soooo.. besides doing boffer fist/claws.. i was thinking of a way to do hand to hand combat that didn't involve actual fighting, was not defined entirely by chance (paper rock scissors), and allowed you to put build into it to get better. If you've ever played any fantasy flight board games like a game of thrones or battlestar galactica, you may be familar with thier card/strength system. Lets take a game of thrones for this example since it more closely relates to how I would set up this sytem.
In AGoT boardgame you have units on the board (footmen, knights, seige engines, etc.) each has a strength associated with it (footmen str = 1, knights str = 2, etc.). So when you invade an adjacent area, if it is occupied, you have to battle to see who wins and who is routed. you battle by calculating the total strength cost of each side's units as well as any modifers you have (support from other adjacent armies, special powers, etc.), and finally, you use one of your Generals (characters from the books in card form) which also have a strength associated with them to finish each sides total. I find this method of combat in the boardgame world far superior to dice rolling because there is more skill and planning involved and less random luck or chance. It is however, not 100% know who will win of coarse, becuase you will not know which card your opponant will use as his general and what that card's special powers will do to the final totals.
I wonder if a similar "card-based" system would work in a boffer larp for hand to hand combat. What I mean is we leave in things like boffer machetes, clubs, axes, etc... but since they are so rare (in my version of how a zombie larp should run) we allow hand-to-hand combat using cards. How would it work? a player can purchase hand to hand fighting skills with build. This grants them a number of "fighting cards" per game/logistics period/however that worked. Lets say he is a lower level player and only put a few points into his hand to hand skills. he might only have 3 cards for the whole game. 1 card is worth 2 strength (cause he has put enough build into that skill to earn it), and 2 cards are worth 1 strength. Now, the PC carries these cards (which exist OOG like teach cards do in alliance). If they choose to assult someone, a PC, NPC, zombie, whatever, they use a "call word" similar to how we have "hold" in our game. In this game it could be "Martial Combat" or whatever. This creates a mini hold where the two parties involved have to exchange cards. The PC who called the "martial combat" would show his card first.. then the PC/NPC who he is attacking must respond with either a card of thier own, or be defeated as if that PC had just cold-cocked them. Variables could exist like if the person being attacked was using a boffer weapon, it automatically adds 1 strength to thier total, or Zombies automatically have a strength of 1 or 2 or something because they are difficult to overpower... and there could be a rule that if there are 2 or more targets within striking distance, you can't call "martial combat" because they would overwhelm you or something (to prevent too many mini holds).
The concept has pros and cons... pros being, you can deck people, even when you are unarmed.. including other PCs.. to get your way (if that's the character type you want to play), the obvious cons being needing phisical cards, the mini holds to resolve these issues...
Though, I suppose, if you didn't want to do the card/hold idea.. you could treat them like fighter skills and jsut have a verbal attached to them. You would have to be within a certain distance of the PC/NPC you are attacking, call the verbal for the fighter skill, and resolve it that way.
Thoughts?
