[BNW] Fastball special

["Patrick O'Duffy" <redfern@thehub.com.au>]

Hey there.

I decided to do up a summary of the combat rules, so I could speed up play and
avoid reading the book during play.  That gave me a chance to look over the
throwing rules, and reminded me about the 'Fastball Special' of the 80's X-MEN.

For the unfamiliar, this is a team maneuver for a strong character and a fairly
tough buddy.  In the comic, Colossus (Goliath) would pick up Wolverine
(Scrapper) and throw him at an enemy.  Wolverine would use the momentum to boost
the damage of his attack, and was tough enough to ignore the impact himself.

Since I have a Goliath on my team, and since I'd like to encourage teamwork, I
thought I'd work out the mechanics of this.

For a start, you need to have a Goliath doing the throw, not a bouncer or
scrapper.  You need that difference in size, so that the thrower can get a good
grip on the throwee.  You might just be able to pull it off with a brawny
thrower and a slight throwee (size 6 and size 4), but it'd be a stretch.

Rather than a straightforward throwing attack, the Goliath has to aim for the
spot just in front of the target.  With a straightforward throw, it'd just do
basic damage - Goliath's STR + 5 for the throwee's Size - and the throwee would
take the same damage.  So it's a difficult throwing roll - the Goliath needs an
extra success.  Without the extra success, the throwee collides with the target
- damage as above.  If the Goliath fails the roll completely, the throwee hits
the ground and not the target, suffering the aforementioned damage.

Assuming the Goliath makes the roll, the throwee then has to make an attack roll
of their own.  This is a straightforward fighting/martial arts roll - but
because they've just been thrown headlong at their target, it's not easy, and
they need an extra success.  Success means that they do their normal close
combat damage, plus gaining the benefits of a charge (range/5 as a damage
bonus), _plus_ their size as a bonus.  On the down side, they take that bonus
(size + charge) themselves.  They then must make an Easy acrobatics roll to land
well after the impact; if they fall, they fall down.

If the throwee misses the attack, they must make an acrobatics (difficulty = 5+
the charge damage bonus) roll to land without injury; if they fail, they crash
to the ground and take damage equal to the Goliath's STR+the charge bonus.

I think this looks reasonably balanced; it's a good damage bonus, and the
maneuver is neither too easy or too hard.  I'd be interested in seeing what
other people think of the arrangement.

I'll try it out with some NPCs first, since my team lacks an appropriate
throwee.  But they'll be fighting a group of Defiants later on, including a
scrapper and a shrinker, who can use it against them.  And hey, I can throw in
the Shrinker's growth charge trick... that has possibilities...

--
Patrick O'Duffy, Brisbane, Australia

These unemployed actors gone bad are the worst.  When they're not whoring
on streetcorners or trying to look menacing as they loiter around the drama
sections of bookstores, they form gangs that relentlessly try to attach
themselves to stylish homosexuals and break all the noise laws by bitching
about pretty girls and people with talent.  The bastards.

 - Spider Jerusalem, TRANSMETROPOLITAN: I HATE IT HERE