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Re: Revised Defense Flow in GURPS
Wed, 2007-07-18 14:52 — tboneTrue, some players are very slow to make decisions! What can I say; that's its own problem, and I assume it comes up not only when the player defends, but also when the player attacks, or does anything.
I guess you'll need to drop any game step you can, when it's causing too much player agonizing. In this case, it might be best to use the revision only for gunfire (in which case there's not even much of a decision to make; "Duck!" is almost always the right response!), and ignore it for other attacks, so the slow players only need to select a defense when absolutely necessary (i.e., a TH roll succeeded).
Or heck, just drop it all if that's what you have to do for the players involved!
As for the second idea involving Combat Reflexes: Sure, you could rule that those characters get to "read" melee attacks accurately, and wait for the TH results; that'd be one option. I still like the full 2b, which also favors people with Combat Reflexes: with their higher defense score, they can better afford the penalty of "waiting". (Personal bias: I always prefer that sort of "sliding ability scale" solution over a binary "this guy can, this guy can't".)
But that's the thing about melee here: just about any version of "use the revision for everyone", "don't use it at all", "use it for some people", etc. seems reasonable enough. However you play it in melee, it just doesn't often make much difference.
It's really versus gunfire that the current rules feel odd, and there, I think it'd still feel odd if Combat Reflexes characters could "read" TH. They're quick-witted, sure, but not quick enough to read incoming bullets and then decide what to do! Personally, I'd apply the revision to all characters under gunfire.