From: Burton Choinski (burt@ptltd.com)
Date: Tue 24 Aug 1993 - 22:16:57 EEST
David Dunham's comments on a skinnier RQ...
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%% So far (in my limited time on this mailing list), almost everything's been
%% devoted to what to add or change from RuneQuest. I haven't seen anyone
%% talking about making the game simpler or faster to GM, which is what some
%% of us would like.
Well, I proposed some amendments to this, but let's go over what you
suggest.
%% + Hit location rolls. PenDragon and Elric use the Major Wound to get a
%% similar effect (where only the most serious wounds need an additional
%% roll).
I think this would be a great loss to the system. Location wounds adds
flavor to the game. A nice add might be an optional table for each
location where you add another random element and the damage done to
get special effects:
DAM/HITS Less 1/3 1/2 1/1 2/1 3/1 More
Roll 1
2
3 Fill in a table for each location
4
5
6
Use this for those that want those arteries sliced on a hit or other
%% + Strike Ranks. RQ4 already virtually gets rid of them with the "2
gruesome details.
%% actions/round" rule, and it's debatable whether someone can really kill an
%% enemy and prevent a blow from landing 1 SR later.
I am siding with the "SR is a speed index" idea, where 1d6+SR denotes when
%% + All rules for bleeding and additional damage (e.g. from impaled weapons).
you may first act, with each action thereafter taking 3 SR between
(or more, like for spells).
Well, I haven't used bleeding myself yet. Got enough to worry about at
combat time.
I do have a suggestion for combat damages and skills, however (at end).
%% + Fatigue rules (adopt the Elric strategy that most combats aren't long
%% enough for them to matter -- Elric does need some sort of ENC rules,
%% however).
Haven't used it, in RQ3 or RQ4. More trouble then it's worth. Perhaps
%% + Fumble %s. Elric doesn't use a table, you fumble on 99 or 00.
a column or sidebar with some rules of thumb that the GM can use to wing
it with. Other than that, I'll probably ignore 'em.
I'll go with this. I'd even go with a dice rule: Any failed roll that
%% + Separate criticals and specials. For most practical purposes, Elric
is "doubles" is "double bad". This is about 9% of the failure chance,
in general. Since this is about 2x the normal fumble ratio, it should
be up to the GM to decide whether the "extra bad" roll is a muff, or
really a fumble. It works okay as a mnemonic too.
I like having "degrees" of success and failure. If you combine degrees
%% + RQ4's Maneuver skill. Elric uses Dodge in much the same way.
of failure, then use the higher die roll if both dgrees are equal, I think
it works quite well and fast.
I can go either way. I don't see maneuver as that much a millstone,
but I'll go with DEX*5 or something. as well.
%% + Skill modifiers. They tend to be small anyway, and it's a royal pain to
%% recompute them when your POW changes. (Since stats would matter much less
%% then, maybe they should go away too...)
Heretic. :) They add a good variance to the characters. This should stay
in. Anyways, if you go with the rule that they aid you only when checking
for improvement or when learning a new skill, it's not so bad.
%% + Base chances. All skills start at either 0% (if you can't do it without
%% training) or 10% (or maybe 5%). Or maybe they start at 0% or (for attack
%% skills) STR+DEX% (each category would have a base chance determined by
%% adding two stats -- if your POW increased, your base chance might go up,
%% but this wouldn't be a modifier, so skills would not change).
This is tricky. Some skill bases should be high (climbing is a good
example, for humans, swimming for ducks, perception skills, etc) because
the skills cover natural actions that you should have gotten good at
simply by being alive and active. The 0% if requires training thing
is already there, more or less.
I'm not sure WHICH skills need to have their bases tweaked. Perhaps the
entire perception group of Listen, Scan, Taste, Smell, etc skills should
be removed and placed into an attribute.
%% + Weapon hit points. They either break or don't, let's get rid of the
%% bookkeeping.
I don't know. I like having the possiblility. Powers & Perils also
had rules where your armor got beat through use, which I kind of liked.
The 'binary weapons' idea doesn't sound like that great an idea to me.
If you plan to go that way, may just as well not worry about breaking
weapons at all. The all or nothing seems to arbitrary. At least with`
the current system, you can see your weapon getting beat and you can
react to that and change weapons, or continue on and hope the weakened
state won't fail on you.
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Weapons, skills and damages:
I have been playing a bit with the damages. Once players get high skills,
high damages become certain for little work (or decision making).
1) ASSUMPTION: Special and critical hits do NOT do extra damage, but
allow you to do a special maneuver.
2) Swinging weapons may do better damage, but impaling ones have a better
"special effects" table.
At the start of his/her turn, the player decides if he is going to attack
stright, go for a hard shot, or go for a heroic shot.
Attacking stright means you succeed if you roll less than your skill.
Going for a hard strike means you get 1/3 your skill to determine success,
A heroic strike uses 1/5 your skill (and the target uses 1/5 to defend)
This system has the advantage of being faster when two high-skill characters
Example: Joe Hero (Sword 250%) is jumped by a Master Assassin
Special and Critical has no effect in determining damage, which is rolled
normally, but allow you to use special maneuvers.
and the target must also use 1/3 his/her skill when defending. However,
if your attack goes through you may roll DOUBLE the normal dice for damage.
and if the attack gets through you may roll TRIPLE the normal dice used
for damage.
are going at it. You must have at least a 15% skill to do hard strikes and
at least a 25% skill to do heroic ones.
(Sword 95%/dodge 90%).
Our hero, spars a few rounds with the assassin, and sees that he is pretty
good and decides to try and end it quickly. A heroic strike for him gives
a 50% chance of hitting, but the Assassin only a 18% chance to
dodge it. One good hit will probably get the assassin out of Joe's hair.
This idea was borne of watching two 100%+ characters play battle on and on...
attack, parry, attack, parry, attack.....
Comments?
0,,
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