SHOVE! — There’s more than meets the eye to thIS ‘simple’, COMMON, EFFECTIVE ATTACK.
We can all visualize it, one human shoving another human when things get heated and are about to go ballistic. Shoving someone requires little to no skill, and can be used by both amateurs and pros in a fight. There is far more than meets the eye with this seemingly benign attack, and it was challenging to capture the right essence in the game mechanics. Here is the behind the curtain view of the process:
Side note: The core rulebooks list Shove as both a Fast or Slow Action (keeping in mind a round allows for 1 Fast + 1 Slow Action, or 2 Fast Actions). The rules are stated as follows, but fail to capture a flushed out reason for being listed as both Fast and/or Slow.
“SHOVE: You try to push the enemy to the ground. Roll STRENGTH. If the enemy has a higher strength than you, is ROOTED, or is two or more weight classes above you, you must have 2 successes to succeed instead of 1. A successful attack puts the opponent on the ground (PRONE)’. Additional successes have no effect.”
THIS IS DANGEROUS
Shoving someone does not in and of itself…cause damage, so what makes it such a threat in an altercation/fight from a self-defense viewpoint? Shoving causes multiple problems — if someone is close enough to shove us, not only are we vulnerable to being pushed back, or knocked down, it is now too late to effectively block or see the entire picture of what the enemy’s hands or feet are doing.
After one shove, another usually follows, further compromising our balance. More important though, we can’t see if someone pulls a knife after the first shove, nor do we have a chance to block the sucker punch that may follow. In fight terms, we failed to act before they crossed ‘critical distance’ and enter the melee. The range in which they can now reach us with kicks and strikes; our last best chance to actively defend what is next.
The rules update reflects this danger by giving the attacker an advantage to the follow-up attack. Failing to use an action to BLOCK, ROOT, or EVADE the SHOVE attack, or failing the opposed roll, results in a greater chance of the follow-up attack succeeding.
THE SECOND SHOVE
A STRIKE, STAB, or SLASH are not the only threat, there’s another viper in the grass. The second shove, the Slow action, has a greater chance of knocking us back, and down to the ground. Failing to address the first SHOVE (Fast action), gives our opponent an advantage; represented by the +1 for the follow-up attack. If successful, we are launched D3 meters, and now prone. Still…no damage has accrued, but now we’re on the ground, requiring us to spend one of our two actions to get back on our feet. In terms of the action economy, this is a high price as we can only do one thing on our turn now.
THE NEW SCHOOL
Here is the new version of the attack. One I am finally satisfied with and you will like. It encapsulates the advantage and disadvantages to this common human aggression:
SHOVE (FAST OR SLOW ACTION) *UPDATED — Prerequisites: Strength 2+. Knock em down, or distract for the follow-up!
Shove is opposed roll Strength versus Agility. Can be PUSHED.
Weight Classes - Two or more weight classes above you requires an extra success. Two or more below, +1 to attack.
Fast Action - Distract the enemy with a lighter, controlled push. Upon success— +1 to STRIKE, KICK, GRAPPLE-ATTEMPT, GRAPPLE-ATTACK*, or SHOVE attack this round.
Slow Action - Give them a fully committed power push. Upon success — no damage, but target flies D3 meters and is now prone.
*Only Grapple-Attacks that do not require a Grapple-Attempt prior (see Crashing Tide, Single Leg, or Double Leg Takedowns).
IS THIS OP?
One of my own tendencies running NPCs in the fights versus players, was to use the SHOVE heavily, especially after missing a STRIKE. This was an earlier version of the move, and I found it to be a bit overpowered at the time. Instead of digging deep to fix it properly, I made a quick fix by classifying it as a Slow action to prevent double attacks, or knocking players down constantly. With my recent obsessive expedition to keep things realistic in the combat, I revised the move, but put in a few ant-spam measures.
Strength Required — Weak people can’t SHOVE! They can, but it is ineffective, especially against larger opponents (we’ll get to that). It takes a certain amount of Strength to knock someone around, so this is represented with the Strength 2 or higher prerequisite. A character can still use the SHOVE action with less or no Strength, but it has no affect. Something a player will quickly figure out if their successful SHOVE has no results.
Opposed Roll — A SHOVE is now an opposed roll vs the targets Agility. The defender does not need to spend an action, although they can to counter or make it more difficult for the enemy to succeed. Opposed rolls markedly decrease the probability of success. Not only do we need to roll 6’s, we have to roll more 6’s than our opponent. This reflects the real world challenge of laying hands on someone without slipping off, missing, over-committing, or timing it when they are stable and secure in their footing.
Size Matters — trying to push someone 30, 40, 50, 60, or more pounds heavier than us is even more difficult. This is reflected by the requirement of an extra success needed versus larger opponents. The inverse is also true, pushing someone smaller is much easier, therefore represented with the +1 to attack if two or more weight classes lower than our character.
Action Economy — Fast vs Slow actions matter. While using the Fast Action version first in your round yields advantages, using it after another attack like STRIKE for example, does nothing for the player performing it. However, it could be advantageous when teaming up with another player whose turn follows ours (HINT HINT).
SUMMARY BOXING
The vulnerability of letting people too close in a fight without acting, the winding up for the real shove and knocking someone down, the challenges of being effective with this attack and using it on someone larger, or without appropriate muscle, are now represented fairly, evenly, and most importantly — simply. Now you can SHOVE it, and enjoy it!
