Subject: RQ Discussions 24 First Distribution: Ed's note: Sorry, folks, about the slowness (or more accurately, non-existence) of the RQ Digest and Discussion stuff recently. I've been busy, but things are slowing down somewhat now and thus you may see quite a few Digests and discussions very soon. I'll try to pace it out a bit just so that you don't get swamped. ====================================================================== From: David Gadbois Subject: RQ discussion 23 Subject: RQ Discussions, Number 23 RUNEQUEST DIGEST ARTICLES IN TALES OF THE REACHING MOON By MOB [...] USA & CANADA: $2.50 per issue, including postage. Available from David Gadbois. Please make cheques available to "David Gadbois". Address: 2600 Rio Grande, Austin, TX 78705. Please note that the new address for me is P.O. Box 49475 Austin, TX 78765 I am not sure how much longer I will be receiving mail at the Rio Grande street address. Since it is a multiple residence, the post office will not forward mail from there. --David [Note: I got this a while ago :-( and thus if I recall correctly, the price has gone up to $3.00 an issue. Hopefully David will see this and berate me if I tell a lie...] ====================================================================== From: rowe@enzyme.Berkeley.Edu (Eric Rowe) Subject: Rule modifications from Berkeley. It's been a while since I have seen a lot of rule modifications on the list so I thought I might mention a few that are currently being used in a campaign I've been running for two years. Most of these changes are recent and often the ideas come from earlier ones mentioned here. So far most of them seem to be working well. Strike Ranks: I always had a problem with the static you-me-you-me-you method of Strike Ranks. A while back we tested a method someone mentioned here which was to simply add a d3 to the SR in combat situations. This tended to push everything later in the round and gave spell casting an advantage as I could see no reason casters would take longer and shorter for the same spells. Our final solution was to use the following table which does not change the mean for an individual's SR, but it adds a little variance. SR base add a 1 -1 d3 2 0 d3 3 1 d3 4 2 d3 5 3 d3 6 3 d5 7 4 d5 8 4 d7 9 5 d7 10 5 d9 Now to explain a few things. We have anything less than or equal to 1 go at 1 and greater then or equal to ten go at ten. We also understand that this table is not well weighted, but it produces randomness in the magnitude and direction we like. Many other related methods are possible that give even variance at each SR etc... Also still on the subject of Strike Ranks, I simply note we allow someone to deduct 20% of their skill (usually not 20%) to go one SR faster. This must be declared before the randomness die is rolled. We have made two modifications to missle fire as well. I don't really like the disparity in dex SR that allows some 30% skilled fast guy to shoot 3 times in a round while a slower master might only get off 1. We still use dex SR, but we penalize extra shots as it mimics someone taking less time to aim. It must be declared during intent how many will be fired. If but one missle is fired it is done at full skill. If two are fired then both are at 75% of the person's skill level and three can be fired at 60% of skill level. Really good but slow archers can still rush themselves even more with the rule above in order to be able to shoot two or three shots. Firing into combat. To avoid the annual party huddle to tell new players that if they fire into melee the will be killed and to give players a chance to critical each other with missles (very RQ) we use this system. For every occupant of the melee space other than the intended target the archer removes 10% of his skill level. Example: A 150% archer (very rare) firing into a six person melee. This gives the player a 75% chance of hitting his target. If he misses then he has the percentage chance to hit each of the others as they removed from the initial chance (starting with the closest to the archer). In the above case it would be 15% chance each with the special and critical percentages coming from this number. Some other quick notes about rules we use. For experience we use a difficulty divisor for each skill. Any successful use equals a check, specials give two and criticals give three. For example, say throw has a difficulty of 25. A player at 53% (always round up) needs three checks to get the old regular RQ check. We do not use fatigue. Spirit magic is cast at 80% + POW - ENC. We use smashing and slashing as well as impaling. We have counter-attacking rules. POW gain rolls are GM awarded. Almost always it is one per session but sometimes none, two or one and a half are awarded for excellent role-playing. Magic. ALL magic is visible (except magic to hide magic obviously). This is one way around long duration sorcery spells. Having magic up means we are tough and worth a lot and intend to cause trouble. People with spells up do not get into cities. Makes really nasty amushes very difficult to set up. Last of the changes I would like to mention is on breakage. Any time a weapon or shield parries a critical attack it is a weapon disaster. This also applies to armor at a location criticaled. I have turned many of the helmet slips, -25% for a round, fumbles into weapon disasters as well. When a weapon/shield/armor has a disaster roll d100 and subtract it's strength. 0-15 no problem 16-30 strength times 3/4 31-45 strength times 1/2 46-60 strength times 1/4 61-100 it is dust, cannot be repaired. Repair spells fix 10 points of strength. This method comes in very handy for dealing with acid, which is the essense of chaos on our game world. It also allows for weaponsmithing and armoring to produce some quality objects and sometimes some inferior ones. Example strength is the broadsword at 25, the hoplite shield at 40 and soft leather at 5. Remember, everything is subjective. I would be pleased if this brought back a little more rules discussion and if anyone has any more specific questions please e-mail me. Eric (rowe@enzyme.berkeley.edu) ====================================================================== The RuneQuest(tm) mailing list is a courtesy of Andrew Bell. All opinions and material above are the responsibility of the originator, and copyrights are held by them. Unless specified in the specific article, all RQ Digest material is freely redistributable on a not-for-profit basis as long as author credit is included. RuneQuest is a trademark of Chaosium, Inc. 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