From: Roderick Robertson, SC1-5, x52936 (ROBERTSON@delphi.intel.com)
Date: Thu 17 Jun 1993 - 22:02:00 EEST
Gang,
CULTURAL TABLES
Looking over the character creation rules, they seemed backwards to
me. The GM chooses skill level, then roll for culture, then for
profession, etc. My feelings are that the GM should have an idea of
where the campaign will take place before starting the character
generation procedure. The Cultural Background Table should be
eliminated in favor of an included booklet of a few likely campaign
areas (Sartar/Prax, Somewhere in the West, Lunar Empire ?). These areas
would then be presented like the Players book of Genertala pp 21-34.
Reduce the number of entries, but increase the cultural information of
each entry. Thus a Player choosing a Sartar Orlanthi and see
something like:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
SARTAR
CULTURAL LEVEL: Barbarian, Orlanthi
RACIAL TYPE: Wareran
Occupations:
(D100) Occupation Social Cults
...
90-91 Noble Noble 30%, Thane 70% (Orlanth 95%, Other 5%)
92-93 Priest Thane 100% (Orlanth Pantheon 100%)
94-00 Warrior Carl 60%, Thane 40% (Orlanth 75%, Humakt 15%,
Storm Bull 5%, Other 5%)
Equipment
=========
Carl: Chain (10%), Scale (20%), Hardened Leather (50%) or Leather
(20%) Hauberk, Open Helm. Broadsword or Battle Axe, Wood Round Shield,
Knife. 50L in goods, good clothes. 50% chance of Horse if Rider, 1
servent/slave (Warrior +20 to Armor and Horse rolls).
Thane: Chain (40%) or Scale (60%) Hauberk, Open helm, Leather Trews.
Broadsword or Battle Axe, 1D2+2 spears, Reinforced Wood Round Shield, Knife.
100L in goods/plunder, Fine clothes, Horse if Rider. 1D6
servants/slaves
Noble: Chain (60%) or Scale (50%) Hauberk, Open helm, Leather Trews.
2 Broadswords or Battle Axes, 6 Spears, 1D4+2 Reinforced Wood Round
Shields, Knives. 500L in goods/plunder, Fine clothes, 1D3 Horses,
2D6 servants/slaves
CULTURAL WEAPONS:
Attack and Parry: Broadsword or Battle Axe 30, Spear, Hand Axe, Knife
Attack Only: Self Bow or Composite Bow 25, Javelin, Thrown Axe, Sling
Parry Only: Target Shield 30 (Wood or Wood reinforced)
MAGIC all except priests recieve the benefits of an Initiate. Priests
recieve the magic benefits of a Priest
CULTS: Orlanth Pantheon (must have the pantheon here or somewhere in
the rules...)
Note: Tribes include...
(note, fake numbers used here...)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note that the Cultural weapons section should include *All* weapons
used by the culture in question, not just those with increased
chances. Thus an Orlanthi player will tend to chose Broadsword or
Battle Axe, but knows that spears are used by Sartarites (Jalk's Book,
description of a chieftain: "He must have two good horses, a metal
helmet and byrnie, two good swords and six spears" KoS, p.252)
The Campaign areas chosen should have exactly the professions you
want to include in the game, no more, no less. So for instance, if you
want to use The Kingdom of Ignorance as part of the base rules, make
sure that Overseer and Mandarin are included in the profession
section. (Taken from Players Book, Genertala p.26). Every campaign
area should have at least one way to get each profession (except
Priest/Shaman/Sorceror, which are dependant on Culture). Some
of the specialized professions (Thunder Delta Slingers, Squires) may
be included as part of a specific profession, and be noted in the
write-up. Mention must be taken of all the special cases (do
townspeople of Sartar have a different culture than the rest of the
Kingdom?).
With the main campaign areas set out in the Rules, supplements can
have similar tables to generate characters from the area in question.
So Sun County would have the tables for generating Praxian Sundomers
(Probably different from Dragon Pass Sundomers), Prax Pack would have
them for Praxian nomads, Sorcerors of the West for the Feudal system, etc.
====================================================================
Thinking about Strike Ranks and what can be done in one 'round':
The Strike rank idea can be expanded for things other than speed of
attack in combat. All actions, from solving a math problem to moving
lots of sacks of concrete take time, and can be performed faster or
slower depending on the skills or abilities of the performer.
What I have done in my games is use one 'SR Table' based on the DEX
table for all non-combat actions. After all, how long does it take to
pick a lock? It could be a critical question in combat ("Quick, the
guards are coming. We'll try to hold them off, but GET THAT DOOR
OPEN"). All actions are measured against the SR table to determine how
long it takes (only when it matters of course. If you have a week,
detailing how long to pick one lock is a bit overboard). There are a
number of numbers which can be checked against the table: Stats (STR
to lift a heavy rock), Skill/10 (expert lockpickers are said to be as
fast or faster than using a key), Skill Bonus (Perception bonus for
combat scan). I have always run it by the seat of my pants as to which
number gets used. The SR table is on everyone's character sheet, so
it's a case of "Check your <whatever> on the SR table".
The SR table is used to determine time spent on a project,
using units other than a Melee Round. How long does it take to de-code
that message? Read (or Script or whatever)/10 in minutes. How long to
make the trap? Devise/10 in 5 minute units. How long to move all those
boulders? STR in 15 minute units, how long to cast that ritual
spell? (MP in spell) in hours.
In Combat, what I think needs to be stressed in the rules is that
the SR are not discrete units of time (1/12 or 1/10 of a round), but a
indication of relative speed. In 10 seconds (real life), you can make
10 or more distinct attacks (depending on skill and weapon of course).
So the SR is a number which tells who managed to strike a telling blow
*First*. If you need a little more randomness, roll a D6 or D4 for
each character and add it to the SR for the round. This is more
die-rolling than I like, but then, I usually run games without magic,
so the "I'll cast 2 pts of Bladesharp and still hit before he does"
situation does not come up.
=======================================================================
Ideas? Questions? Quibbles?
Roderick Robertson
Robertson@delphi.intel.com
0,,
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