From: Roderick Robertson, SC1-5, x52936 (ROBERTSON@delphi.intel.com)
Date: Fri 02 Jul 1993 - 23:56:00 EEST
David Cheng:
>Paul has a system:
>_________________
>If the 80% dancer tries only for a Normal 65 (a better success than
>non-professionals will ever get, barring the 'beginner's luck' of specials
>and crits) then his chance of getting a Normal 65 is 80% + (80% - 65%) =
>95%.
>This reflects the fact that the dancer is only using moves that he already
>knows well.
>_________________
>I see how this works, and I like the logic of it, but I dread using it
>in game. Too much math - too much 'thinking.'
>IMHO, it is not "elegant" nor "graceful." It may very well work like
>a charm, but if I'm at GenCon trying to spread the RQ gospel to some
>kids who've played little but D&D and Marvel Super Heroes, I fear they'll
>flee in terror when I try to explain this system. It will give the
>TSR guys a free shot at us. They _already_ say "Oh, RuneQuest; that game
>is so complex..." We know that the basic percentile skill system is
>both simple and elegant; we just have to let others know about it too.
>
>-DC
Make it an optional rule. Then, you don't have to explain it to the
newbies, but it's available to them when they buy the book.
Make the cut-off point dependant on the skill type (perhaps Easy -
10%, Medium - 30%, Hard - 50%, Very Hard - 70%). Then the GM doesn't
have to figure out how much the character can add to his roll. So if the
Ernalda Harvest Dance is an easy dance, the dancer can shoot for a
Normal 10, adding the difference to his chance as above. If he attemptd
the Orlanthi Sword Dance (Hard), he would shoot for a Normal 50. Thus,
characters under the thresholds can't begin to perform the more
complicated steps/tasks as 'routine', but would still have a chance to
do so, perhaps failing/succeeding out of the ordinary. This also allows
the GM to declare a specific task's difficulty within a skill, such as
the dances above.
(One of these days I have to get my Cultural Dance ideas onto
paper/disk)
If we took this idea to Combat, the GM could declare a fight
non-critical (slaughtering a horde of guards on the way to the throne
room, where the Evil Prince(tm) and Vile Henchmen(tm) wait). The PC's
could fight without Specials/Criticals/Fumbles, but add to their skill
as above. While this is antithetical to the RQ notion that All Combat is
Deadly, in more Cinematic/Heroic/Conan/Fafhrd & Grey/Swashbuckling
games, it could work.
Roderick
0,,
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