COMMENTS, DAMAGE, ATTRIBUTES

From: Burton Choinski (burt@ptltd.com)
Date: Thu 24 Jun 1993 - 22:26:53 EEST


Anthony Ragan asks:
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| Well....since Nick and Curtis have already mentioned it....can we get
| rid of strike ranks? While the SR system is appealing in theory (an exact
   ...
| calculate the melee SR as normal (based on the addition of SIZ + DEX,
| correct?) and use the melee SR as a modifier to a d10 roll. Low result
| (Melee SR +d10) goes first in the round.

  Actually, this doesn't sound to bad, but perhaps 1d6 would be better...lot
  more of them kicking around, soe everyone can have their own. They roll,
  and keep the roll in front of them.

Other stuff...
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Yesterday I posted a revised damage table, based on d3's. It had the advantage

of having an integare average, so if you have creature with a 10d3 damage
bonus you could just use a +20 (ave of a d3 is 2) for speed, or roll it out
completely, or mix it (+5d3+10) as desired.

Back home I was looking at it and thought I had it wrong -- but looking at
it again, it actually makes more sense, since the average man (SIZ 13, STR 11)
has a bonus of +0. This lessened damage discards the need for natural armor.

SPECIAL, CRITICAL hits:

Consider: Willy the Bold, STR 17, Dagger 100% goes up to the Mother of Monsters
(the fool), manages to get up to the neck, fastens himself on and starts
hacking away. No way is it gonna dodge, and we'll give him the
+25% bonus for helpless opponent. 6% of the time he does squat. But that 6%
of the time he does real damage, ignoring the huge amount of armor. Multiply
Willy by several hundred flying Orlanthi, who fly up, chop, and fly off.

Continue for the next week or until the head falls off, whichever comes first.

Now, I chose this extreme point to show how bogus the critical "ignore armor"
rule is. You can say "Well, realistically you can't ignore all that armor..."
No Kidding.

Now, how does this sound as a rule addendum to moderate this?

   Special Crush, Critical Slash, Critical Impale:
      Reduce effective armor by 1 AP per 5 points of STR (not less then 0 AP)
   Critical Crush:
      Reduce effective armor by 2 AP per 5 points of STR (not less then 0 AP)

This effectively does the same thing, at low armor levels, but limits it
against high ones. Joe Macehound, STR 17, clouts you with a
critical Maul hit. As far as his damage is concerned, the first 8 points
(16-20 counts as the 4th set of 5 STR) of your armor is ignored.

Now take our flying Orlanthi hit squad. Assuming you could arm them all with
crushing weapons, the best you are looking at is a reduction of 10 AP
(for STR 21), but in general a reduction of 8 AP. Not enough for the MoM to
even notice. But when facing men in armor, a special success drops the
average man by 3 AP (which, assuming chain, is half).

ATTRIBUTES:
  
I was thinking again on balanced attribute modifiers and came up with the
following. How do they sound compared to your latest ones, Oliver?

Agility: STR + DEX - SIZ - 10
  Why? DEX is speed of moving your body, STR is the power to move it, but

  bigger people have more mass to move.

Communication: APP + INT/2 + POW/2 - 20
  Why? APP is one's personal presense, and ability to hold the attention
  of others, INT because intelligence helps, POW for that "certain quality"
  about you that interests people.

Knowledge: INT + INT - 20
  Why? INT is reasoning power, the ability to manipulate information.

Magic: INT + DEX/2 + POW/2 - 20
  Why? high INT people can better visualize the paths of magic, DEX
  aids in converting that mental image to a physical one, and high POW
  people are better "channels" for magic then low ones.

Manipulation: DEX + CON/2 + STR/2 - 20
  Why? Having the DEX indicates fine control. STR aids in handling
  unbalanced items, and high CON people have better hand-eye coodination.

Perception: CON + INT/2 + POW/2 - 20
  Why? Healthy people have clearer senses, High INT people can make better
  sense of said perceptions, and POW provides those hunches to fill in the
  gaps, or that odd luck of just catching a glimpse or whiff of something.

Stealth: DEX + INT/2 + CON/2 - SIZE/2 - POW/2 - 10
  Why? High DEX people can move more gracefully than low DEX ones, and
  being healthier aids in this body control. High INT aids in choosing
  the better paths. Larger people have some disadvantage, as do those
  with a greater magical presense.

Now, I know you were considering eliminating Stealth, but if it remained
how does the above look? The use of attributes is spread out a little more
(using CON more for health and perceptions, APP for presense and charisma).

     -- Burton


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