Out of Close Calculation

Discussion initiated by Dean in September 2008

Lets start with an excerpt from the rules...

Withdraw from Close

A figure may attempt to Withdraw from Close Combat. If they are successful, they may move one hex, but are still treated as prone. A figure may Withdraw from Close if a D10 roll plus any positive difference in total Physical Strength between the friendly and hostile figures in the hex is at least 10.

So currently a 20 STR, Rank 8 Unarmed opponent vs a 20 STR Orc with no unarmed ranks must roll a 10 to leave close.

When this does come up, which is not that often, it annoys me, and I feel is broken, for the following reasons:

• Equal STR of hostile and friendly gives 10% withdrawl chance, surely should be 50%
• No account is taken of the relative skills of the individuals. IMHO, Unarmed combat rank should be taken into account, and possibly any combination of Warrior/Thief/Assassin.

My proposal would be:

• Base Chance for withdrawl become 50% (on d100) plus or minus modifiers
• Each 1 pt of STR differential equals plus or minus 5% modifier (adds granularity to STR difference, meaning 10 points more, not 5 more, makes it very hard to leave close)
• Each 1 Rank of Unarmed differential equals plus or minus 5% modifier
• (Possibly) Each 1 Rank of Primary/Highest Ranked Appropriate Skill differential equals plus or minus 5% modifier

This would mean a 20 STR, Rank 8 Unarmed opponent vs a 20 STR Orc with no unarmed ranks must roll below 91% to leave close, a much more realistic number.

The calculations would be a bit clunky at runtime, especially if multiple figures are involved, but it comes up rarely enough that I do not see it being a show stopper

At the very least I would want the calculation to become d10 greater than 5 +/- STR difference, as this at least fixes one of my core issues.

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