Self imposed handicap (melee)

This page covers a part of the close combat rules, specifically those of the armed close combat. Not to be confused with Self imposed handicap (unarmed)

Self imposed handicap:

The self imposed handicap is a method to balance a weak melee weapons skill. Unlike as with the aimed attacks, the chance to score a critical hit (and with it, the possibility to deal more damage), is not raised with the self imposed handicap, but instead the chance to hit the target at all.

A thrusting attack with the machete costs 3 Action points. The character that wishes to use it in such a way, has the bad luck of a bad melee weapons skill and the worse luck of an enemy, that is very good in this form of combat. The player playing that bad fighter, raises the AP costs of their character's attack from 3 AP to 5 AP. Each additional action point raises the melee weapons skill by 10 points, thereby making the character 20 points better.

This illustrates that one can confuse the enemy by feinting or watching for the tiniest chink in their defense.

It is however very IMPORTANT that the self imposed handicap is said before rolling, to prevent the following exclamation by a player: "What? I rolled a 54?! Oh, dang. I have a skill of 50. Hey, I'll just make it one AP more expensive, thereby hitting that SOB still."