From: Eric Jablow (groucho!jablow@enterprise.itd.nrl.navy.mil)
Date: Tue 18 Feb 1992 - 09:56:33 EET
Subject: Alchemy
Mark Wallace gives the interesting idea that potions must be
brewed over a long period of time, requiring many skill rolls.
Let's test this to destruction. Suppose the originator of the
art of alchemy, the godling who wrested it from Mostal (Arroin?),
wanted to brew a POT 20 potion.
Assume his skill is 2000%. Thus, he criticals on a roll of
01-95, fails on a 96-99, and fumbles on a 00. Let's not consider
Steve Maurer's HQ skill rules here. He wants to brew a POT 20
scorpion venom antidote. This requires ceil(20/3) = 7 weeks to
perform, and 7 skill rolls. His probability of success is .95^7,
which is approximately 69.83%. Interesting, but not
unreasonable. Arroin doesn't have to worry about Time, after
all.
I found the RQ2 Alchemy rules unsatisfying because they came
without social context. How much does a lab cost in Pavis, or in
Ralios, or Safelster? What materials must the alchemist obtain to
brew his potions? Who does he learn his recipes from? There
might not be a Alchemist's Guild in his city or culture. How does
he research a new type of potion? By Heroquesting only? It
seemed too mechanical for me.
Subject: Skill Systems
There are two dual problems with the RQ skill systems. One is
skill inflation; characters gain skills > 100% and become
unbeatable. The other is that characters can improve any one
skill but once on an expedition, and they go into "Skill Check
Frenzy" to make up for it. If we change the meaning of high
skills, and we encourage characters to specialize, we can solve
the first problem. If we modify the skill improvement rules to
encourage players to stay in character, we can solve the second.
Subject: Rune Lords, Skill Training, and Skill Specialization
I find the RQ rules on training limits reasonable. Yes, it means
that Lhankor Mhy temples can train Rune Lords. On the other
hand, Lhankor Mhy temples don't have Rune Lords any more. Andrew
Bell's point is still valid; a character should perform special
missions for his cult to gain Priestly or Lordly rank.
Perhaps we're missing something here. There are civilized and
uncivilized cults. Storm Bull rites are much less formal than
Yelm services. However, I have never seen any references in any
RQ rulebooks or scenarios to any requirements that a character
know any "canon law" or be familiar with any religious rituals
to become a Priest. Cults require Initiates and Priests to know
Ceremony, but Ceremony is a very generalized skill. A character
can develop a Ceremony of 95%, move to a new region, work with a
temple for a season or so, be Initiated, and become a Priest just
a couple of years later if he is lucky. Compare this to Earth.
I would guess that it takes about 15 years of study and training
for a Catholic to become a Priest or a Jew a Rabbi. Learning
starts in adolescence, and continues through a college and
seminary. Earth is different from Glorantha, but Glorantha seems
awfully loose to me.
I'd like to suggest that each cult require its Initiates,
Acolytes, Priests, and Lords to know certain specialized cult
skills. Let's create for each religion the skills of
Law<religion R>, Ceremony<religion R>, and Lore<religion R>.
People born into the religion tend to pick up this skills in
childhood, while outsiders need to work at it. (Sorry. I just
took a course on C++.)
Actually, we have the wrong idea about skills. One unappealing
aspect about RQ3 is that all skills are equally trainable. Given
equal skill bonuses, skill levels, and access to training, one
character expects to learn Long Bow Attack at the same rate his
twin learns Hide. This is unreasonable. English Longbowmen
practiced for years to gain their skills, while any fool can
learn to use a shovel or wear camoflage clothing. Not all skills
are equally learnable.
Furthermore, people specialize in skills. My skill in
Mathematics may be 100% on one scale, but my skill in Complex
Analysis may be 150% on the same scale. (Or 50 and 75, or 80 and
120; what scale should we use?) You may have Computer
Programming at 94, but Computer Programming<C++> at 130%, and
Computer Programming<Ada> at 32%. RQ characters don't have
Ceremony 50, Ceremony<Orlanth> 76, and Ceremony<Kyger Litor> at
03. Some of this can be represented by role-playing and referee
decisions, but some cannot.
The game Ringworld had the idea of forcing specialization in
sciences; no general science skill could be learned past 25%, to
go past 25%, only specialized versions. The example given in the
rules had a character learn Exobiology at 25%, and do a major
research project to learn Mud Troll Biology at a higher skill.
Let's adapt this.
Let's call the skills in the RQ books _general_ skills. Each
general skill has an associated learning rate; this may differ
across cultures. For example, the learning rate for Long Bow
Attack may be 1.0 for elves and 1.6 for Pavis humans. A
character must train or research for (Current skill) * (Learning
rate) hours to be eligible for a skill increase roll.
A character may learn a specialized version of a general skill.
Elf Bow Attack is a specialization of Long Bow attack.
Ceremony<Orlanth> is a specialization of Ceremony. When a
character first decides to learn a special version of a skill,
the GM should decide his starting skill value based on the
character's background. A Storm Buller trying to use an Orlanthi
ceremony might have a starting skill of Ceremony<general> - 25%,
while a newly apostate dwarf might have one of just 5% + Magic
bonus. Learning rates may be different.
A specialized skill may also be an advanced version of a regular
skill. Consider the sequence Ride --> Dressage --> Show Jumping.
Consider First Aid --> Medicine --> Surgery --> Orthopedic
Surgery. A character starts each skill at a level of the
previous skill minus a constant; A character with Computer
Programming<C> at 75% may start his <C++> skill at 75% - 50% =
25%. Once he has done so, his skills increase separately.
A character may also learn subsidiary skills. For example,
suppose a character knows Sword Attack well. He can learn the
following two skills:
_Teach Sword Attack_: This is the skill of teaching Sword Attack
to another, less skilled, character. Follow the rules in an old
DW; in order for a student to learn from a course of teaching,
the teacher must succeed with his Teach roll, or the student must
succeed with an experience roll. More general versions of this
skill exist; there can be Teach Combat Skills, or even simply
Teach.
A character's starting ability with the Teach X skill should be
his Communication bonus + the maximum of (X skill - bonus in
category of X - 50%) and 25%. Having a high Attack bonus does
not make a character a good teacher of Sword Attack.
_Evaluate Sword Attack_: This is the skill of determining how
well an opponent or student is with his Sword Attack. In
general, the user must see the target fight for at least one
minute. A simple success tells him whether the target is much
worse (by 25% or more), sightly worse, about the same (within
10%), slightly better, or much better. A special success tells
him some fact about the opponent's style; is he overconfident,
timid, educated in a certain style, etc. A critical fact tells
something important about the target. For example, Daphne Duck
watches the Masked Quacker fight for a few rounds, hacking a path
through a trollkin mob. She criticals her Evaluate roll, and
realizes she's seen him before; he's Duck Twacy in disguise!
A character gains an Evaluate Skill whenever he reaches what I
call Journeyman level with a skill; that's 50% with a minimum
increase of 20% from base. In fact, here's my skill level chart.
Players should use the verbal descriptions rather than telling
people their skills in number form. Should a Storm Kahn say "I'm
130% with sword!"? I hope not. Some Evaluate Skills can be
learned by non-users of the skill: Pauline Kael has Evaluate
Cinema 235%, and Roger Angell has Evaluate Baseball 255%.
Skill Level Increase over base Title
<25% or <10% Novice
>=25% and >=10% Beginner
>=50% and >=20% Journeyman
>=75% and >=30% Expert
>=100% and >=40% Master
>=125% and >=50% Cultural Master
>=150% and >=60% Intercultural Master
>=175% and >=70% International Master
>=200% and >=80% Grandmaster
(Apologies to FIDE, The New Yorker, and Warner Brothers. Many
ideas stolen from GURPS.)
In general, only the general skills count for cult rank.
Subsidiary skills are rarely taught. Also, some Evaluate Skills
are culture specific. Evaluate Sing<Kraorela> is different
from Evaluate Sing<Lunar Empire>.
Subject: Skill Advancement and Skill Checks
To avoid the role-playing disease of skill check frenzy, we
should reiterate the following basic rule:
The Gamesmaster may allow or disallow skill checks at
will. No player shall protest, under penalty of
expulsion from the campaign. Each player will portray
his or her character as a real person.
Remember, a character may deserve many skill checks from a
battle, even if he is played reasonable, with no action taken
purely to gain an artificial, rule-based reward. A Carmanian
Knight may start a fight with sword and shield. When his sword
breaks, he may switch to a hand-axe, toss it at an opponent, and
draw a dagger. He may kick an opponent trying to pass him, and
end up grappling another opponent. He might earn 13 skill checks
in all: attack and parry for sword, shield, axe, and dagger,
attack for thrown axe and dagger, kick, grapple, and dodge. As a
player, I'd be satisfied with that.
To balance the shallowness of the character's gains, however, I
would suggest the following rule. When a character is in a
stressful situation (liberally defined), after he has earned a
skill check for a skill, each success he makes shall be
considered the equivalent of 1 hour of skill research, with no
upper limit. After he rolls for his skill check, if he has more
saved research hours than his current skill, he makes a research
roll. For example, Joe Novice has Broadsword attack 32, and hits
70 times in a long series of battles. He gets one skill check,
and 69 research hours. He makes his EXP roll, and increases his
skill to 34. He uses 34 research hours (leaving 35), and fails
to advance. He uses 34 more, and succeeds, raising his skill to
36. He has 1 free research hour left.
Actions of long duration in stressful circumstances, such as
hiding in a troll mansion, or crossing the Deadly Desert, count
as research time. Actions of long duration related to a
character's job count only fractionally. GURPS uses the rule
that job work only counts as research time on a 4:1 basis. For
example, Robyn Hud hides in a troll palace for 5 full days.
Assuming she was awake for 16 hours each day, she was actively
hiding for 80 hours. Since this was very difficult, the GM
awards her 3 * 80 = 240 hours of research time, split among Hide,
Sneak, and Conceal.
Subject: Spirit Ecology
I don't think shaman-hood is appropriate for a PC. However,
shamans aren't as powerful as you make them out to be. They have
responsibilities. They expend POW for enchantments for other
tribe members, and for their khans. They obtain, use, and
release spirits for no personal gain. Don't let PC shaman evade
their responsibilities.
I made those suggestions about shaman-spirit combat because I
don't like the attitude that spirits have well-defined and
well-understood capabilities. If I wanted chess-pieces, I'd play
chess. Which makes for a better story--the shaman loses in
combat to a Fire Elemental, and the Elemental just leaves, or the
shaman loses and the Elemental attacks his body?
DISCLAIMER: I am not in a RQ campaign now; and have not been for
a few years. My ideas may be impractical. Are there any other
RQers in the DC/VA/MD area?
Eric Jablow "What's that?" asked Mr. Hennessy?
Metron Inc. "That is," said Mr. Dooley, "no matther whether th'
11911 Freedom Drive constitution follows th' flag or not, th' supreme
Suite 800 coort follows th' iliction returns."
Reston, Virginia 22090 --Finley Peter Dunne
Phone: (703) 787-8700 (O)
Phone: (703) 435-2981 (H)
email: jablow%groucho.uucp@enterprise.itd.nrl.navy.mil
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