For those of you following my game, I've twice now botched trying to teach myself fast draw of my boxing stance. Going into stance from a "Hands up, I surrender" position. I was thinking that, if you were to step back with one foot, crouch a little, and put your hands up, except for the fact that your hands were open, you would pretty much be in a fighting stance. I was thinking it could also be used as a taunt. Put your hands up like that, and go "whooo" with some mocking gestures and whatnot. Kind of a "Will they take the bait against a guy who is far more ready than they think?" I'd like some thoughts on how to go about designing this skill.
(Doing Therapy)
You could try designing a special maneuver to make that stance ready in itself. In other words, don't teach yourself to become ready from that situation, teach yourself to be ready in that position already. Would be harder (-sit mods up the wazoo, probably), but more useful.
If you insist on that skill in particular...tough luck. You already have it designed. You just keep failing to learn it. You could try to sit-mod it...like saying you are building up or something and you have to be 'surrendering' for a set amount of time before you can become ready, or something. I think that would mean making it a TF instead of an RF move, so it takes effect AFTER the time passed, not before. Other than that...I don't know much about bod-bias sit mods.
Brock is right: the fact that you've twice botched trying to teach yourself what amounts to iajutsu or fast draw in weaponless combat doesn't mean that you haven't got the skill described adequately; it means that to this point you've not been able to make the transition from a notion of how this might be done to actually doing it successfully.
I suppose I can illustrate it thus. When I was knee high to a grasshopper, I and my brother and his girlfriend next door taught ourselves how to walk along the tops of split rail fences--what in Multiverser terms is balance beam walking but under adverse conditions (a balance beam is wider and sturdier and flatter than the tops of such fences). From that experience I can explain how I would walk on a tightrope. I can conceptualize it quite clearly in my mind, and even translate some of the tricks (standing on one foot, walking backwards, turning around, walking with eyes closed) I did at five or six years old on a fence to similar concepts on a tightrope. However, I have never attempted it--and the fact that I can conceptualize how to do it and have a related ability (I still walk on fences and curbs and other narrow ridges from time to time) does not guarantee that I won't fall and break my neck on the first attempt.
In the same way, the fact that you can describe exactly what you want your body to do does not mean that you can get your body to do that the first time, or the second time, or the Nth time; nor does it mean that you won't hurt yourself trying. Being able to shift from not ready to ready in an instant is more difficult than it sounds, and even those who are very good at it do not always succeed.
It is also not that simple to "try" it in controlled conditions. After all, you're in your room, you put your hands up, you think in terms of being "not ready", and then you attempt to shift to being "ready" instantly--but that's not really the same as standing in front of the man holding the gun who has told you to raise your hands, and then at the instant when he glances at his partner you move into stance and strike. The fact that you were able to get into stance from having your hands raised when you were in your apartment does not mean that you necessarily achieved it as that kind of instant readiness application. You're attempting to train your reflexes to do something instantly that they do adequately. You can't expect immediate success.
So it comes down to trying again.
--M. J. Young
Gotcha. Just gotta keep trying.
(Doing Therapy)
It is also not that simple to "try" it in controlled conditions. After all, you're in your room, you put your hands up, you think in terms of being "not ready", and then you attempt to shift to being "ready" instantly--but that's not really the same as standing in front of the man holding the gun who has told you to raise your hands, and then at the instant when he glances at his partner you move into stance and strike.
Brock was talking about sit mods. Could there be one? In the situation you described, I probably would have been standing there for at least long enough to get my feet positioned, if not my hands. Could there be a sit-mod put on it for having a few seconds to prepare?
(Doing Therapy)
probably. It's nothing more than trying an alternative way of doing it that may be easier. But more importantly-would your character THINK of that alternative way? That's why we can't give them to you.
That's why we can't give them to you.
(Sarcastic mock frustration) And since when are you my referee Brock??? (Or did MJ say that, and I missed it on my reread?)
(Doing Therapy)
If MJ gave it to you, that's his prerogative. I didn't say who else was part of 'we'. Maybe i was talking about my other personalities :D
(Lennie, from Of Mice and Men) Well gee Brock, duh, maybe the reason you can't uh give it to me is because you're not my referee? Huh Brock? Could that be why?
(Doing Therapy) (And laughing)
John, it's a difficult skill to sit-mod because it inherently claims that you are moving from "not ready" to "ready" instantly--and you are doing this in a weapon-adverse style.
That point is significant. If you were talking about a fast draw of a weapon, the question would be whether you were able to get the weapon into your hand and ready to use in an instant, and we could talk about such things as whether for a pistol a quick draw holster would beat a cross draw or shoulder holster, whether for a sword you would be well served by lowering the hilt or cutting the scabbard such that the blade would clear it sooner. But what you're really looking for is a skill by which you happen to have your hands up, completely oblivious to any notion that you might be about to enter a fight, and then suddenly you move into combat stance so quickly that if, for example, you did it in response to the recognition that the man in front of you had just moved to slap your face, you managed to land your blow before he landed his.
Perhaps, though, you want to redefine your skill as not being a "quick draw/steal initiative" sort. Perhaps what you're trying to do is devise a means of moving into stance that looks like surrender up until you actually move into stance. I'd have to reconsider what that actually is--probably a stealth/activation combination. It would not give you the benefits of being able to steal initiative with it in the sense that you could react before your opponent, but it might be that all you really want is the ability to shift into stance slowly without appearing to do so until you're there.
--M. J. Young
Oh--and don't snap at people who are attempting 1) to be helpful and 2) to understand and apply game system mechanics. If you don't think they have the right answer, wait for me and I'll clarify what the right answer is.
--M. J. Young
Perhaps, though, you want to redefine your skill as not being a "quick draw/steal initiative" sort. Perhaps what you're trying to do is devise a means of moving into stance that looks like surrender up until you actually move into stance.
Yeah, this is kind of more like it. That I would look like I'm surrendering, but I'm really trying to figure out the best time to deck the guy and run like a bat out of hell. In every encounter with someone whom I gave a raised hands surrender, I would have had at least a few seconds to plant my feet whilst I got my hands up. What I was thinking was (perhaps) a +1 sit mod for every couple of seconds warning I have, up to a set amount. If I'm standing hands raised for 10 minutes before I have my opening to strike, I'm going to be tensed up and ready to act.
Oh--and don't snap at people who are attempting 1) to be helpful and 2) to understand and apply game system mechanics. If you don't think they have the right answer, wait for me and I'll clarify what the right answer is.
Didn't you see where I wrote (Sarcastic mock frustration)? I think Brock understood the intended meaning there. I wasn't snapping at him, I was mocking being frustrated, in a sarcastic fashion. I can't describe it any better than that, but I'm sure you've done it. Just trying to liven up the board a little.
And the (Lennie from Of Mice and Men) The one starring John Malkovich as Lennie, the way he talks just cracks me up. I was trying to put a funny twist on my speaking. Perhaps I shouldn't do that anymore. It could get misunderstood easily.
(Doing Therapy)
Oh, he was stealing initiative? I thought he was trying the latter option all along hehe.
He wasn't snapping to the best of my knowledge. he even clarified it for me in a message to be sure I took it the right way.
John-I like the quote, I think i saw that one a long time ago.
John-I like the quote, I think i saw that one a long time ago.
Which quote would that be?
(Doing Therapy)
Of Mice and men quote.
No, that wasn't quoted from Of Mice and Men. I just meant it to sound like Lennie talking, to kind of give it some flavor. I made that up, it's not quoted from anywhere. (Or am I totally misunderstanding something?)
(Doing Therapy)
Oh. Well, the inflection jumps right off the page; I'm referring to knowing what the guy sounds like just by reading what you typed. I don't know if I've seen the guy or not.
I don't know if I've seen the guy or not.
If you haven't, it's one of those speech things which is often copied. Bugs Bunny characters have said things in that speech pattern. If you've ever heard someone speaking like that, and making references to George, then it's a mock up of the Lennie character. (George was Lennie's best friend)
(Doing Therapy)