WP: Paired Weapons

[RainbowDevil]

Hey folks,

I hope you've all had a great Christmas and New Year!

Can someone please tell me what use paired weapons is aside from letting you *strike* twice per action? It lets you strike and parry at the same time, and lets you parry two attackers. However, since parry is automatic, anyone can do this anyway. I have been playing Palladium games since about '90, and am still baffled as to its usage, aside from attacking twice.

If characters got only a limited number of automatic parries, it'd make sense, but I've never seen anything limiting to one auto parry per round.

Is anyone able to clear this up for me?

Regards,
RD

[drewkitty ~..~]

Like with most everything the fine details in PB are left to a GM to decide how it is going to be in their game.

*sighs* the way you put it all I can say is I don't know. The usual answer is so the char can parry and attack at the same time (simu. attacks being un-parryable unless you have WP paired and two weapons) or parry two attacks simultaneously.

[RainbowDevil]

Thanks for that. I forgot about simultaneous parry/attacks being un-parryable!

I know what you mean about details being left. There are so many things like that in Palladium books that I really wonder if they bother to do much playtesting of their rules.

[Nekira Sudacne]

It lets you parry a simul attack by only attacking once or you can dual attack but no parry at all, not even automatic.

Also if you have one of the obscure HtH styles that do not get automatic parry (yes a few exsist) then taking paired weapons as a WP is a way to get one free parry per turn.

[ShadowLogan]

As of RUE, it seems you are limited in the number of attackers you can parry in a given round, Paired Weapons allows one to parry more. It might be older, but it might also be spreadout to.

[mercedogre]

also paired weapons pistols lets you shoot two targets within field of vision, roll twice to strike, oncce for each pistol

[dragonfett]

I thought you had to take Sharpshooter to be able to Dual Wield pistols...

[eliakon]

I thought you had to take Sharpshooter to be able to Dual Wield pistols...

To do it with out penalties yes
Either Sharpshooter or the W.P. Dual Pistol from Canada (which is as far as I can tell a unique OCC skill) or have an OCC ability
But the RUE does have rules for shooting two pistols. It just has a pretty hefty penalty for the shots.

[glitterboy2098]

actually isn't the special skill for dual use of pistols found in WB14?

[Father Goose]

This is what we came up with in my group to answer this question:

When attacked, the defender has 5 basic options, of which he may choose one:
1. Parry: Does not count as an action if appropriate combat skill is known
2. Dodge: Counts as an action and denies the defender their next attack
3. Entangle: Counts as an action and denies the defender their next attack
4. Roll with Impact: Counts as an action and denies the defender their next attack
5. Simultaneous Attack: Does not count as an action, but does not allow either party to defend this action

In the case of a Parry or Simultaneous Attack, the defender readies himself to respond with his next action (i.e. Attack). Dodge, Entangle, and Roll with Impact all deny the defender his next action, though he may still defend as usual.
If the defender has the W.P. Paired Weapons skill, he may Parry or Entangle and make a Simultaneous Attack, provided he is wielding appropriate weapons for use with this skill.
Appropriate weapons for use with the W.P. Paired Weapons skill is outlined in the skill description. However, double weapons such as a staff, or similarly wielded weapon, may be allowed as an exception with GM permission. Note: Using W.P. Paired Weapons skill with double weapons does not allow the double strike option normally available to Paired Weapons.