Body Slam!, Extra melee houserules Options

[hyzmarca]

One unfortunate oversight in all previous shadowrun melee rulesets is the lack of body slams, power bombs, pile drivers, and similar strength-based attacks. While SR3 martial arts rules had the throw maneuver, it was meant to be an approximation of judo throws and is a poor substitute for the classic wrestling techniques.

Thus, I present, the strength-based throw attack.


Strength-based throw

Strength-based throw attacks represent a character just picking up his enemy and hurling him to the ground. It is an abstraction of many attacks with many names: body slam, power bomb, choke slam, fireman's carry neckbreaker, gorilla press slam, ect.

Instead of rolling Unarmed Combat + Agility vs. Reaction + Defense Skill (Reaction + Defense Skill x2 for full defense) the character attempting to perform a strength-based throw rolls his Unarmed Combat + Strength vs Reaction + Defense Skill + Body (Reaction +Defense Skillx2 + Agility +Body for full defense). Game masters may oppose a threshold for exceptionally heavy targets (+1 per 100 KG recommended).

If successful, the damage is calculated normally and the target is rendered prone.

A variation on this, the attacker falls with the target, adding half of his body to the damage calculation while being rendered prone himself. (Pile driver, ect.)

[CyberKender]

The vast majority of wrestling slams, such as you list, aren't feasable without assistance from the throwee. (You know, how the guy jumps up when his opponent tires to gorilla press him, and how he hangs onto the wrist of the guy trying to choke slam him....) An actively resisting opponent would make such moves very difficult. (Yes, I have seen 'Rampage' Jackson slam opponents. Notice how they're holding on to him when he picks them up.) I would think you'd need to first make a successful grapple to get hold of your target. Though I do like your actual mechanic. Well, except that +1 for every 100 kg (220lbs) is way too high. Only +1 for trying to throw two average men as opposed to one? Perhaps +1 for every 30kg (66lbs).

And don't underestimate a judo throw. If you don't know how to land properly, they're punishing, and the point of a successful judo throw is to not allow the other guy to land properly.

[kzt]

[HappyDaze]

Compression throws are much more fun than extension throws. To determine which you're doing compare where the guy's head lands compared to where his base/feet started.

[hyzmarca]

It isn't meant to be realistic. It is meant to allow giant max-strength trolls to Power Bomb tiny gunbunny elves left and right.

Thinking it over, I should probably remove Agility from the Full Defense option.

[CyberKender]

[Whipstitch]

Yeah, I have to agree with CyberKender on that one. With body thrown in along with the extra defense rolls, I'm not really sure I'd consider this all that much more of a viable option than going with vanilla subdual combat even with a powerful troll. I'm willing to live with waiting a pass to deal damage if it means my opponent is disabled in the meantime and I get to use my full undivided strength score. I'm torn though; I had a troll athlete/wrestler/archer who could reliably subdue anything short of another troll or a combat sense adept in hand to hand combat. Which is well and good, but it doesn't change the fact that anything short of a troll doesn't seem to have a snow ball's chance in hell of actually leveraging a high strength score for anything remotely useful.

This post has been edited by Whipstitch: Oct 12 2007, 02:14 AM