A murder stroke (elsewhere known as Mordhau or Mordstreich or Mordschlag) is a term that is mentioned in GURPS Martial Arts.
Meaning[]
It basically refers to alternative use of a sword to use it like a crushing weapon when one lacks a mace to do the job, due to
- some armor being more vulnerable to crushing damage than to cutting damage
- the Basic Damage of swing-crush attacks sometimes being better than swing-cut ones
- Blunt Trauma being greater from crushing than cutting attacks
It would be possible to do a "thrust crushing" attack with the tip of the handle, too, though a sharpened pommel (or a removed one) might alter that.
A standard "swing crushing" likely involves a lateral swing hitting with the side of the handle or the flat of the crossguard: actually hitting with sharp protruding crossguard (via an overheard swing) might actually function like a swing impale attack like a pick axe. This too has advantages over cutting attacks vs some types of armor.
Some cross guards wouldn't be pointy enough to pull this off though.
Swing Crushing[]
Swing-crushing is already possible via the flat of a blade which normally does swing cutting - this is done via the turn your blade option under Subduing a Foe on B401 and converts damage over identically.
Presumably for Mordhau to be better, it should get a damage bonus.
Although intended for reversing spears to poke with the blunt end, the rule "Reversing a reach 2+ impaling weapon to attack with its blunt end requires a Ready maneuver." could be useful in extrapolating for Mordau, except in this case instead of switching to do thrust-crushing someone is switching to do swing-crushing.
Grip[]
Different
Martial Arts[]
MA16 mentions it plurally under the "Medieval Europe" section:
- dealing vicious shield bashes, chokes with sword blades, and “murder strokes” using the handle of a reversed sword.
MA180 also appears to allude to it under "Longsword Fighting" which elaborates on it's details:
- Some attacks used an inverted sword: the fighter held his weapon by the blade and either bashed his opponent with the hilt as if it were a mace or used the Hook technique with the crosspiece.
The "reversed" term from MA16 might cause some confusion with Reversed Grip, which is different because in that case the hand is still gripping the handle as usual. Reversed/inversion are essentially synonymous (in either case the handle points forward and tip points backward) but the key distinction is whether or not the handle is being held.
Low-Tech[]
Unlike a Ricasso (the start of certain sword blades which has blunt edges meant to parry or be used as a handhold: can't deliver a Cutting Attack) gripping the portion of a blade which is sharp (can cut) brings up natural considerations of whether or not someone might injure themself while delivering an attack.
Technical considerations[]
Martial Arts: Technical Grappling briefly touches on the risk of cutting one's hand when grappling a blade, but in a different scenario which does not appear to apply here. Armed Grappling rules on TG13 describes "Special Cases" involving "Cutting Weapons", but the only way it allows for cutting damage to be inflicted on the hand of a person grabbing a blade is by someone else wielding that blade to make an explicit attack targetting the hand. There is no chance for passive damage to the hand without that, such as if the wielder of the blade chooses to try to Break Free of the grapple, or maintain the grip and do other stuff like throw a punch/kick which would probably make that sword move around in a dangerous way.
- even in that scenario, if the attack roll succeeds, damage can be avoided by either a Parry or letting go as a free action, so it's not particularly dangerous
There's a lack of detail about what type of parry this is, but presumably refers to a parry using the hand which is grappling the blade (as opposed to some other hand not touching the sword) and would not qualify as a "no contact parry" since contact is being retained with the weapon.
- although it's possible to do "non contact parries" in place of dodges when a hand is targeted, this is pointless in this case since TG rules allow for essentially an "automatically successful dodge" via the "let go" option.
- in cases where that seems a bit too generous (who says everyone is able to let go in time) and a GM requires a "dodge" to let go of the weapon fat enough, allowing for a "no contact parry" to substitute for a "let go fast" dodge would probably make sense
It's not clear which normal modifiers (for example Retreat bonuses) might affect this parry roll.
"suffering active control penalties based on your Grip CP" interestingly though, interprets the hand of the person holding a cutting weapon's handle to be grappling the hand holding the blade to the same degree to which the weapon is being grappled.
- this aligns with TG13's Don't Shoot Yourself (which despite the ranged implications of the name more aptly applies to melee weapons than guns) where attacking a foe with their own weapon where after a successful reorient attack, an attack foe with foe's weapon attack can be done without requiring they let go of it, but in that case "taking control penalties for your foe’s Grip CP" because the true-wielder is essentially grappling the hand of the faux-wielder due to the grapples work both ways rule
- "The foe may dodge or parry, penalized as well for control inflicted by your grapple" also indicates that works in reverse: CP inflicted on a weapon are inflicted on the hand of a wielder, so referred control would apply half that CP to dodges/parries using other body parts
- this in turn aligns with TG12's introductory note on Seizing a Weapon or Object "Control Points applied to a weapon affect the weapon and
- "The foe may dodge or parry, penalized as well for control inflicted by your grapple" also indicates that works in reverse: CP inflicted on a weapon are inflicted on the hand of a wielder, so referred control would apply half that CP to dodges/parries using other body parts
the limbs grasping it" though more specifically it's probably meaning the HAND grasping it, unless full CP apply to both hand+limb and 1/2 CP to everywhere else
Variations[]
the "full reach" version: this might either be a lateral hit of the helmet via the handle, or a vertical hit of the neck via the crossguard
the "reversed" version where hands are near to the midpoint of the weapon, though in this case due to the large pummel it has slightly longer reach in that direction
a 2nd full/standard version, depicting either the crossguard targetting the chestplate or the spiked pommel targetting the helmet
There are two basic variations of murder strokes:
- the standard "max Reach" type where the sword is gripped by both hands TOGETHER as close to the tip as possible so that swing/crushing can be delivered at great distance with max damage
- the "reduced reach" Reverse Grip variation with hands SLIGHTLY apart enough that it penalized swing damage but makes it easier to defend
In the latter case, only one hand is near the tip, and the other grips further up near the crossguard, sometimes taking advantage of a ricasso there to avoid cutting damage to the hand.
It's unclear if there would be a Defensive Grip version since that doesn't penalize Reach despite involving placing a hand further up on the weapon which normally should do that.
It's also unclear if a Tip Grip could be used: that removes swing attacks entirely but allows "thrust crushing" attacks with blunt weapons,
Pummeling[]
This deserves a special note, since that normally means hitting with a handle when gripping that handle.
When reversed, the tip of a sword is effectively the handle, so hitting with that is basically the "new pummeling" except it should do impaling damage like a dagger.