From: Thom Baguley (T.S.Baguley@open.ac.uk)
Date: Wed 08 Sep 1993 - 20:33:54 EEST
I've just caught up with three to four weeks of the digest. Rather than reply
to all the (very) interesting discussions I thought I'd post some remarks that
the discussions have sparked off (soory I can't remember exact details ...)
RQ Lite
I don't really care what form the next rules take, as long as they are an
improvement on RQ3 (and maybe even RQ2). My feeling is that most people would
be satisfied with a simple core rule system with detailed optional rules (hit
location, fatigue, detailed spirit combat, strike ranks (?), miniature figures
(??), weapon breakage, special hits, tactics and so on). I like most of the new
RQ4 rules, but I might not want to use all of them all the time. If RQ lite
does appear it shouldn't differ greatly from the existing or new rules. As far
as percentile skills are concerned we should definitely keep them. Percentiles
are probably the most natural part of the RQ rules (even new players find them
easy).
Ancestor Cults
Someone compared Yelm with ancestor cults. Someone else pointed out that Yelm was an ancestor cult. For a truly non-ancestor cult try Humakt (he does after all represent the severance of family ties ...)
Sorcery
In my games sorcery has been rather weak (but I have restricted access considerably) even though I used the RQ3 rules pretty much intact. The one PC sorcery user attempted to cast three spells (two palsies which failed and one treat wounds which suceeded but left him so disappointed that tried to learn some spirit magic healing). As has been pointed out the imbalance stems from the almost uselessness of sorcery at low levels to the dangers of buying damage boosting 12 from a high level sorceror.
Red Moon
I had to explain this to a friend whilst playing Dragon Pass. Only then did I realize how confused i was. I think the red moon must be full within the glowline and go through its phases outside (and hence be visible). However, this leaves the problem of all those lunars wondering what the Urox those priests are on about when talk about the phases of the red moon ... My personal solution would be that within the glowline there is a faint red/pink glow perhaps visible only at the glowline and at twilight. In addition the moon goes through some kind of change with the phases (perhaps a red ring/halo effect around the current phase). Maybe we should ask Greg ...?
... and finally
Speaking of Dragon Pass, does anyone play it regularly? I finally got around to
playing the FULL GAME (note, not the Marathon Game). It took from 3pm to 1am to
play out two turns (the game lasts fourteen!) where we called it a draw.
Playing with random eventts and all the major and minor independents really
adds to the game. Despite being almost decimated in turn one (after a major
tactical cock-up) I recovered at the end of turn two after allying Cragspider
(and hance the Black Dragon).
Thom
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