Haakon_val'Ishi wrote:
I took Melee: Unarmed and Pugilist in the hopes of a bar fight, sadly these seem to be rare in Arcanis. Too bad given Henry loves Conan. I suspect our Cimmerian had as may bar brawls as stand up fights in his past. Just 'cause we're heroes doesn't mean we can't be a little rough around the edges.
I like the odd bar fight as a player too. Its usually low stakes and played for fun which is a change of pace. But your post is also kind of funny because during the Crusade Arc, before Tukufu's creation, my main character was a Nierite named Eisener. And Eisener worried IC about being killed in a bar fight. How the would that look, to have survived fighting Uhxbractit himself, and then be killed by some nobody? Barehanded. What do you say to the Judgement of Nier, "Cut me some slack? I did everything right up until I got gacked by someone on the junior varsity?" ... somehow I don't think so. That's the kind of humiliating ending that maybe nullifies the victories of your life if you're a Nierite.
Eisener was right to be concerned. While he believed there were few to no people he couldn't take in a stand up fight, he had no ranks in unarmed combat, no weapon training with unarmed attacks and no pugilistic type talents. That's probably true for more heroes than not. (perhaps like In Fistful of Dollars where Clint Eastwood is death with a gun, but not so hot unarmed).
The Arcanis rules set is terrific...but it doesn't necessarily lend itself to authors as an easy vehicle to write fisticufffs and barfights. For example, because Avoidance isn't tied to gear a tier one farmer/tough/mook still can't hit a tier 2.5 PC even if they're out of armor (that wouldn't necessarily be true in other rule systems). Similarly, if your PC doesn't have any rank in unarmed combat then its really hard to hit any tier appropriate foe unless their avoidance is artificially low (unless you jerk steel or cast spells which kinda defeats the mood of most bar fight).
Despite mods that do have bar fights, like
What Lies Beneath and
In Darkness, Light, I suspect that authors who want to put them in mods going forward will have to begin experimenting with some kind of skills challenge type format instead. Which could be cool ...