Karl.

Talman, half-elf, acrobat. Played by Joe.

Fiorio, human, a peasant with a knack for playing to the crowd that the circus picked up along the way. Played as an NPC.

June 26, 850

When we last saw our adventurers, they had just chased an ogre into the ruined dwarven city and killed it, mainly with Esmond's bow and Talman's spear. Quexechetl had taken two good, strong blows form the ogre. He declined a healing potion, but he sat down and let Sophie bandage his wounds.

Just seconds later, some of the knights and men-at-arms from the castle caught up with the circus. Looking at the huge, bloody mess of the ogre's corpse and the mostly untouched circus performers, they clamored for an account of the fight. Sophie spoke up first, saying that the ogre was already badly wounded when they found it, no doubt from the fighting in the castle and the fall from the tower after it bashed through the wall. The others agreed, the ogre was nearly dead when they found it, and it had expired while they were trying to get their over-eager lizardman away from it.

"It kind of just fell on my spear."

Joe (Talman)

Soon after this, King Miklo himself, in the company of Count Anelmo and some of the other nobility arrived, saying they had heard that an ogre had been killed. Count Anelmo was most impressed, remarking that yesterday they didn't even know what to do with a wounded goblin, and today they had defeated an ogre. No doubt the next day, they would slay dragons.

One of the king's men, someone the performers didn't recognize, complained that the circus was acting out of place to take glory from the fighting men, but the king stifled this complaint, since he didn't like any criticism of "his circus."[1] The king and his attendants then left for the castle.

That evening, most of the army camped outside the castle, since the courtyard wasn't that large, and the Circus Sophia put on a show. Esmond didn't do very well with the dog act, but the rest of the performers did well enough, although Quexechetl was still a bit slow.

June 27, 850

Alarm! Alarm! The circus folk woke up at dawn to the news that a horde of orcs was approaching. Camp became a chaos as everyone rushed to pack up and shelter inside the ancient dwarven castle. Quexechetl and Fiorio tried to get the tent down as quickly as they could, but Quexechetl must have been suffering from the previous day's fight, because he made a mess of the job. Esmond and Sophie tried to help, but just got in the way and made matters worse. By the time they got things straightened out, they were nearly the last people to make it into the castle's very crowded courtyard, and they had to park the wagon quite close to the gatehouse, which didn't even have a gate.

Once inside, they climbed up the stairs to the top of the wall, trying to get close to the king, because Sophie was worried about an assassination attempt in the chaos of battle. From this height, they could see the entirety of the castle. It was mostly intact, but there were a few breaches in the walls. Esmond noticed that the circus wagon, along with a few others, had been overturned and used to block the gatehouse entry to the courtyard.

Soon the orcs marched into view, shouting, chanting, banging on drums, and waving weapons. They brought no siege equipment with them, not even ladders to try to scale the walls. Seeing this, most of the defenders left and went to reinforce the breaches, leaving only the archers and the king's party atop the walls. A group of mounted knights dragged the wagons out of the way and sallied out to harass the orcs.

When the orcs decided they had enough numbers, they charged and tried to overrun the breaches. Quexechetl went down to take part in the hand-to-hand fighting, while shot orc after orc with this bow. Talman and Fiorio stayed with Sophie, who kept an eye on the king. Ganz improvised an explosive fireball spell, which dispatched a knot of orcs. After that, he joined in keeping an eye on the king. He noticed Archmagus Tor of the Lodean court casting protective spells on King Miklo, while Count Anelmo commanded the battle. Lord Fels led his men in hand-to-hand fighting in the courtyard.

The first wave of orcs failed in their attack, there was a lull, and then another wave charged. This pattern continued for most of the day, and the defenders were never in serious danger. In the mid-afternoon, the remaining orcs retreated to the north, leaving a couple thousand dead behind them.

Casualties among the king's army were much lighter. After the fighting, Sophie tended to the wounded as best she could, and tried to get a sense of the army's opinion of the orcs' attack. Everyone agreed that it wasn't typical of orcs to attack a well-defended position like that. The majority opinion was that orcs are just stupid, and there's no explaining what they do. But some of the wiser and more experienced among the army supposed that maybe the castle was important to the orcs' prestige, or that the attack was a result of political competition among the orcish tribe, or that the orcs were simply overpopulated that year. In the end, no one had a good explanation for what seemed like a suicidal attack.

The performers did their best to gather their belongings, which had been spilled out of the wagon and mostly left in a pile, and bedded down for the night.

June 28, 850

After sleeping in their armor and keeping an alert watch, the next morning, the army broke camp and marched north, pursing the orcs. Around noon, they came to a convergence of three valleys and faced the choice of a path to the northeast or one to the west-northwest. As the members of the circus were wondering which way they would go, a hush fell over the army. Everyone's attention was drawn to the west, where the faraway but distinct silhouette of a dragon could be seen lazily circling in the air. It lingered in view for no more than half a minute, and when it passed behind a mountain, everyone remembered to breathe again.

The Circus Sophia was too far from the front of the army to tell who made the decision about which way to go, or what motivated them, but soon the army began marching again, and not in the direction of the dragon.

June 29, 850

The next day's travel brought the army to a narrow but steep ravine. On the far side, after a few hundred yards of grass and scrub, the trees came together into a proper forest. The king's engineers prepared to lay a bridge over the ravine so the wagons could cross, and a vanguard of knights rode forward to guard the opposite side.

When the vanguard came within arrow's flight of the trees, hundreds of orcs emerged from the cover and shot at them. Not knowing how many more were concealed in the forest, the knights withdrew back to the ravine. The engineers, worried about the security of the bridgehead, settled in for a long argument about how best to handle the task of getting the army to the other side.

In the afternoon, after most people had decided to begin setting up camp, a servant approached Ganz, and relayed a request for his presence by his grace the Archmagus Tor [2]. Ganz, of course, said he would be happy to oblige the Archmage, and followed the servant to a large and finely decorated tent.

Inside the Archmage welcomed his colleage, as he called Ganz, and pointed out a certain ruined tower on a ridge a couple miles away, on the near side of the ravine. The Archmage explained that this was an ancient wizard's tower, and he had heard from veterans of previous campaigns against the orcs that there were magical glyphs engraved in the stones there. The Archmage had wanted to investigate this for himself, but since the orcs might attack at any moment, he was required to stay and protect the king. Would Ganz be willing, with his circus friends as protection, to to climb up to the tower and make a sketch of the glyphs? It would be a long climb and there wouldn't be much light left when he got there, but an overnight stay should be safe, since the orcs were very superstitious about magic and avoided the tower.

Ganz said he would be happy to. He took his leave of the Archmage and returned to the circus wagon. Everyone wanted to go, but Sophie thought Fiorio should stay with the wagon and mind their belongings. The performers packed for an overnight stay and set out.

The climb was steep, and the sun was much lower in the sky when they neared the tower. In its ruined state, it was little more than a low circular wall with a pile of rubble surrounding it. Esmond kept a sharp eye out for trouble, and Ganz cast a Sense Foes spell, but no one saw any signs of danger.

There was, indeed, a belt of glyphs carved into the stone in a belt around the outside of the tower, a little above waist height. There were a few gaps where stones had fallen away, but it was mostly intact. Ganz set about copying them down on paper, while the others looked around for fallen stones with glyphs on them. Esmond discovered a stairway leading downward just inside the ruined walls, blocked by rubble. They decided to leave it unexcavated for now.

Ganz finished his transcription a little before sundown, and though he wasn't very familiar with dwarven schools of magic, he came to the conclusion that they were some sort of protection signs. He finished off by casting an illusion of the scene of the whole ruin, with all the glyphs in place, in order to fix it in his memory.

The circus then settled down for the night, with Sophie assigned the first watch, Esmond the second, and Talman the third. Quexechetl was already asleep. Esmond passed the magical pendant he usually wears to Sophie, to let her see in the dark.

Toward the end of Sophie's watch, after the moon had set, she saw, down in the valley, another army of orcs marching toward the camp! They marched silently and slowly, with none of the drumming and chanting that usually announced their presence. She woke up the others, and though they couldn't see, she explained that the orcs had doubled back behind the king's army, and were making a nighttime attack on their rear!

With the camp a couple hours away by foot and all the orcs about, Ganz felt that only way to warn the army was with magic. He considered teleporting Sophie back, but decided that was too risky. Better would be if he flew there himself. He cast a spell, transformed himself into a foxhawk [3], and took off.

Almost immediately, he saw that a group of orcs had departed from the main horde and were climbing the ridge toward the tower. There were a couple dozen, at least. He circled back to the tower, landed, and yipping and pointing with a paw, got Sophie to take another look down the slope. This time, she saw the orcs that were climbing toward them, and warned the others to prepare to defend the tower.

Ganz took off again and flew to the army's camp. He landed just outside the lines, then dismissed his spell and returned to the form of an elf. He found a sentry and warned him about the approaching orcs, then ran off to the Archmage's tent and repeated his warning. The message delivered, he snuck out into the darkness at the edge of camp, cast his transformation spell once more, and flew back to the tower.

As he approached, he saw that he had undercounted the orcs. There must have been at least sixty of them, and though their climb was slow, they would reach the tower before long. He landed, transformed back into an elf, and updated the others on the enemy numbers.

Talman thought they might do best to flee, since the orcs probably didn't even know they were there, weren't coming for a fight, and wouldn't miss them if they left. The others thought it would be too dangerous to leave a defensible position with that many orcs roaming around. They decided to stay, and thought this might be a good time to clear away the rubble and see where those stairs led.

While Quexechetl stood guard, Esmond and Talman started clearing. It was tough going, and they hadn't made much progress when the orcs came within arrow range. The climbed slowly, looking tired. Quexechetl and Esmond traded places, and Esmond took the amulet of night seeing back from Sophie. He drew his bow and carefully watched the orcs. Ganz cast a Light spell, and began concentrating to send it down the slope to light up the orcs.

When they got to withing fifty yards, Esmond shot. His arrow thudded home into the chest of one of the advancing orcs. The orcs kept coming, silently. Esmond drew again, aimed, and loosed another arrow. He hit the same orc again. The orc didn't so much as cry out, and kept coming.

Esmond drew another arrow, and this time as he aimed, he saw that the orc he had just shot twice wasn't the only one with arrows in him. As they got nearer, he could see, plain as day in the darkenss by the virtue of his magical amulet, that the orcs were all dead. And yet still they marched forward.

Me: Yes, it turns out that they are zombie orcs. Or, "zorcs," if you will....

Karl: I will not.

He shot a third arrow, trying to hit the orc squarely in the forehead, but his shot missed. He dropped the bow, drew out his shortsword and buckler, and prepared to hold the gap in the wall that faced the orcs. Talman backed him up with his spear. Sophie said a quick prayer to Wen, god of the underworld, climbed up on the wall, and readied her bow. Ganz did his best to help Quexechetl with the digging.

The first of the dead orcs reached the tower. Esmond stood at the gap in the wall. Two of them closed with him and attacked with axes. One missed, and he deflected the other with his buckler.

Esmond struck back, slashing the orc across the throat with his sword. Behind him, Talman stabbed with his spear, but failed to connect. More dead orcs stumbled toward Sophie, where she perched atop the wall, and the two that faced Esmond attacked again. One of them connected, severely wounding him and nearly knocking him down.

"This would be a good time to find out that this is all a nightmare."

Mike (Esmond)

Quexechetl dug frantically at the rubble blocking the stairs, and cleared barely enough room to let an elf  squirm through, but not enough for himself. It seemed unlikely they would clear enough to get everyone underground before the orcs overwhelmed them. Ganz decided to take a long shot, and concentrated on the magical glyphs that he had studied so carefully, hoping to somehow activate them.

Sophie shot an arrow at one of the dead orcs, hitting it but not slowing it down. It stabbed twice at her with a spear, missing both times. Esmond, struggling to remain conscious, slashed again with his sword, then stepped back from the wall. Talman attacked with his spear again and missed.

Ganz, concentrating on the glyphs, thought that he had somehow connected with them. Sophie felt that her prayer had been answered, and hopped down from the wall. The dead orcs stumbled around outside, but made no attempt to enter through the gap in the wall. The circus performers were safe, but for how long?

Esmond quickly gulped a healing potion, while Quexechetl finished clearing the rubble from the stairs. As soon as there was enough room to crawl through, everyone hurried downstairs. They examined the small, round, vaulted room by the light of Sophie's lantern. There was a summoning circle of some sort on the floor, a table and chair against one wall, and a cabinet against another.

So, how did that go?

Things moved along more slowly that I would have liked. Everyone's attention kept wandering, including mine. It had been more than a month since our last game, because of one thing an another, and I think that may have been a part of the reason.

And, of course, things did not go as I had expected. When do they ever? I didn't expect JC to have Ganz fly off by himself to warn the army about the approaching orcs, but that was fine. I thought the group made a mistake by not clearing the stairs and investigating under the tower when they first got there. On the other hand, JC caught me totally off guard by having Ganz attempt to activate the glyphs. I just threw in "they're protection wards" off the cuff.

Ganz has a Thaumatology of 14, so I added up some penalties and bonuses in my head and came up with 7 for him to activate the glyphs. Then I remembered Sophie's brief prayer to Wen, so I bumped it up to 8. JC used Luck to make three rolls, and the third and best was an 8. So they were just barely saved, by virtue of that prayer. I think the current situation made for a very good stopping point.

One thing I think I need to manage better is my way of describing what's going on in the world. In order to make it seem like this story unfolds in a real place, I try to describe what's going on all around the party -- what the army is doing, how the orcs act, what a dragon flying in the distance looks like, and so on. But while I'm doing that, I'm not asking the players what their characters are doing. In the current situation, where they're following an army and have to go where it goes, it feels like I'm spending too much time on things they have no control over. I need to work on compressing that description and getting on the good parts where they get to decide to do something.

[1] The Circus Sophia performed at the king's coronation feast, along with various other entertainers. In a strange mixup, a second circus, also named the Circus Sophia, was likewise scheduled to perform. The assembled nobles thought this was improper, and formed the general opinion that the two circuses should compete for the right to use the name. Our heros won, narrowly but convincingly, and afterward the court awarded the Circus Sophia a royal charter entitling them to call themselves "Entertainers to HIs Majesty King Miklo." Queen Luccola even gave them a banner embroidered with this slogan.

[2] The circus has met the Archmage once before, in the aftermath of the strange plot by an alchemist to  kidnap the king's cousins and use them in a ritual to do...something. The Archmage led the investigation to find out who else was involved, and eventually the Dean of the Royal College of Alchemists was arrested. The Archmage is also a member of the Lodean regency council, along with four other people. I'm not sure any of the players remembers this.

[3] A foxhawk is just what it sound like --  a hybrid with the body of a fox, but with a hawk's wings and forefeet. They have normal coloration for a red fox, but with a line of feathers along the spine and banded coloration on the belly, white and red or red-brown. The circus encountered these creatures when they met the reclusive alchemist Fiuzo Panzal. He had made several, and they had escaped from their pens. After the circus recaptured them for him, Ganz decided he liked them enough to want to be one, at least temporarily, and improvised a transformation spell.