TFM

Hah! That changes ALOT. Thanks for explanation. I will be using major wound mechanics and randomized armor, so I hope fights won't be dragging out too much. Now, only thing left is balancing magic-users and I making final pass on skills allowed in the setting.

My math seems to fail me. You wrote: 95 vs. 105 -> *chance of attack connecting vs. failed parry 5% (actually 4,75%) But at 105, the only failed parry is a 1% fumble. So, 5 times of 100 attack won't connect because of skill being too low, and 99% attacks rolled under skill level will fail because of opponent parry. Looks to me, that only less than 1% of attacks will connect if we won't take specials/etc into account. Please correct me if I am wrong on that. (And also, talking about under-100 guy not standing a chance, I was taking into account situation, where more skilled swordsman splits skill into 2 attacks, while still parrying at 105%).

Thanks everyone for answers. As I said before, I am fully aware I can workaround this perceived problem with clever tactics and such. I am just wondering in advance if I will have to. Extra special thanks to RosenMcStern for maths, but, what you described looks like my ideal situation - skills in the 75-95 range. With two characters at 110% skill it looks much worse - and duel between combatants having respectively 95% and 105% skill will in nearly all cases end badly for swordsman with under 100% skill. However, what you said makes me a little less worried about combat system. But just for to answer my doubts - is game where most skilled fighters are over 100% as playable as under-100% game? In a word, should I let players start around 100, or strive to keep them away from getting there?

Hello everyone! Until now, I had limited exposure to BRP, playing Call of Cthulhu without paying that much attention to detailed rules, or playing Pendragon, with its significantly different ruleset. However, few weeks ago I decided to run game set in the world of the Witcher, and realized, that I need some generic system, as we (me and my players) are pretty fed up with Savage Worlds (don't get me wrong its nice system, but it isn't perfect for every type of game, and we already use it quite often). BRP looked like a good choice, so I grabbed BGB, tinkered with rules enough to make them fit to campaign and our personal play style, and basically we are ready to run. I was about to send out character generation details, when I realized, that I have doubts related to defense mechanics. Basically, I can either allow weapon skills to go up to 90%, and that means I am getting almost constant parries right away (with one or two lucky exp rolls or +5% masterful weapon) or keep them down to 75% and postpone problem for 5 or so sessions. Either way, at some point I will run into situation, where less numerous attacks will all be parried, and more numerous attacks will simply destroy opponent (due to -30% penalty to every subsequent defense). And that means, fights with main enemies won't be very exciting either way. Yes, I know I can use monsters, with attacks that can't be parried and thick armor. I can split attack/parry (but thats something I definitely don't want to do). I can make my players face magic-users. Of course I can. But I enjoy old traditional swordplay and something tells me, that fights with human enemies will become boring and dragging very quickly. TL;DR Is combat playable with skills over 100 and without using monsters/magic/superior numbers to diminish high parry ratings? Will be most grateful of any input. Planning to run first session on this or next Friday, and still undecided if I should allow high skills, or somehow try to keep them down. TFM