I was trying to run a small demo of Fight! for some guys from my old gaming group to try and see if it was their cup of tea. One thing came up, and I wanted to double check with the collective minds of the internet.
The scene is fairly easy, Character A is walking down the dark halls of the castle trying to make it to the princess bedrrom unnoticed, eager to make it in time for his appointment, if you catch my drift. But alas! His way is blocked by his mortal enemy the vile Count Rolf! Character A, while normally competent and a dangerous man is not armed or armored as he is expecting more passionate embraces and not cold steel. Count Rolf however has a sword and a dagger in his belt.
For reasons of history and personal antipathy (and mainly because it was a demo of Fight! and not Duel of Wits) out comes the scripting sheets!
Count Rolf wants to draw his sword and then poke the cur A with the pointy end. He scripts Draw weapon - draw weapon - assess - strike (Reflexes B4 and frankly, A is unarmed and should be easy pickings, no need to hurry, right?).
Character A however, has different plans and scripted Lock - Draw weapon - Draw weapon - Strike.
All right, Lock it is! Dice roll and Count Rolf now is in a 3D Lock. Ouch. But then the players says “Draw weapon” with a sadistic glee on his face. I pause and ask if A wasnt unarmed.
“But Rolf has a dagger in his belt, right?”
I dont know, the rules doesnt actually say anything that you arent allowed to draw your opponents dagger if you are close enough. I ruled it as such: If you have the guy in a Lock then you are close enough to take the guys dagger from his belt as well.
I thought that was really cool actually, but it made me wonder:
Should I have perhaps called for a Speed vs Speed or Power vs Power roll to get the dagger from the count? My reasoning was that count Rolf was busy drawing his own sword and in a mighty inconvenient Lock as well, and besides it was a neat move so I just let A snatch the dagger and… well, I think you all can guess who ended up in trouble, the guy in the Lock with a sword or the guy with the dagger up close and personal.
It seems like a perfectly reasonable script to me. I’d probably require the character be in at least a 1D Lock before something like it could be attempted, but that was already covered. I think you did it exactly right. It’s a very risky script but it worked!
According to what he said afterwards, he had expected the rules to stop him from stealing the dagger and putting it between the good counts ribs. That’ll show him!
And just to make it clear, if Count Rolf had been drawing the dagger I would have asked for a Power vs Power roll or something to decide who got it. But since poor Rolf had his hand on his sword and presumably the other one in one heck of a Lock… I will have to remember that combo for future use.
I love it! I think I might have an unarmed NPC do that one day actually, as a sort of reminder to the players of all the cool gritty options there are available in BW conflicts. Keep 'em on their toes!
I’d be inclined to allow it even without the lock, so long as you’re at Hands range - but probably with Agility or Speed natural defenses. I agree with Dean, it emphasizes the gritty, knee-in-groin nature of BW combat.
The neatest thing about this is, Draw Weapon takes two actions–so the guy in danger of losing his secondary weapon conceivably has the ability to stop what he’s doing and script Draw Weapon (or Physical Action) to contest with his opponent for it…although it will cost him an action down the line.
You may be better off dropping your current action and scripting a Push–it won’t prevent him from drawing the dagger, but if it works you can at least get some breathing room.