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May 31, 2012 -- 10:05AM, J.Trudel wrote:

In a desperate manoeuver, I grab my bastard sword with both hand and charge my foe slicing a deep cut in his knee. He lose 6 hp... Well, this kind of things bore me to tears. However it doesn't have to be this way. We want to feel like we are an action hero, this is the particular reason why a lot of people prefer the 4e. The standard attack is plain boring. When you watch an action movie, the hero often try some desperate moves that can change the tide of the whole battle. 

A way around this boring fight mechanics is so simple that I don't know why nobody use it, I call it fight with intent. Something any character can do so it's not game breaking, and even the monsters so it's way more challenging. You only have to describe your action and WHY you want to make it. For an exemple I would say I charge my foe and atempt to hit his legs so he fall to the ground. If my attempt is succesfull, my opponent would roll a DEX save or else he falls. As simple as that, it could even be used with spells. 

And it's way way more entertaining than describing a cool moves just to hack away a few hp from your ennemy. 
 

And all those options were easily handled in 2E by using... Called Shots. There was a ton of Called Shots details/options in the Complete Fighter's Handbook to satisfy all your needs. But I do think that core rules should be simple, once you get comfortable with those basic rules, provide rules to add any level of detail you want to add in your game, hit locations, bypassing armor, etc. No need to resort to Powers like in 4E to handle non-standard attacks. I actually think that Powers doesn't resolve that issue. Just for example, suppose that :

DM: "The drunk, smelly pirate goes and meet you at the bar and then gropes your ass."
Pirate: "Well, well, what do we have here ?" 
Samara, the female Barbarian: "I kick that b*stard in the nuts" 

So unless PCs come with special "Kick in da nuts" Powers, I don't think you'll be able to handle that situation with that. As a DM, I wouldn't refrain the Barbarian from attempting this because "there is no rule around kicking someone in the nuts". Using 2E ? I would do let her do so with a Called Shot and go with it. You don't need to have every option spelled out on your sheet to let your character act that way, either in combat or outside of it.
  

May 31, 2012 -- 10:22AM, J.Trudel wrote:

May 31, 2012 -- 10:15AM, Cyvaris wrote:

Riddle me this. Would you want to play the Wizard if the only spell he had was Magic Missle? 


You can improv and call shots as much as you want by the way, all you have is Magic Missle. 

If in real life I was given magic missile, you would be amazed of the creativity I would find. Striking a hand so the foe make his weapon drop, shooting them on a tree branch so it fall on the foe trapping it. Aiming for a straddle strap so a horseman falls of his horse. Striking a bottle of beer so it explode in the face of the one who drinks it to blind him... many many great way to use it. 

This in essence is was the Psionic Soul knife use to be. One trick, all the trimmings.

May 31, 2012 -- 10:25AM, J.Trudel wrote:

No need for fancy rules, just a save or be stun for some rounds. Depending mostly on the size of the nuts Sorry, I think you just misunderstood me, or I am explaining badly haha. I just think that called shoots is all a fighter need, not special manoeuvers written on the sheets like spells. But a lot of people seems to disagree and think the fighter is boring. But I don't think so.

Then I did missread you Sorry about that, I understood it the other way around I too, don't think the Fighter is boring. He's as boring as you want it to be. 

That whole premise that the Fighter is boring does rub me the wrong way, there is countless RPG systems out there that don't use Powers; L'Oeil Noir, Dragon Warriors, TSR-era D&D, Pendragon, Legionnaire, Cyberpunk 2020, etc. Do all these games suck because they don't feature Powers ? I find that kind of statement insulting to a lot of RPGs out there.

May 31, 2012 -- 10:25AM, J.Trudel wrote:

No need for fancy rules, just a save or be stun for some rounds. Depending mostly on the size of the nuts Sorry, I think you just misunderstood me, or I am explaining badly haha. I just think that called shoots is all a fighter need, not special manoeuvers written on the sheets like spells. But a lot of people seems to disagree and think the fighter is boring. But I don't think so.

Save or be stunned is a fancy rule. So is figuring out how long an enemy is knocked down, or how far you can push them if you try to tackle them. So the fancy rules are going to be there, or you have a huge problem with consistency and balance.

Special maneuvers are just standardized rules for how you try and what happens if you succeed. It's no more spell-like than a Rogue's Sneak Attack. Having it on the character sheet is good design because it helps players with poor memories and prevents time-consuming flipping thru books.

May 31, 2012 -- 10:41AM, Vikingkingq wrote:

May 31, 2012 -- 10:25AM, J.Trudel wrote:

No need for fancy rules, just a save or be stun for some rounds. Depending mostly on the size of the nuts Sorry, I think you just misunderstood me, or I am explaining badly haha. I just think that called shoots is all a fighter need, not special manoeuvers written on the sheets like spells. But a lot of people seems to disagree and think the fighter is boring. But I don't think so.

Save or be stunned is a fancy rule. So is figuring out how long an enemy is knocked down, or how far you can push them if you try to tackle them. So the fancy rules are going to be there, or you have a huge problem with consistency and balance.

Special maneuvers are just standardized rules for how you try and what happens if you succeed. It's no more spell-like than a Rogue's Sneak Attack. Having it on the character sheet is good design because it helps players with poor memories and prevents time-consuming flipping thru books.

I didn't think of it as a fancy rules, if someone falls he is down until he can get up, if he drops his weapon well he have to get it back. All other effect should last only one round blind, stun, pain, doubt, etc etc.