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I think the problem arises
Thu, 2006-07-20 00:00 — VisitorI think the problem arises when you look at the specific set of actions that happen in combat:
1. GM: "He attacks you."
2. GM rolls to hit
3. Player: "I parry!"
4. Player rolls parry
Each roll nicely follows the action it describes. The fact that 3 and 4 may not be bothered with if 2 fails is an interesting artifact (discussed in a bit).
If you switch the order of 2 and 3, you're splitting the declaration of an action and the roll for that action. Not a big deal generally, but is yet another pending action that has to be remembered. Each one doesn't do much on its own, but these things add up to slow down play. In technical writing, parenthetical statements, especially mid-sentence, are discouraged for basically the same reason.
That's probably the source of the "extra bookkeeping" and "declaration phase" arguments. The "bookkeeping" comes from keeping track of pending rolls, and describing this sort of thing in rules tends to lead to phases: "OK, action A is initiated. OK, next, everyone who's aware of A, declare your reactions. OK, next, a bunch of rolls occur to resolve what actually happens." The system becomes less of a dialog and more of a big game of tracking simultanaety.
I do a bit of LARP game design, and I've found that the simplest, easiest, and fastest combat rules are the ones with the least amount of simultanaety concerns. Hit-and-run mechanics are just better for fast-paced things. Applied to sit-down RPG combat, if you can just declare an attack and roll it right then, you can then go off and scrounge for cheetos or calculate your current falling speed or whatever while your target copes with the rest (defense) of the attack.
That aside, I don't think the "interesting artifact" from above cause any real problem to GURPS melee combat. Actually, I think it's a bit more realistic, concerning how fighters react to stressful stimulus. Sure, it misses out on an innate mechanic for accidentally feinting with a missed hit, but I don't really care for that. Every time someone misses a shot, I don't roll the dice to see if accidentally knocked a pigeon out of the air.
Now, I do often think there is a problem with GURPS dodge when applied to ranged attacks, and I do house-rule that into something more complicated. But it _is_ more complicated, and does have more bookkeeping.
Ken | 07.20.06 - 3:31 pm | #