Date: Wed, 14 Apr 93 17:15:12 +0200
From: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RQ Digest Maintainer)
To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Daily automated RQ-Digest)
Subject: The RuneQuest Daily, Wed, 14 Apr 1993
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---------------------
From: bell@cs.unc.edu (Andrew Bell)
Subject: Re: The RuneQuest Daily, Tue, 13 Apr 1993
Message-ID: <9304131610.AA01651@beethoven.cs.unc.edu>
Date: 13 Apr 93 08:10:22 GMT
> Yes, the Lunar Empire is a strong and sophisticated government, but
> I think that we have a tendancy to overestimate the capabilites of a as
> citizens of the modern world. I think it's necessary to remember that
> Bronze age cultures were limited in their ability to gather and mass
> information.
It should be pointed out, however, that perhaps the most chilling
implication of magic is its powers of surveillance. Detect Enemies
and especially Find Enemies is always handy in case of an ambush, but
there's also the various Lankhor Mhy (and presumably Irripi Ontor)
spells, detects for all sorts of substances, the various sorcerous
projection and sense spells, etc. Also, gaining real power in
Glorantha generally requires a largish organization (a good-sized
temple), which makes the job of spying on the most dangerous
individuals all the more easy.
Also, communications are easier with long distance telepathy spells,
and flying and teleport make distance travel a much easier thing for
the higher-ups. The Lunars would almost certainly have resources of
this type at their disposal.
> >> From: markg@engrg.uwo.ca (Mark Gagnon)
> >> Subject: Cults of Prax, Cults of Terror
> >> A question for RQ3 players: Has anyone ever had a Stormbull player
> >> contract a nasty case of Chaos Feature? How would you referee it?
Seems like either becoming Chaotic should be very rare and hard to do,
or else the cult should tell its members what to do if it happens to
them. Probably just off themselves, after charging in and killing
whatever tainted them...
Andrew Bell
bell@cs.unc.edu
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From: burt@ptltd.com (Burton Choinski)
Subject: RQ-IV NPC generator (mk II)
Message-ID: <9304131637.AA24848@vertigo.ptltd.com>
Date: 13 Apr 93 16:37:20 GMT
Well, I have now pretty much finished it, with some design changes
from the version I mailed out a while ago.
change #1) I mulled it over and decided to remove the random
occupation code. Why? several reasons.
1) The most likely use of this thing is to generate sheets of NPC's that
you would pick from to fill out encounters or parties. Having to
pick out that rare Entertainer in a sheet of farmers and herders was not
verry efficient...easier to generate a sheet of entertainers and
just pick from that.
2) The characters created are baselines...while good for the throw-away
character, they would need to be fleshed out anyways for important
NPCs. Since there is no determining of equipment (you do that), and
no real differences in cultures (in an occupation sense), it seems more
effective tojust worry about a sheet of two of foot warriors, rather
then keeping track of a sheet of barbarian foot warriors, civilized foot
warriors, etc.
change #2) The /Number definition is number of pages of output, not
number of entries.
Since the program auto-sizes for your page, why have only 2 or 3 entries on
the page when it is just as easy to have a whole page? And this eliminates
the "orphan entry", where you get a page with a single entry beacause the
ones before it took a lot of room on the page.
Well, to avoid mass-mailing again, I'd like to find an anonymous FTP
site. I have no such beast here, but if there is a RQ site i'd like
to put it there.
-- Burton
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From: okamoto@hpcc90.corp.hp.com (Jeff Okamoto)
Subject: Re: The RuneQuest Daily, Tue, 13 Apr 1993
Message-ID: <9304131647.AA19956@hpcc90.corp.hp.com>
Date: 13 Apr 93 16:47:12 GMT
> From: wroberts@magnusug.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (William C Robertson)
> Subject: "Bronze Age" sophistication, Earth Elementals, Ritual Suicide
>
> As an example I'd like to offer the Tokugawa Shogunate, they were a
> strong central government, and they had some pretty strict "class
> separation laws." One of these laws forbade anyone but peasants to carry
> arms, but they couldn't enforce it.
Without digressing too much, the Shogunate forbade all but the samurai
to carry the "dai-sho" (big-small) pair of swords. Other classes were
allowed to carry the short sword (wakizashi). Peasants, who had been
allowed to carry the daisho under Hideyoshi (who was himself a
peasant), were ordered to turn in their swords.
The problem is any farm implement, properly wielded, can be as deadly
as a sword.
Jeff
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From: MILLERL@WILMA.WHARTON.UPENN.EDU (Loren J. Miller)
Subject: Optional rules for semi-lethal combat
Message-ID: <9304132218.AA27465@noc2.dccs.upenn.edu>
Date: 13 Apr 93 22:17:00 GMT
These are some rules I wrote as reactions to the first draft RQ4 rules
for non-lethal combat. I thought you all might like to see them.
Please comment on expected effects on gameplay of any of the suggested
rules changes.
COMBAT, LETHALITY CLASSES (this is a better defined and toned down
version of the rules currently in RQ4 playtest)
> Add this as an optional rule in "Results of Combat: Damage" [PB
> p.49].
> 1. most weapons do lethal damage. this is the normal, long-term
> damage that we're used to in RQ. damage heals at 1D3 points
> per hit location per week, if you make a health roll. All
> slashing and impaling weapons, and blunt weapons of 1 Enc or
> more, cause lethal damage.
> 2. semi-lethal damage. this is half long-term damage (round
> down), and half short-term damage (round up) which heals at
> 1D3 points per hit location per 5 minutes if resting, 1D3-1
> if not resting. semi-lethal damage is inflicted by natural
> attacks like punches, kicks, head butts, grapples, throws
> (except on rocks), by padded weapons of SR 0 or 1, and by
> light blunt weapons (less than 1 Enc).
> 3. non-lethal damage. this is one fourth long-term damage
> (round down), and three fourths short-term damage (round
> up). non-lethal damage is inflicted by padded weapons of SR
> 2 or 3, or when opponents Fight Fair.
> 4. play. this is all short term damage, and is done by toy
> weapons like pillows, wet towels, and food. :-)
Also include in the healing section a piece on short-term and
long-term (normal) damage.
COMBAT, FIGHTING NICE (replacement for non-lethal combat section of
RQ4 playtest rules)
> Along the same lines, most non-aggressive people fight fair when
> they fight at all. They attempt to minimize the permanent damage
> that their attacks do. Thus, they attempt to hit where it won't
> break bones or cause long term bleeding. This can be simulated by
> adding a knowledge skill "Fight Fair" (aka Peaceful Arts,
> Brawling, Play Fighting, Roughhousing, Sport Fighting), which
> reduces by one the level of lethality of attacks.
>
> For instance, Honorius the Hoplite knows Punch at 64%
> and Fight Fair at 58%. In a friendly brawl, he attacks
> Gareth the Gaul and rolls a 24, which turns his attack
> from a semi-lethal into a non-lethal attack, reducing
> the proportion of permanent damage to total damage from
> 1/2 to 1/4. His damage roll is 8 for 8 hit points, of
> which 6 points are short-term damage and 2 points are
> long-term damage. The next turn, he rolls a 62,
> succeeding at Punch but not at Fight Fair. Another
> damage roll inflicts 6 points of damage, 3 of which are
> short-term damage and 3 long-term damage.
>
> This rule gets rid of one problem I have with the stunning rules
> as they stand. If you critical hit then you do full damage
> instead of reduced damage, thus you get the opposite result from
> what you intended. IMHO, critical hits should be extremely *good*
> results, meaning that you did what you meant to do very well.
> Thus, a critical hit when attempting to subdue someone should not
> accidentally kill them. Accidents should occur on bad rolls, not
> good ones. If we used a Fight Fair skill instead, situations like
> this, which change the meaning of a critical hit from good to
> bad, would not happen.
SKILLS, MARTIAL ARTS (I suggest we totally rework martial arts as
follows)
> Also, if we implement this skill, we might as well get rid of
> Martial Arts at the same time. Martial Arts is a broken skill,
> imho. It attempts to make martial artists dangerous by making
> their punches do about as much damage as a light mace, and their
> kicks compare favorably to bastard swords. But this isn't the way
> that martial arts work in the real world, at least from my
> limited experience and that of my friends. Martial Arts training
> teaches several things. It doesn't simply teach how to break
> bricks.
> 1. How to fall. This is Acrobatics skill, or perhaps Dodge.
> 2. How to fight fair. This is the Fight Fair skill, above. It
> includes how to pull attacks, how to stop attacks short of
> full contact, and other ways that keep students and teachers
> alive. If you attack successfully, and simultaneously
> succeed with the Fight Fair skill, you reduce the lethality
> of the attack by one, from lethal to semi-lethal to non-
> lethal to play. A special success at Fight Fair will reduce
> the attack two lethality classes. A critical success reduces
> by three lethality classes (any damage to Play). Society
> usually expects people to fight fair unless they are at war
> and will usually punish those who do not.
> 3. How to punch hard. This is a twist of the wrist that
> maximizes the force of a punch. Still, boxers learn it, as
> does everybody who learns how to fight from an instructor,
> so I don't think it is the obscure knowledge skill known in
> RQ as Martial Arts. Instead, I suspect that a full strength
> punch, which strikes its target without being deflected,
> does about 3 HP plus damage bonus in RQ terms.
> 4. How to fight dirty (aka street fighting, self-defense). This
> is the converse of the Fight Fair skill, above. If you
> attack successfully with a semi-lethal, non-lethal, or play
> weapon, and simultaneously succeed with a Fight Dirty skill,
> then you increase the lethality of the weapon by one, from
> play to non-lethal to semi-lethal to lethal. A special
> success moves up two lethality classes. A critical success
> moves up three lethality classes.
> 5. Where to hit. Martial Arts teach advanced students (black
> belt or higher) how to target weak points, pressure points.
> *This* is the semi-magical skill which, imho, the RQ Martial
> Arts skill was intended to emulate. Let's replace Martial
> Arts with a Pressure Points skill. The description would say
> that a martial artist that aims at a specific location and
> hits it with *any* weapon or hand attack, simultaneously
> succeeding with Martial Arts, increases the severity of the
> hit by one, shifting the attack from normal to special, or
> special to critical, success. Whatever this skill is called,
> it should be a very hard knowledge skill with a prerequisite
> of anatomy or First Aid at 60% or more.
I'm looking forward to your comments.
whoah,
+++++++++++++++++++++++23
Loren Miller internet: MILLERL@wharton.upenn.edu
S sign lists littles what wetland received in phire bonuse --1M Monkeys