Re: (TFT) Shield rush in Melee

["Ty Beard" <tbeard@tyler.net>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter von Kleinsmid" <pvk@oz.net>


> I thought Ty Beard's post about his real-life observations about the
> effects of strength were very interesting (from a realism standpoint), and
> I'd very much like to hear more theories on how specifically strength
> and/or weight can make a difference in light-strike/parry sports such as
> the fencing, kendo, and taekwondo mentioned. All that comes to mind that
> fits is being able to overpower a parry (or parry more effectively) with
> strength - is that it?

Hi Peter. Yes, the ability to simply push through a parry is significant.
This was my experience, at least. And stronger blows take more energy to
parry (vice versa) so the weaker defender will spend more energy blocking
his foe. This wears you out faster.

The benefit of strength in a wrestling sport like Judo is pretty obvious.

In the NFL, the linemen spend a huge amount of time lifting weights. At one
time, the best offensive lineman with the Dallas Cowboys (and who was
considered to be the best lineman in the NFL) was also -- not
coincidentally -- the strongest man in the NFL in terms of bench pressing.
Since a major job for offensive linemen is to move other large men out of
their way, this implies that strength is critical for this task.

> (That is, clearly there are some other effects, but I didn't get the
> impression these were applicable to what Ty was saying:
> * The weaker opponent will tend to get more worn out.

This is more a function of conditioning -- though as I noted above, it takes
more energy to block a stronger foe in my experience.

> * The stronger opponent will hit harder (shouldn't matter in fencing or
kendo).

It matters in that blocking them requires more strength and energy.

> * The stronger opponent would have the advantage in shoving and wrestling,
> but I don't think those play a part in any of the mentioned sports.

I think it would be important in shield rushes, which are closer IMHO to
wrestling than to fencing.

> Similar to Martin Gallo's post about reservations with SCA observations, I
> would add that in sports where hits aren't intended to do serious injury,
> the outcome would be slightly stacked against a more agile fighter with
> less strength, because the agile fighter isn't generally allowed to
> debilitate the opponent, which could happen in a single attack in actual
> combat (more or less likely depending on equipment, of course).

The bottom line IMHO is that strength appears to be very important in things
like boxing, martial arts, judo, etc. Far more so than is typically
reflected in RPGs in my opinion.

--Ty
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