Co-operative combat

[PalladiumBrony]

(Placed in here since I think the house rules discussed are most applicable to a fantasy/medieval setting, but could equally well fit into a more modern setting, the rules involving shields could easily apply to modern-day riot police)

So, me and a buddy were talking the other day, and I was observing that there's 2 things you often see in ancient combat and/or fantasy fiction, that it seems reasonable you ought to be able to do in Palladium - at least to a degree - but aren't covered very well or at all; Shield-walls (and maybe other formation fighting, though I can't think what other formations small parties could make work) and "back to back badassery". Here's the rules I've so far come up with to represent these maneuvers, I'd love to bounce them off you guys, see what sticks and what ya think might need tweaking!

Shield walls: This is where a number of shield-toting warriors (usually employed by the hundreds on historical battlefields, but could work with as few as... I dunno, five?) stand shoulder to shoulder and lock their shields together, with the goal of presenting an unmoving, nigh-impenetrable wall to the enemy. Especially useful when the flanks of the formation (which is a bit slow-moving, as all cohesive formations can be) are anchored by terrain. I would have this function in-game by requiring that all of the warriors wishing to take part have the "Forced March" skill, and move at no more than a certain speed (Forced March says "60% of their speed value", but that would still have some of them moving much faster than others). In return, they receive a significant parry bonus from their shields... though I've yet to decide what that bonus should be; I like most of the rules in Rifter #30 that expand on shields and their capabilities, making some shields more useful in specific circumstances than in others, so I might think about basing the bonus around that.
Back to Back Badassery: Usually employed when two characters are both completely surrounded by enemies, and horribly outnumbered, in an effort to eliminate blind spots that the enemy can abuse to get in un-blockable strikes (As an aside, I would handle this much like range-changing from Rifter #30; make it an opposed D20 roll with PP bonuses, attempting to get into your enemies blind spot vs attempting to prevent this). Not sure if this formation ought to specifically give any stat bonuses, to represent some sort of morale boost from knowing your back is covered by someone you trust, and therefore you can concentrate on the enemies to your front. I AM sure that it would only work at all in one of two situations: Either A) between two characters who have personally worked together for a very, very long time, and built up a lot of trust, or B) 2 characters who don't know each other, but have each indvidually received a fairly insane level of training and combat experience (the classic "rivals must briefly become allies and work together" schtick). Either way, I feel like such a formation would greatly impact the pair's movement (they have to stay close together, almost literally touching back-to-back at times). So if they're trying to move from point A to point B while keeping this up, they can't really move very fast at all. Though in the sorts of situations where this formation would generally be preferable, they're usually going to be fairly stationary, just pivoting mostly about a mutual center point. The trick comes with knowing or seeing where the gaps are forming, and both characters moving in perfect concert to keep both their backs covered, and deal with a threat that can come from any side; If an attack comes from the pair's side, one of them has to twist to intercept it, which means his partner turning to keep a gap from opening up.

[Alrik Vas]

Both situations might address the parry 3 limitation. Characters can only attempt to parry 3 attacks in the same action. Subsequent attacks hit automatically. If they form a wall or guard each other's back, you might allow them to parry more, or parry attacks coming at their comrade at a penalty to themselves.