From: Wayne Shaw (shadow@qedbbs.com)
Date: Fri 27 Aug 1993 - 13:02:19 EEST
David Dunham (via RadioMail) <ddunham@radiomail.net> writes:
> 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, David, part of this assumes that the game is either A) more complex
or B) slower than we like, which is not true for some of us. But I'll
still address your suggestions.
> + 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 don't find the location roll particularly onerous, though I do feel the
current version downplays it more than it should in some areas. The
elimiaation of hit locations almost mandates the simplification of armor,
which I also don't consider particularly desireable.
> + Strike Ranks. RQ4 already virtually gets rid of them with the "2
> actions/round" rule, and it's debatable whether someone can really kill an
> enemy and prevent a blow from landing 1 SR later.
While the strike rank situation may not be totally necessary, I have not
liked any of the alternatives I've heard. Random die rolls tie up too
much time with large numbers of characters involved; fixed values based
on DEX give more benefit to high DEX characters than I prefer; and over a
six second melee round, true simultaneity doesn't cut it for me.
>
> + All rules for bleeding and additional damage (e.g. from impaled weapons).
> Who can keep track anyway?
We do it all the time and have no trouble. And elimiating bleeding makes
it even LESS meaningful to take a high value hit, and makes it harder to
kill someone.
>
> + 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).
The answer here is that I think Elric's wrong. And it can be VERY wrong
if you have to fight several fights in quick succession. I'd say the
RQIV fatigue rules are simple enough for most people to handle.
>
> + Fumble %s. Elric doesn't use a table, you fumble on 99 or 00.
>
I don't see how there is that much extra work involved with the RQ
method. It's not necessary, but I don't see the change being enough of
an improvement to be justified.
> + Separate criticals and specials. For most practical purposes, Elric
> merges these.
I could see it...but I'd want seperate tables for the three classes of
weapons then.
> + RQ4's Maneuver skill. Elric uses Dodge in much the same way.
Piling up more value on one skill than I see as desireable.
>
> + 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...)
Let's just say I don't think so, and leave it at that.
>
> into swords, armor, or whatever, and any spirit magic you know you can cast
> as one of your two actions in a round.
I don't think ignoring foci necessarily ignores prep. I can be argued
that just focusing your mind on the spell involves prep. Frankly, we've
never placed too much emphasis on foci, anyway.
------------------------------
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