Using enemies as human shields

[Short Shot]

I tried to search on this since my books are on loan to a new player. Results:

Showing results 1 to 25 of 350
Search took 2.59 seconds; generated 1 minute(s) ago. Search: Key Word(s): "human, shield"

Classic movie scene: Our hero blocks the punch of BadGuy1, snaps him into an arm lock. BadGuy2 lines up to shoot our hero. Hero yanks BadGuy1 up into place to use him as a shield against BadGuy2's shooting, with BadGuy1 frequently taking a few rounds in the chest in the process.

What skills and rolls would be necessary to carry this off?

Thanks in advance.

[ghost-angel]

Successful Grab maneuver, with an Activation Roll based on how much the Grabbed covered the Grabber and GMs dramatic sense (11- sounds good) to actually determine if he was used as a shield. I would not allow any other actions by the Grabber (squeeze, attack, et...) while maintaining the Grabbed in position.

[Rapier]

And partial or full cover for the hider.

[mallet]

I agree with what Ghost-Angel said, accept if both Grabber and Gabbie were about the same size I would give a 14- activation roll (adjusted by the dramatic situation), since a majority of the character would be "behind cover".

Also, I might allow the character who is using the NPC as a human shield to shoot at BadGuy2 (this is done a lot in the movies) but he would have some strong penelties to his shot and BadGuy1 ("the shield") would have an easier check to breakfree (not sure how I would do this off the top of my head, either a +10 STR to escape or a -10 STR to maintain the grab. I guess it works out to the same thing either way).

Of course in most games badguys do not place much value on their co-workers so you would not expect the "human shield" to live long enough put up a struggle.

[Hugh Neilson]

I'd let you use a Block roll in place of an Activation roll if you wanted to direct the Shield actively.

[OddHat]

Grab & Block, Combat Handbook, p.64.

Not sure how much I'm allowed to post, but the short form is:

Grab your target. As soon as you have him and as long as you hold him, you may perform a Block or Martial Block with his body at your OCV-2.

[ghost-angel]

UMAp145 for Grab & Control.

It doesn't mention using it for a shield explicitely though. But it could be adjusted for that.


I'd let you use a Block roll in place of an Activation roll if you wanted to direct the Shield actively.
Good idea.

[OddHat]

UMAp145 for Grab & Control.

It doesn't mention using it for a shield explicitely though. But it could be adjusted for that.


Yup. Grab and Block is in the Combat Handbook, p.64 (see above). My bad.

[ghost-angel]

Oh sure... edit out from under me... make me look bad. ;)


(edit: Grab & Block is also on UMAp145...ha!)

[Lucius]

Wouldn't this require you to have Missile Deflection if you wanted to block a ranged attack?

Otherwise I think maybe the "activation rolll" works.

Lucius Alexander

Hiding behind the palindromedary

[Eosin]

We do the grab and block as detailed in the rules.

[Short Shot]

Thanks for the input. I had fun building a new martial artist last night and thought that would be a fun thing to play around with.

[Dust Raven]

I don't know why, but every time I access the Hero Boards from school, almost all of my posts get lost as I post them because of some page error.
Anyway, let's try and remember what I just typed...

The Combat Handbook and UMA mentioned above are excellent resources, and both have rules for this effect.

A quick and dirty method I favor:

If the Grabber succeeds with the Grab, the difference in the BODY rolls is the OCV penalty the attacks takes due to the concealment provided by the grabbed character (the grabber must declair this intent and the direction of the cover). This should work well for the initial Grab and block because the grabbed character only get's half his STR to resist the Grab initially. For a more cinematic/deadly effect, double this penalty and give a -1 for equal rolls.

The trick of corse, is getting the grab in before someone tries to shoot the character. You can't abort to grab. However, if you already have the thug grabbed, I don't have any problem allowing the character to abort to use the poor thug as a shield.

[prestidigitator]

I would make it nice and simple: a target that has been Grabbed may be used to Block either HTH or ranged attacks with a normal Block roll if a successful attack is made against the Grabbed character. Immediately after the Grab, the Grabber may immediately Block with the Grabbed character without an attack roll instead of Squeezing or Throwing. Thus, Grab/Block would work identically to Grab/Squeeze and Grab/Throw.

I would probably allow a Grabber to use the Grabbed character as cover from a specified direction (with the amount of cover depending upon the relative sizes of the Grabber and Grabbed character) as a Zero-Phase Action (or as the Grab option in place of Squeeze, Throw, or Block). If the attack missed by less than or equal to the cover penalty the Grabbed character has been hit.