PCs attempting called shots

[Yepesnopes]

Hello

I just wanted to know how often players try called shots in your games, is it a mechanic that appears often? In my experience I have seen little use of called shots by PCs. Actually, I have only seen called shots from PCs equipped with Bows or Spears, never from other weapons.

[Stilts]

There's good reason for those weapons being used most often for called shots. Not every enemy wields a weapon that can be dropped, like wolves, spiders, and some trolls that use Crush. Not every enemy uses a shield that can be smashed. However, every enemy can be wounded. On top of that, disarming an enemy or smashing his shield doesn't necessarily make that enemy less of a threat, i.e. such effects are not guaranteed to help. A wound kills many of them, and brings the rest close to death.

[Heilemann]

Over the course of ten sessions I think it's been used once.

[Glorelendil]

We used it a bunch fighting a snow troll who needed a Wound to die. Other than that...no.

[Murcushio]

We have yet to fight a single enemy using a shield in about twenty sessions, and for the past ten we haven't fought anything that was using a weapon dangerous enough to warrant disarming it. Both of our spear-wielders have the Keen quality, which means we're more comfortable (until our weapon skills are high enough) fishing for wounds the normal way.

It also doesn't help that... the one time our Barding Swordsman used a Called Shot was against a Stone Troll. He was Weary at the time, and determined that any roll that actually hit the bloody thing would mathematically almost certainly involve at least one Tengwar anyway, so why not?

He achieves an Edge result AND an Extraordinary Success. Troll loses it's club. We all breath a sigh of relief... and then it turns out the goddamn thing isn't a rules-standard Stone Troll and is rolling the same number of dice for Crush as it did for Club, and is now adding its Attribute bonus. To add insult to injury, it succeeds on the protection test.

So succeeding at the Called Shot actually made our lives worse.

I still think our GM simply fucked up his bookkeeping and refuses to admit it. Regardless, it soured some of us a bit on Called Shots. This may change in another couple months; I'm going to have Great Spear 5 by the end of the year if we keep playing every week, and at that point I plan to use them a lot more on the basis that I have a really good chance of achieving OHKO's on many enemies.

[Glorelendil]

Another reason I think bludgeoning weapons should have same stats as swords but higher Edge (or lower Injury, but Edge makes more sense to me) but a really sweet Called Shot. A stun or something.

[Morgoth]

My party uses called shots pretty regularly. Our Lake-man archer used called shots more often than not (though he's no longer in the group), but then again he had 5 ranks in longbow and Bowman of the Guild. The two spear wielding companions use called shots against trolls and big things. The greataxe wielding dwarf once used called shots against orcs with great shields to good effect. Also, some of the party tried disarming Undead Warriors after they realized they had Unnatural Vitality.

[Yepesnopes]

The idea of the post is to gather impressions. I am of the opinion that the called shot mechanics needs polishing. I think the idea is good, and its effect is ok-ish for spears and bows, but on the contrary, in most situations it is not worth the risk for the rest of the weapons (swords, axes and mattock).

[Glorelendil]

The idea of the post is to gather impressions. I am of the opinion that the called shot mechanics needs polishing. I think the idea is good, and its effect is ok-ish for spears and bows, but on the contrary, in most situations it is not worth the risk for the rest of the weapons (swords, axes and mattock).

A disarmed opponent could have its parry reduced while disarmed, perhaps. Although that opens a can of worms about how much of your parry depends on a weapon. (I'd be ok with saying "all of it"...an unarmed hero or adversary has no parry beyond chosen stance.)

[Murcushio]

Except that nobody is ever unarmed, Elfcrusher. The dagger is a weapon and it doesn't even encumber you.