From: Nick Brooke (100270.337@CompuServe.COM)
Date: Fri 18 Jun 1993 - 01:59:14 EEST
SKILL SUCCESS
Missing or making by 10%. Is this a flat rate 10%, or
10% of the skill you're rolling?
This is the major problem with RQ. Ideally there should
be more levels of success and less of this complete
success/total failure knife-edge.
SPEAK OWN LANGUAGE
I feel that speaking a language is partially a function
of intelligence, but mostly of experience - learning
new words and how to say them. I believe that instead
it should be 30% plus Communication bonus, perhaps 40%,
but no more. Certain professions would have Speak
Language as one of their skills. For example, Nobles,
Storytellers, Priests, Merchants, Heralds, Officials,
Scholars. Also, all characters should get +1% per year
in whatever language of whatever country they have
spent their time in.
NEW SKILLS
I heartily agree with these sentiments. It's a pity
they don't seem to have been followed.
AGING AND INACTION
So what happens if your STR drops to zero?
SKILL Vs SKILL
Might it not be better to match skills on the
resistance table at the outset?
SKILL EXPERIENCE ROLLS
Why have you taken out the bit about the GM agreeing
that a situation is stressful or not? Presumably the
Player now decides for himself without any GM
involvement.
Option 1. This reads that if you use the skill and
don't fumble, i.e. Crit, Special, Success or Fail, then
you can check this skill. Yes?
I much prefer option two as it is the simpler of the
two, and the current norm.
INCREASING SKILLS BY EXPERIENCE
The 1D2 + 2 (and 2D6 or7, 1D3 or" etc) just doesn't
work. All but those with fixed dice would choose the
less random amount because the balance of probability
leads to the same amount over time for both methods!
i.e. Both the D6 and the D2+2 average out to 3.5%! Note
that in the rules errata for RQ3 Chaosium said that a
character could choose to add 2% (and not the 3% in the
rulebook). The idea was to encourage people to risk the
randomness of the dice roll (rolling dice is fun
y'know). You take that enjoyment away, and as it stands
the rules should just plump for one of the two methods
- the other is waste of space.
These Easy, Medium, and Hard skills are a complicating
factor in this case, and something that I for one will
ignore. But then I like a simple life.
SKILL TRAINING AND RESEARCH
Making the training and research skill increase rolls
the same as those from experience encourages people to
research at low skill levels and not to learn by
training or actual experience. If you research you
don't have to pay a teacher (and the teacher can't
fumble his instruct roll) nor do you have to actually
use the skill - and endanger yourself in the case of
weapons. Maybe at the 50% level it's best to switch to
training or experience. But from the looks of this the
canny PC with a bit of money can get all his relevant
skills up to 75%, no problem, and train or research a
few skills to 100% without ever using them in a stress
situation.
This is seriously screwed up. There is no longer any
opportunity to lose any skill points from bad training
or wrong research. The only exception to this is a
fumbled Instruct roll by the teacher - hardly very
common. Even if he fails his instruct roll it counts as
research which has almost the same benefit per hour as
training!
I think the value of experience should not be devalued.
It should continue to be the most efficient way of
learning. If only because it controls the completely
unrealistic excesses by PC's that the availability of
training and research seem to lead to.
I think that Research and Training should at the very
least be limited to 75% in an experience checkable
skill.
CHARACTERISTIC INCREASES
I'm very uneasy with the SIZ increases - the rules get
a bit messy and involved. I think there should be no
possible increase in SIZ, or that the increase should
be limited to 1.2 or 1.25 times original. Another
alternative is two new characteristics, SIZ and BULK.
I also liked the old rule that you could only train STR
& CON to the highest of the original STR, CON or SIZ.
PROCEDURE FOR CHARACTERISTIC INCREASE THROUGH TRAINING
Making characteristic increases Easy, Medium and Hard
as well seems a calculated attempt to make my life far
more complicated for no apparent reason!
I preferred the chance to roll for an increase. It's
more and more of a book-keeping exercise now.
RESULTS OF DAMAGE
I wonder if when you do more than double damage to the
head location it should be instant death. Or at the
very least death when the head is severed from the
body.
A fair number of people will object to the new rules
because they make RQ less deadly (see the letters page
in Tales #3). I myself prefer it to tend towards it
being more deadly.
FATIGUE
The new system is an improvement on the old one. But
I'm still not sure this system solves the problem. I'd
make it even simpler.
Fatigue Classes
Regaining Fatigue:
So by spending 6 - 12 seconds resting I can move from
Exhausted to Weary? And 12 - 48 seconds to get from
Incapacitated to Normal! Seems mighty easy!
Natural Rolls when fatigued:
This is at a flat rate and therefore is prejudiced
towards the mega-percentile attack hero (+10% for being
Weary is far worse for a 45% Average Farmer than it is
for a 120% Rune Lord). Is this so designed?
I'd suggest:
Tired Reduce skill by 10%.
E.g. 65% swordsman, now has a skill of 59%
Weary Reduce skill by 25%.
E.g. 65% swordsman, now has a skill of 49%
Exhausted Reduce skill by 50%.
E.g. 65% swordsman, now has a skill of 33%
It keeps the differentials closer.
STATEMENT OF INTENT
Alternatively get everyone to write the statement down
secretly, and declare them when combat starts.
COMBAT MOVEMENT
There needs to be two basic systems:
i) A freeform system. Such as that used by most RQers
at the moment. For this all we need to know is:
- Who moves first/who has the initiative.
ii) A complete wargames based system with a hex map,
etc.
At the moment there would seem to be one wargames-based
system without hex map and one optional one with hex
map. For simplicity I'd go for the one with the map. It
should satisfy those gamers with the need for precise
movement and engagement.
Maneouvre skill is a funny one. It's the old wargaming
fix for that situation in a simultaneous movement set
of wargame rules where one player says he charged his
cavalry into your flank, but you insist that you moved
your infantry into a square beforehand. Myself? I'd use
a DEX x 5 roll.
ATTACK
I must say I do like the return of the slash and crush
rules.
On the crush rule you might want to add that soft
armour is fully effective, i.e. it is not halved.
A critical hit is really nasty. However, since the
chances of death have been reduced I suppose its not as
nasty as it looks at first. But now there is almost no
likelihood of a PC surviving a critical hit on his
feet.
How have people found this in playtests? I wonder if it
reduces the enjoyment of the player whose PC is being
taken out of the action marginally faster?
DODGE
Nice. How many people or attacks can you dodge?
MAGIC
The Spirit Plane
I think that the Spirit Plane is invisible from the
Mundane Plane but not the other way around. Spirits can
see the healthy spirits of the living through the murky
haze, though often it is impossible to tell if the
spirits are human, plant or animal. However, undead
creatures cannot be seen, nor those under the influence
of spells such as Spirit Block or Spirit Screen. In
addition the Brithini, Vadeli and many other Malkioni
cannot be seen from the Spirit Plane - shamans suggest
they are soulless.
Spirits tied to beings living on the mundane plane are
of a different hue to spirits living on the spirit
plane, and they inhabit the "edge" of the spirit plane
closest to the mundane.
Spirits on the Spirit Plane cannot normally interact
with anything on the mundane plane. The obvious
exception to this is if a visibility spell is cast upon
them. However some spirits have a double life, partly
in the mundane plane and partly not, such as ghosts.
Ghosts can interact with anything which comes into the
area they are bound into - the binding being caused by
some traumatic action, horrific experience or magic.
Other spirits of the spirit plane can interact with the
mundane plane at certain times in limited ways. E.g.
Nightmare spirits can plague mundane beings whose
defenses are weakened (for psychological reasons maybe,
or perhaps the act of dreaming weakens the barrier
between planes). Passion spirits and the like seem also
to have a degree of influence over the unconscious
parts of the minds of mundane beings, especially in
times of stress.
SPIRIT SENSE & SPIRIT LORE
These are both welcome skills.
SPIRIT COMBAT
I'm still not happy about the concept of a skill that
anyone can get better in. The basis of the combat
should be POW, the measure of will - since this is a
struggle of wills. Certainly a shaman, and to a lesser
extent his trusted apprentices, should have some sort
of advantage in combat due to their spiritual
attunement and knowledge. However, any old joe public
shouldn't be able to rival a shaman just by making a
few lucky experience rolls or by copious research -
they don't "know".
I think the current system could be modified to make it
more of an interesting spectacle.
Another problem with the skill is the low level that
players will start at, something which will most likely
get them possessed the first time round. Though this
depends on how much skill you are reckoning to give to
an "average" spirit and to an "average" character.
APPARENT EFFECTS OF MAGIC
Another good idea.
Spell Spirits
I think spell spirits are the broken and lost spirits
of apostates, atheists and forever-dead Brithini. The
spells that they know are among the few shards of
knowledge that these spirits still possess. They are
prey to stronger spirits, other denizens of the Grey
zone, and shamans.
Once a shaman has contacted a spell spirit does it make
it easier to contact next time around? Does the shaman
have some control over it? Does he discover its true
name of something?
Temples
Site: This doesn't really work for me as written. Is it
true that typically a site has no worshippers? If it is
a holy site to a specific deity then it should detect
as magical, or at least potentially magical. Usually
such places have a meaning in the local mythology of
the deity, e.g. Goodtalk Stone in Lismelder lands is
the place where it is said that Issaries once stopped
to admire the Big Elm Valley. Greydog clan members
always reckon they will get a good deal if they trade
at this spot - maybe they're right, maybe they're not.
SORCERY
Lunar Sorcery.
Lunar sorcery stems only from the magic of the Red
Goddess. However there are various schools of Lunar
magic, some of which are more spirit magic based,
others which owe more to Malkioni wizardry, and even a
few that have elements of divine magic too.
There are few Malkioni sorcerers in the Empire, and
those that exist are often solitary individuals whose
activities are frowned upon by the authorities.
According to the information I have (the Malkioni cult)
ostensibly the Carmanian heresy is extinct in Carmania
and has no followers. In actual fact it is the basis of
Lunar magic, the Red Goddess having taken over the role
of the Invisible God.
The current draft sorcery rules contradict the status
of the Carmanian Heresy and in doing so hit at the very
basis of Lunar magic. Is this official? In addition the
current write-up makes it seem as if the Carmanian
Heresy was a mainstream sorcery sect - this has never
been true.
Rules.
As with Divad Llah, my ambivalence to sorcery rules and
spells is well-known. According to other gamers I've
spoken to the new rules are fine and workable. However,
all of them say that they never saw any problems with
the old ones.
[From Jon Quaife:
The idea of removing Free INT from the system strikes
chords of horror which hover along my spinal cord.
Sorcery is easy to deal with if defined as follows:
i) ESTABLISH NUMBER OF MAGIC POINTS TO BE EXPENDED.
Maximum number of MP's that may expended = Free INT + 1
ii) ESTABLISH INTENSITY. Allot MP's for intensity; 1
MP = 1 Intensity.
iii) ESTABLISH DURATION. Allot MP's for duration per
duration table (in RQ3); note that 0 MP's for duration
still means the spell lasts 10 minutes. Instant spell
may not be durated; active spells may be durated but
may expire when the caster ceases to concentrate on
them.
iv) ESTABLISH RANGE. Allot MP's for range; 0 MP's = 10
meters range.
v) EMPLOY MULTISPELL. Each MP expended using
multispell allows one extra spell to be cast at no
extra MP cost. Range touch spells do not gain range in
this manner, active spells do not become passive, etc.
vi) ROLL DICE. The casting takes a number of Strike
Ranks equal to MP's expended; the % chance of success
is equal to that of the lowest skill employed (spell
skill, intensity, duration, range, or multispell). A
critical means the whole casting costs 1 MP; a fumble
means the casting fails with all MP's in the casting
being expended and lost.
E.g. Sobros' Free INT is 12; therefore he can expend 13
MP's on one sorcery spell casting. He may cast Venom at
intensity 13 in dire straits, spending 13 MP's on
intensity and 0 MP's on range, duration and multispell.
He has a regular routine also; each morning he casts
enhance APP and damage resistance on himself. He allots
1 MP for multispell to allow the second spell to be
incorporated into one casting, and 7 MP's for 21 hours
duration. & + 1 = 8, therefore both spells may be cast
at intensity 5, using up Sobros' remaining 5 MP's
available (13-8 = 5).
vii) MATRICES. Sorcery skills may be enchanted into
matrices; they increase the sorcerer's magic point
limit above his Free INT + 1. Thus a Venom 4 matrix
would allow Sobros to expend 17 MP's on a casting (his
usual 13 plus 4 for the matrix), so long as 4 of them
are expended upon range. A damage resistance intensity
15 matrix would allow Sobros to expend 28 MP's, of
which 15 must be expended on Intensity.
viii) BOOSTING SPELLS. MP's' may be used to boost
spells to defeat magical defenses; these extra magic
points have no bearing on spell manipulation or Free
INT, although they will increase casting time.
Let me know if this is a clearer definition than that
currently presented in RQ. My contention is that the
major flaw with the sorcery system is its lack of
cultural affiliation; the game mechanics are OK once
properly defined. ]
GAMESMASTER BOOK
Armour. Some account needs to be taken of cultural
knowledge of armour making. Can a Hsunchen really get
his armourer to make Chainmail or Light Plate?
Bull. Why is a bull four times the price of a cow? The
offspring of cattle are 50:50 male and female. Should
this be "Breeding Bull" or "Prize Bull"?
Where are the Oxen prices?
Mules are an Issaries specialty so does this increase
their price? Mules cannot reproduce with each other.
Horse, War (Untrained). Is this category really needed.
What is the difference between a Cavalry Horse and an
untrained war-horse? I reckon the prices here should be
in a range, and not absolutes. It depends on all sorts
of things such as the physical characteristics of the
horse, its temperament,etc.
Slaves. I think a female was rated at the value of one
cow in Viking society.
Weregeld. This is an Orlanthi (Viking) term related to
the price paid to the kin of a person murdered or
manslaughtered. In Orlanthi society different social
and cultural positions have different weregelds - not
necessarily related to income. I don't think the term
is relevant in this section anymore.
END
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