From: Burton Choinski (burt@ptltd.com)
Date: Mon 14 Jun 1993 - 22:06:15 EEST
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From: JOVANOVIC@CUCCFA.CCC.COLUMBIA.EDU
To: "RuneQuest IV Playtest Discussion" <rq-playtest@marketest.wharton.upenn.edu>
Subject: COMMENTS ON COMMENTS
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 1993 18:26:30 -0400 (EDT)
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Status: R
Comments on Oliver's RQ4 new revisions.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| DAMAGE BONUS
| 1-5 -4
| 6-10 -3
...
| 41-45 +4
| 46-50 +5
|
| Each +5 add 1
Looks good. Don't forget the creature column on the other side, like in
the 2.0 draft. I'll probably implement this in the next session.
| STRIKE RANKS
Looks good. Again, I'll give a try next session. However, some randomness
would be good. I got hit in sunday's game with "Well, I hit at 5, he hits
at 7, so I'll just....".
Perhaps each person rolls 1d10, MOD SR. So in general, high SR people will
have higher base numbers. Actions (move before attack, draw weapon, etc)
and weapon SR add directly to the result. So, for example, if Joe,
with a Melee SR of 4 rolls a 6, is actual base is 2 (6 MOD 4) plus that
of his weapon.
Other then that, I like the combined Melee table better then adding the
two seperate values. I think, however, that one could extend the mechanic
and get a DEX+INT value for things like fine detail stuff where SIZ really
is not a factor, but INT is.
|SKILL CATEGORY MODIFIERS
| Nick, I'm actually very much in agreement with you when you suggest using
| POW in as few modifiers as possible - it changes constantly, which makes
I have no problem with POW in modifiers. For knowledge, perhaps not, but
Communication I can see it.
| of Divine Magic or enchant something or whatnot. You can tell people not
| to change skills when their modifiers change post character generation, but
| this is counter intuitive
I told this to my group on sunday, and they agree with it. So, your initial
skill is affected by the current rating, but thereafter you need not erase
half your sheet when a characteristic changes.
| 2) Recalculate modifiers so that they balance more equally. It makes
| little sense to me that an entire category of skills should be harder
| or easier because it has more or less positive modifiers attached.
| In RQIII, Stealth, Knowledge and Agility skill start at far lower levels
| and progress more slowly by experience than do Manipulation, Magic,
| Perception or Communication skills because of the number of positive
I really agree with this. Balance out the categories a bit. I feel that
give Joe average human (because the rules are humanocentric as "the norm")
with STR 10-11, SIZ 13, CON 10-11, INT 13, DEX 10-11, POW 10-11 and APP 10-11
a base 0% in each area, with enough counterbalance to make the other races
not so frigging overwelming in the modifiers.
| 3) Simplify the calculation of the modifiers themselves.
Cant hurt either. :)
| This is what it would look like:
| Agility Skills Category Modifier
| STR + DEX - SIZ - 10
i.e. 10.5 + 10.5 - 13 - 10 = -2
Perhaps tweaked to: STR + DEX - SIZ - 8?
| Communication Skills Category Modifier
| INT + APP - 20
i.e. 13 + 10.5 - 20 = +3 or +4
Perhaps Tweaked to: INT + APP - 23?
| Magic Skills Category Modifier
| INT + DEX - 20
Same notes as above.
| Manipulation Skills Category Modifier
| STR/2 + INT/2 + DEX - 20
i.e. 5.25 + 6.5 + 10.5 - 20 = +2
Perhaps tweak to: STR/2 + INT/2 + DEX - 22?
| Perception Skills Category Modifier
| INT + CON - 20
Same notes as for Communications
| Reasoning Skills Category Modifier
| INTx2 - 20
i.e. 13 + 13 - 20 = +6
Tweak to INTx2 - 26?
I presume Knowledge remains INT - 10 (Tweaked: INT - 13)?
Tweaked values assume the Humano-centric view. Average humans will get
base 0% modifiers] (or so). Presumably players will use one of the alternate
roll methods, so their bonuses will be be off that. Max-man would end up
with AGI +10, COM +13, MAG +13, MAN +14, PER +13, RES +10 using the tweaked
values, but AGI +8, COM +16, MAG +16, MAN +16, PER +16, RES +16 using the
above values.
| SKILL VS. SKILL
|
| that this was more complex than dividing each skill by 10
| and comparing on the resistance table (reducing it to the
| same mechanic used by an MP vs. MP struggle).
Actually, this produces an even simpler way that can be used as a generic
mechanic: Each side rolls 1d20+(Skill/10) -- ties goes to active over passive
and if both are active (or both passive), tie goes to the one requireing the
least effort or with an advantage. So in a sneak vs. scan, the "scanner"
needs less effort to see the sneaker, and would win in a tie if both were
active. If the lazy guard is passive, the active sneaker wins in a tie.
| TRAINING (CHARACTERISTICS AND OTHERWISE)
| I'm working on something that tries to approach the situation
| from the idea of how a character spends his or her time over a
| period of time (perhaps with a minimum interval of a week).
| More to come on this.
This would be welcome and minimize the "training sessions" in the town
problem, as well as provide for such things as picking up riding while
on the road, languages whil in another region, etc.
| FATIGUE
I still find fatigue more of a pain then it is worth keeping track of, at
least at present. I'll have to take a look at the rules again when the next
draft is released.
| THE GREAT APP VS. CHA DEBATE
I think the "Personal Presence" characteristic is better then raw appearance.
Presense or PRE sounds good to me.
===============================================================================
Other comments:
In the acutal product will the maps be re-done? I have the Glorantha
set and the maps are fairly crude. I know that is how they are supposed to
look, but some additional detail would be nice. I have some people treking
about Carminia, but I doubt there are only 4 cities in there.
As an aid for myself I figured the size of a 20km distance on the maps and
overlayed a hex grid for movements. But even so, It seems to me that much
better detail can be had.
See "Powers & Perils" _Perilous Lands_ set for an idea. The map book was
excellent in detail with regards to terrain, political areas, city and town
placement, etc. The culture book was also very good. The mapbook easily
detailed an area at least 3000 miles across, and about that much north-south.
Any reason why something similar can't be done for RQ4?
I was considering taking my hex-gridded maps and re-doing them on a Macintosh
for laser print, complete with color. Such a massive project will take time
to do. Odds are I'd start with the luner area (cuz that's where my group
is bopping about now). I was thinking of a 10km hex grid, with each hex
being about 1/5th of an inch each. This would provide about 35x45 hex
area for each map panel (350km W-E, 450km N-S), although I might cut this
to 35x35 to leave room for a legend and other info.
Oliver, IF (assuming I get the time) I get the maps working along, would the
RQ4 project be interested in them? I mean, you guys get the Mac disks and
source files to modify as required for inclusion or later publication?
No need to have work that I'd like done (and would do anyways) go to waste
or be needlessly duplicated.
-- Burton
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