Konrad Klar wrote: ↑Wed Jan 09, 2019 5:39 pm
"A bearer who did not tap while facing a strike will not tap if the strike is successful."
means:
"An untapped bearer who decided to not to tap against a strike that would wound him will not tap if the strike is successful."
I agree. Instead of being wounded, the shield might end up being discarded. As for detainment attacks, I think the 2 CRF statements (see above) for Sable Shield were given in separate contexts. The first statement does not refer to detainment attacks. A successful detainment attack would obviously tap the character but it would not trigger the effect of Sable Shield, which is dependent on the wounding results of a successful strike (the 2nd statement).
Konrad Klar wrote: ↑Wed Jan 09, 2019 5:39 pm
"A bearer who did not tap while facing a strike will not tap if the strike is successful." assumes that character may tap to strike, that is not correct assumption (and it is a common error). Untapped character may decide to not to tap
against a strike, i.e. he remains untapped if a strike is unsuccessful* (at cost of some penalties to prowess).
This is not a correct assumption. Untapped characters may NOT "decide not to tap against a strike." Untapped characters do not decide to tap or not. They decide the take the -3 modification or not. Tapped characters have no decision and get the -1 modifier.
As stated in the rules, an untapped character MAY decide to take a -3 modification to his prowess to avoid being automatically tapped following the strike sequence. The untapped character may also decide to not take the -3 modification (and so would be automatically tapped later), but this action itself does not involve tapping upfront. Still, whether you tap upfront (which is how most people play, and makes more sense) or you declare whether or not you will take the -3 modification is the same effect but said differently.
Strike Sequence, MELE p. 33 wrote:
3) A target untapped character may take a -3 modification so that he will not automatically tap following the strike sequence.
MELE Combat - Strike modification, p. 29 wrote:Normally a character that is the target of a strike is tapped after the strike is resolved. However, a character may choose to take a -3 modification to his prowess to avoid being tapped. If so, the character is not tapped after the strike is resolved (he may still be wounded).
But back to the original post. It seems pretty clear that Sable Shield only prevents wounding by success normal strikes and does not prevent tapping by successful detainment strikes.
Furthermore, I am against the proposed clarification, at least because it includes an incorrect assumption not based on the rules. Plus it is verbose. And it also adds further clarifications instead of just improving the CRF statements we already have.
But I do think that a clarification to the offending CRF statement would be helpful. I'll take a look at this again later.