Subject: Glorantha on Ten Pennies a Day, Volume 2, Number 2
This issue:
Jack of all Trades (Mark Abbott)
RQ enchantments (John Thompson)
Re: Gurps combat (Andrew Bell)
Re: Two-handed weapon use (Andrew Bell)
[Ed's note: Due to the rearranging of our local network, most of my mail
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rather slow in replying to a number of your notes. The problem still may be
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From: abbott%dean.Berkeley.EDU@berkeley.edu (+Mark Abbott)
Subject: Jack of all Trades
On the Jack of all trades problem, I agree completely. That's always been
one of my pet gripes with RQ. With some groups of players the problem
isn't bad because the players tend to develop their characters without
exploiting the rules. However, some characters almost always end up
being able to do anything. One thing I've tried which helps somewhat is to
limit the number of experience rolls per adventure. IE, if each PC can
only take 7 experience rolls, he will tend to concentrate on those skills
which are most important to him. This works fairly well but doesn't
solve the problem. I've toyed with giving extra experience rolls for
multiple uses of a skill, but this tends to lead to skill escalation.
Also, as you pointed out, offensive magic ends up overpowering most
other skills in combat. I see this as a problem in the general
availability of magic. My solution has been to limit the availability
of magic such that many characters do not have offensive magic, or
even much magic at all. This means that most characters won't rely
on their magic to make them powerful but will instead concentrate
on skills. I think what I'd like to see is some sort of system
where magic and skills are diametrically opposed methods to power.
The more of one you have, the less of the other you can get. This
is somewhat covered by the skill limits for Rune Priests.
A couple of fixes I use to handle the kind of situation Andrew gave
(the thief, the captain of the guard, and the thief's friend):
At point blank range versus a stationary target, missile skill rolls
are one "level" of success better, ie, a normal hit becomes a
special hit, a miss becomes a normal hit, etc. 00 is still a fumble,
it's up to the GM to determine what happens when a critical is rolled.
It's also up to the GM to decide what qualifies as point blank and
whether the target is close enough to being stationary. I base it mostly
on my feel for the situation.
Similarly, if someone attacks a helpless or completely unsuspecting
opponent, the roll is one better. This means that a fairly good
warrior can expect to special hit an unsuspecting opponent, making
assassin style attacks quite powerful.
Mark
From: thompson@rb-dc1 (John Thompson)
Subject: RQ rules, questions
I noticed that there really aren't isn't very many rules on magic.
The number of spells really are quite small, and there are very few ritual
magic spells.
As a matter of fact most items I have seen published are like
mechanical devices -- I have a sword which Taps dex every time it is
struck at a person, and the magic points stolen are used to cast the
Tap spell. In other words, we have a device (Tapping) and a power source
(magic point storage area) These strike me as too mechanistic. I welcome
suggestions on rules to get around this.
So I decided to come up with some different sort of enchantments
Quickdraw Enchantment Cost: 1 POW
This causes the weapon to be drawn and place in the wielder's hands
immediately, without incurring the 3 SR delay. It will also pick up the weapon
if it no more than one meter away, or put the weapon back to its sheath.
Only the caster can acheive this benefit: if the owner is killed,
the enchantment is worthless, and must be re-engraved.
Enhance Intelligence Ceremony Cost: 5 POW
This ritual raises the caster's INT by one, permanently. It is extremely
rare, only a few magi know it. It may require exotic components. It is
debilitating to cast, requiring (25 - CON) weeks rest thereafter. The
character may not raise his INT more than the species maximum. (I use
the RQII rules for this: Max possible roll + number of dice, with any
plus counted as another die. This gives humans a max of 21.)
Modifications:
Magic Point Matrix Enchantment
I recommend giving out a d6 of storage here. A player can simply store
a power spirit, getting a regenerating 'battery' of average 7 pts,.
for one POW pt, wheras the MPM maker must use 7, for a non-regererating
power source. This needs revision. So now, a player must use two POW, but
does not need to know the summon and command|control|dominate power spirit.
Binding Enchantment
The current rules suggest that a player must learn a separate binding
enchantment for each otherworld creature. That is: Ghost Binding Enchant,
Magic Spirit Binding Enchantment, etc. This really isn't fair -- A shaman
can easily learn the spell, he summons the spirit that knows the spell
and obliterates it. The sorcerer has to spend 100 hours learning it from
someone else or waste 500 hours by himself. Divine magic users must dump
a point of POW! The divine spell caster who has to dump POW for everything
really hurts. My suggestion is that there is a generic "Binding Enchantment"
which must have a Enchant roll to specify the exact creature to be held.
Once created, this specificity could not be changed -- Athough you could
sacrifice more POW for another enchantment which will contain your favorite
creature.
More spells:
Accuracy: Sorcery
Each point of intensity adds 3% to the attack chance to a specified weapon
Frequently found in conjuction with Damage Boosting.
Obscuration: Sorcery
I don't like every apprentice with Mystic Vision knowing every secret
gnome, Ghost, and power spirit of a powerful sorcerer. Obscuration
allows one to put up a screening wall, and to see through it, the
intensity of the Mystic Vision must overcome
the points of Obscuration on the Resistance table.
I have some more ideas, as well as some magic items, but I'll wait
until later to send them in. I invite comments and questions.
John Thompson
...!sdcsvax!hp-sdd!ncr-sd!rb-dc1!thompson
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From: acb@romeo.cs.duke.edu (Andrew Bell)
Subject: Re: Gurps combat
In Digest 1.11, Elliot Wilen said:
>One thing I don't like [in GURPS] is the way that crushing blows get special
>treatment for knocking a person out--it doesn't matter whether you're
>being hit by a sword or a cudgel if the force of a blow on your helmet
>is the same.
I'm not sure I agree with you on this one, Elliot. (Gasp!) When a mace
tries to break through armor, it doesn't try to cleave it in twain, it
tries to dent metal armor and overwhelm leather armor. The sword, on the
other hand, tends to try to cut through the armor to administer its blow.
For this reason, maces should be somewhat better against plate armor,
although I'd remove the idea of ignore armor for criticals, since I can't
see it fitting between the cracks. Instead, make crushing weapons better
against heavy armor normally (working against 1/2 the AP of rigid armors),
but a critical would only let you aim your shot and ignore magical protection.
In the same way, crushing weapons have a different effect on the head. A
sword will tend to open up a big cut, but is unlikely to knock you out
unless it is a very serious wound. An impact, however, is more likely to
do stun (as per Champions), as you may note if you hit your head on a
door frame or your hand against a projection on the wall or the like.
Stabbing a steak knife through your hand, however, is only likely to do
Stun by putting you into shock.
(Kids, do not try this yourself...)
Seriously, though, you can try a little experiment, even at your desk.
Hit yourself on the hand with your other hand. I get a little tingle in my
fingers if I do this; although no real damage is done, I would say the hand
I hit is somewhat stunned for a brief moment after the blow.
Thus I think I agree with the GURPS assessment.
A further implication here is that a crushing blow is unlikely to "go through"
a parry, but is likely to damage the shield arm without penetrating. Again,
there seems to be a need for stun rules, where a certain amount of stun to
a given location might break the appropriate limb. Extreme amounts of damage
could crush the limb to uselessness, beyond the mere breaking of a bone.
Also, a "very" broken bone might do damage as a compound fracture.
Really, we'll have to come up with some stun rules; perhaps GURPS' will do.
And perhaps rules on broken bones and various other forms of injury, as
opposed to just "you take 4 points to the left arm." "My allied spirit casts
Heal 4 on it."...
Incidentally, Elliot, what is the implication of stunning an area? You
mention stunning but not its effects. Obviously they will be in GURPS terms,
but the general idea is what I'm after.
-Andrew
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Subject: Re: Two-handed weapon use
From: acb@romeo.cs.dduke.edu (Andrew Bell)
In Digest 1.11, Steve Schrader writes:
>Conceivably the reason one can attack AND parry in the same round is that
>the person has two hands that they can do things with.
But they can also dodge, which shouldn't really require one's hands to do.
(Irrelevant for RQII, I realize) I don't think it's just the number of hands
that is important, it's what the person is capable of doing in 12 seconds.
Seriously, though, two-handed weapon fighting should be somewhat more
tricky than sword-and-shield style, which should be more difficult than sword
and mace style, and fencing should be quite different.
However, if you make it so people with two-handed weapons can't parry as well
as attack, then an unarmored viking with a two-handed axe will never last 12
seconds with a decent opponent. It may be more difficult to parry with a
two-handed weapon while also attacking with it, but it should be possible.
When I get a chance, I'll try to write up an article on fighting styles for
this zine. Instead of having specific weapon skills, you'll have skills
like:
Swung weapon and shield
Fencing
Two-handed swung weapon
Two weapons
Two-handed spear
and within those categories, you have extra skill with particular weapons.
You train in a particular fighting style instead of particular weapon skills,
so you train your shield parry at the same time you train your sword attack.
The hours of training will basically be split between the various skills or
something like that. Within each fighting style you may have some innate
defense as per RQ II, perhaps as a third skill that is much harder to
develop than the attack and parry portion. By having ENC affect this defense,
a very heavy weight (like armor) can make one easier to hit, while a martial
arts type, with no armor, would be harder to hit.
-Andrew
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