Sorry guys, but if you ever saw someone get stabbed(or got stabbed yourself) you'd know. Most knife wounds are slashes, fatal attacks are usually from single blows accurately applied or multiple blows delivered in a confused frenzy, you don't see many people who've been repeatedly slashed in the same spot.

Matt's one second rule makes a knife attack more likely to be the accurate blow of an assassin or knife fighter than the frenzied attack of a bunny boiler.

On principle I don't mind a dagger fighter "drumrolling" (I'm not really a dagger fighter myself) as IMHO when using daggers you're sacrificing reach for speed.  The problem is definitely (as Ick stated) that you get dagger fighters that won't react to the first blow as the come in so therefore it is not a challenge to get up close and personal.  If systems regimentedly enforced their "react to blows policy" then I really wouldn't have much of a problem with drumrolling.

Matt J

If I wanted to listen to an arsehole, I'd fart!

Completely on a tangent, but I thought that about that awful The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe film, which included bloodless fighting, and someone's girlfriend (well, sister) healing everyone after the battle.

Anyway, I was pondering all this stuff and I came to the conclusion that I think a lot of systems are designed for "honourable" combat, where people hold back a bit.  Berserk-type skills have always struck me as a bit strange in LRP, for much that reason.

As for people not reacting to blows, look at people on PCP/really full of adrenaline.  It's possible for them not to feel blows, although I agree they'd probably be knocked about a bit.  I think "no effect" is a really useful call to communicate that a character isn't taking damage from something.

---
Joe Rooney, the Enemy Of Fun

Insurrection LRP: high fantasy in a dystopian setting.

Bladelands: Raoul Ortez - heretic, medium, bodyguard and scumbag
EOS: staff (probably the best job in LRP!)

Joe R's LARPCard

Sounds a bit like you're choosing the bits of an adrenal rush to suit your point.

Usually, people ignore damage- not blows when they're hyper (you knock em down and they get up again) and they tend to loose it it offensively and defensively

Combat is there to facilitate my enjoyment, whether through increased immersion, more challenging fights, feeling that I look cool (it's for this reason I dislike photos...in my mind I'm much cooler than the fat man dressed like a twat, stood in a field photos make me - so I prefer my version), or whatever other aim I have.

Sometimes you want to be a hero, fighting hordes of enemies conan-style...you want a heroic yet bloody system for this, and Hyborean Tales (for example) does this really well, as heroic fights are encouraged, people hit the deck, but the consequence of getting beaten to the floor isn't that terrible.

At a massive fest system, you might want to create rules to support a style of fighting that might not be anyone's ideal - but does a good job of making things relatively equitable., creating a relatively balanced playing field.  I think the one-second rule is great for this.

The games I tend to run don't have hard and fast stat-rules for combat (or anything really), but give an indication that you should pretend you're a character in a movie and react appropriately - I like to call this 'Die Hard Realism'.  It's still a rule though...

The point is that these are three different ways of doing combat for three different types of game, each game having a different end goal (or vision).  So my advice is to pick a game that supports your preferences in combat, or make a new one yourself.