From: owner-runequest-rules@lists.ient.com (RuneQuest Rules Digest) To: runequest-rules-digest@lists.ient.com Subject: RuneQuest Rules Digest V4 #26 Reply-To: runequest-rules@lists.imagiconline.com Sender: owner-runequest-rules@lists.ient.com Errors-To: owner-runequest-rules@lists.ient.com Precedence: bulk RuneQuest Rules Digest Tuesday, April 10 2001 Volume 04 : Number 026 RuneQuest is a trademark of Hasbro/Avalon Hill Games. All Rights Reserved. TABLE OF CONTENTS Re: [RQ-RULES] House Rules Re: [RQ-RULES] MNM's Elementals in general Re: [RQ-RULES] MNM's elementals in general Re: [RQ-RULES] MNM's elementals in general Re: [RQ-RULES] MNM's elementals in general Re: [RQ-RULES] MNM's elementals in general [RQ-RULES] Dumping Strike Ranks RULES OF THE ROAD 1. Do not include large sections of a message in your reply. Especially not to add "Yeah, I agree" or "No, I disagree." Or be excoriated. If someone writes something good and you want to say "good show" please do. But don't include the whole message you praise. 2. Use an appropriate Subject line. 3. Learn the art of paraphrasing: Don't just quote and comment on a point-by-point basis. 4. No anonymous posting, please. Don't say something unless you're ready to stand by it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 13:09:06 +0300 (EEST) From: Olli Kantola Subject: Re: [RQ-RULES] House Rules On Sun, 8 Apr 2001, Jeremy Martin wrote: > BTW, what do most of you do for special hits? Of course piercing weapons > impale, but how do you handle crushing and slashing weapons? I've been letting > slashing weapons 'impale' and doubling damage bonus for crushing weapons (seem > to remember that from RQ1...), but it's pushing people away from crushing > weapons. I used to do that too, but the damage for piercing weapons has already been toned down to compensate for specials. In essence, when I gave specials with damage to other weapon types, piercing weapons sucked! IMO piercing weapons should still have their specials, but I use(/d) RQ4 type specials for slashing weapons. Crushing weapons on the other hand ingnored half of hard armor, but lacked nearly all special weapon techiques. Axes aren't as agile as other slashing weapons, so I gave them a bit more damage on special to compensate for the options that other slashing weapons got. Staffs had more options available, than other crushing weapons. So, slashing weapons were used by agile fighters (rapier was nice, combined the best of both worlds, but didn't do much damage), piercing weapons against large, evil mosters, who had thing hides and crushing weapons by big and tough types who didn't want or need to think about the finer points of swordsmanship. It worked quite well. Maybe I'll post it here, if someone is interrested, but modifying your own rules works better... Olli Kantola *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe runequest-rules' as the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 10:18:07 EDT From: MurfNMurf@aol.com Subject: Re: [RQ-RULES] MNM's Elementals in general - --part1_70.974a4cf.2804701f_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In a message dated 4/9/01 8:47:44 PM Central Daylight Time, MurfNMurf@aol.com writes: > Note that these are 100% un-playtested, so if anyone uses them, please let > me know how they worked out (though I've got to admit, the Lune and Shade > (which I find boring) didn't get verymuch of a makeover :) > Good Hunting! > > -Ken Murphy- > Well, they aren't _totally_ un-playtested, as I used an _extremely_ large Salamander ( POW around 100, about 30m3 or so) in a game a while back, with some nice, terrifying results. The gang had sailed across the channel and were working as mercs, hired to help defend part of Gaul from foreign invasion. The group's Sorcerer wanted to summon up a really big Elemental to give the invaders an attitude adjustment, but he'd never _actually_ used the spell before. An extremely scarry result on the Spirit Contact Table followed, and our friend with the POW of 100 was belched out. The Summon/Control roll was a 00 Fumble. At the time I was using a 1POW per size of Elemental Summoning spell thing simular to the way RQ2 does. Being so much more HUGE, whistling-up _this_ bad boy cost the Sorcerer a _bit_ more POW. Given the grim news that this whole fiasco was costing the Sorcerer 10 or so POW instead of the 3 he was planning on, he decided the Familiar would take one for the team, instead. So the Familiar was obliterated and the Sorcerer sucked of a few points of POW himself. The gawd-awful-big Salamander, under no pretense of being controlled anyway, _luckily_ veered into the enemy line and spent several melees roasting _quite_ a lot of badguys and their horses (who, not surprisingly, all broke and ran away) in an orgy of dice-rolled burn damage before it meandered back into the village that the gang was supposed to be defending, and burned it to the ground. The thing then veered off to the woods and set that ablaze before passing over a few hills until out of sight. The Sorcerer is now quite famous/infamous, and not welcome in that particular corner of Gaul. The villagers ended up rebuilding in a different spot, and, not surprisingly, roast pork is taboo there. -Ken- - --part1_70.974a4cf.2804701f_boundary Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In a message dated 4/9/01 8:47:44 PM Central Daylight Time, MurfNMurf@aol.com
writes:


Note that these are 100% un-playtested, so if anyone uses them, please let
me know how they worked out (though I've got to admit, the Lune and Shade
(which I find boring) didn't get verymuch of a makeover :)
 Good Hunting!

 -Ken Murphy-
  
  Well, they aren't _totally_ un-playtested, as I used an _extremely_ large
Salamander ( POW around 100, about 30m3 or so) in a game a while back, with
some nice, terrifying results.
  The gang had sailed across the channel and were working as mercs, hired to
help defend part of Gaul from foreign invasion. The group's Sorcerer wanted
to summon up a really big Elemental to give the invaders an attitude
adjustment, but he'd never _actually_ used the spell before. An extremely
scarry result on the Spirit Contact Table followed, and our friend with the
POW of 100 was belched out.
  The Summon/Control roll was a 00 Fumble. At the time I was using a 1POW
per size of Elemental Summoning spell thing simular to the way RQ2 does.
Being so much more HUGE, whistling-up _this_ bad boy cost the Sorcerer a
_bit_ more POW. Given the grim news that this whole fiasco was costing the
Sorcerer 10 or so POW instead of the 3 he was planning on, he decided the
Familiar would take one for the team, instead. So the Familiar was
obliterated and the Sorcerer sucked of a few points of POW himself.
  The gawd-awful-big Salamander, under no pretense of being controlled
anyway, _luckily_ veered into the enemy line and spent several melees
roasting _quite_ a lot of badguys and their horses (who, not surprisingly,
all broke and ran away) in an orgy of dice-rolled burn damage before it
meandered back into the village that the gang was supposed to be defending,
and burned it to the ground. The thing then veered off to the woods and set
that ablaze before passing over a few hills until out of sight.
  The Sorcerer is now quite famous/infamous, and not welcome in that
particular corner of Gaul. The villagers ended up rebuilding in a different
spot, and, not surprisingly, roast pork is taboo there.
 -Ken- - --part1_70.974a4cf.2804701f_boundary-- *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe runequest-rules' as the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 18:01:28 +0300 (EEST) From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Marko_Per=E4l=E4?= Subject: Re: [RQ-RULES] MNM's elementals in general >The most common Elementals are Gnomes, Lunes, Rimes, Salamanders, Shades, >Sylphs, and Undines; forming their bodies from earth, moonlight, ice, >fire, darkness, air, and water, respectively. In some system-free adventure book there was a lighting-elemental. That would be a good addition to your elemental rules. Also I have been thinking of RQ-elementals with some variations. How about lava-gnomes, steam- or poison gas-sylphs and acid-undines summoned from appropriate materials. I couldn't think anything of salamanders though. Comments, ideas? *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe runequest-rules' as the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 11:32:35 -0400 From: Tal Meta Subject: Re: [RQ-RULES] MNM's elementals in general Marko Perälä wrote: > > In some system-free adventure book there was a lighting-elemental. That > would be a good addition to your elemental rules. Also I have been > thinking of RQ-elementals with some variations. How about lava-gnomes, > steam- or poison gas-sylphs and acid-undines summoned from appropriate > materials. I couldn't think anything of salamanders though. > Comments, ideas? I've got rules for light elementals (Flares), time elementals (pauses & passages), a sylph type that emulates a small sandstorm, various genies, etc., scattered through my Greyhawk stuff, if anyone is interested. - -- talmeta@cybercomm.net - Heretic, Dilettante, & God-Machine ICQ - 12594453 AIM - talmeta Homepage - *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe runequest-rules' as the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 10:04:03 -0600 From: "Stephen Posey [TurboPower Software]" Subject: Re: [RQ-RULES] MNM's elementals in general Marko Perälä wrote: > > >The most common Elementals are Gnomes, Lunes, Rimes, Salamanders, Shades, > >Sylphs, and Undines; forming their bodies from earth, moonlight, ice, > >fire, darkness, air, and water, respectively. > > In some system-free adventure book there was a lighting-elemental. That > would be a good addition to your elemental rules. Also I have been > thinking of RQ-elementals with some variations. How about lava-gnomes, > steam- or poison gas-sylphs and acid-undines summoned from appropriate > materials. I couldn't think anything of salamanders though. > Comments, ideas? One of the (few?) things I like about *D&D is the variety of critters available, in particular I've always found the different elemental entities interesting: in addition to the typical amorphous "body of element" style beings there's a whole set of Elemental oriented "Djinn", the AD&D Salamader (which I've always thought was kind of cool), Xorn, etc. Then there's the whole Para-elemental" concept where the interfaces between the primary elements produce environments and creatures based in the interactions, lessee if I can remember all of this (no D&D books to hand): EARTH+WATER = MUD EARTH+AIR = SMOKE EARTH+FIRE = LAVA WATER+FIRE = STEAM WATER+AIR = VAPOR FIRE+AIR = HEAT Can somebody check my recollections? Seems to me I also recall lightning and maybe cold coming in there somewhere. Stephen Posey slposey@concentric.net *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe runequest-rules' as the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 11:14:55 -0500 From: "J & Ellen" Subject: Re: [RQ-RULES] MNM's elementals in general Reminds me of D&D's para- and quasi-elementals, which were published shortly before I discovered RQ. [Pause while J rummages thru his "Dragon" collection buried in his closet and digs out his May 1983 copy.] Gygax's theory was that the Inner Planes were configured as a cube. Inside of it are the Prime Material Plane and the planes of Shadow and Time. The Ethereal Plane permeates all Inner Planes. As for the faces of the cube, Fire is opposite Water, Earth is opposite Air, and Positive Material is opposite Negative Material. The edges of the cube between the planes are the para-elemental planes of Smoke (between Fire and Air), Ice (between Air and Water), Ooze (between Water and Earth), and Magma (between Earth and Fire). At the intersections of the Positive Material Plane and the four elemental planes are the quasi-elemental planes of Lightning (at the Air junction), Steam (Water junction), Radiance (Fire junction), and Mineral (Earth junction). Where the Negative Material Plane met the four elemental planes were the quasi-elemental planes of Vacuum (Air), Salts (Water), Ash (Fire), and Dust (Earth). Anyway, food for thought. - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Marko Perälä" To: Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2001 10:01 AM Subject: Re: [RQ-RULES] MNM's elementals in general >The most common Elementals are Gnomes, Lunes, Rimes, Salamanders, Shades, >Sylphs, and Undines; forming their bodies from earth, moonlight, ice, >fire, darkness, air, and water, respectively. In some system-free adventure book there was a lighting-elemental. That would be a good addition to your elemental rules. Also I have been thinking of RQ-elementals with some variations. How about lava-gnomes, steam- or poison gas-sylphs and acid-undines summoned from appropriate materials. I couldn't think anything of salamanders though. Comments, ideas? *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe runequest-rules' as the body of the message. *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe runequest-rules' as the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 12:17:54 -0400 From: Robert Stancliff Subject: [RQ-RULES] Dumping Strike Ranks > Jeremy wrote: > Uh, yeah. If this person is charging you and takes > the round to get to you, how do you get two shots? I presume you want loading to take a separate action. In olden times when you could have as many actions as your strike ranks would allow... A person with DSR of 2 could load a bow by SR3, fire SR5, reload by SR8 and fire in SR10. Whether you can do this in RQ3 is partly dependent on your interpretation of the concurrent actions rules. If drawing the arrow requires a full action, then you can never get more than one shot a round. As a simulation, two shots is clearly possible within a 10-12 second round. A practiced archer should be able to fire every 3-4 seconds depending on quality of aim desired. > Wouldn't the first shot come up when he was still quite > a distance from you? I could visualize just one well- > prepared shot, sort of like setting a spear. If the runner was close enough to reach you in one round, then he is not starting in long range. Work out the meters per round for the runner in armor and figure how many rounds it takes to cover 150 meters. Depending on your assumptions, it could be 4-8 rounds. If he is not wearing armor, he probably won't make it anyway. > I just read someone's 'Roundless Combat' yesterday > where everything is in SR, no rounds really. I tried dumping rounds for RQ and just using SR's, but the Agimori with the long spear and a modest Coord. spell was attacking every 3 SR's, while the short guy with the gladius was attacking every 7 SR's. The bonus for weapon length needs to be canceled after the first round and just use MSR + x, where x is either 2 or 3, your choice. Don't forget that there are some rules for getting within the reach of the longer weapon, which are pretty bad for the person using one. Just to ramble... I have several players who have used magic and long weapons to drop their SR to 3 or 4, but I have often seen NPC's with little or no magic who are stuck with SR's or 7 to 10. The disparity is obviously huge, but it only matters if people are permitted to take more that one offensive action in a round. As an alternative suggestion for combat... There are two distinct ways to run combat. You can determine order of action and let each creature complete their entire movement and attack before the next creature, or you can perform all movements in order followed by all combat actions in order. Under the second system the allowance of movement after combat must be canceled. The first method is probably quicker to run, but the second method should seem more real. Shorten the round to 6 seconds and allow only one attack action per round with a 'free' dodge or parry vs. a single attack each round (the 'free' defensive action cannot be traded for anything else). Only use SR's to determine the order in which people act, and it will only change when the attack form changes. Berserks and Fanatics should get a SR bonus (-2 SR?). A character should still be able to give up their attack to go fully defensive and get multiple parries or dodges. There should be a penalty (-10%?) for every additional parry or dodge. Two bound spirits can be commanded in a combat action, or one spirit can be commanded while readying or changing gear. Movement occurs once, either before or after the combat action, but you cannot move away from a fully functional adjacent opponent without giving him a free unparried attack against you at a -20% penalty for your withdrawal. If he is incapacitated or knocked back for any reason, then this pursuit attack is lost. He still has the option of chasing you on his action. Your combat action can be exchanged for an additional movement. The only action allowed when moving full is a shield rush or knockback attack. These rarely do damage, but can put an opponent on the ground for further abuse. If you are currently unengaged, you may double all movement for the round, but any attacks against you before your next action will be at +20% bonus for the predictable momentum of your movement. Movement can take special forms which require a skill roll to determine quality of success, these include Climb, Jump, Swim, and Acrobatics. Other options are certainly possible. You may only add the damage bonus of your mount to any attack if the mount moves at least double it's base movement. The attack must be into a hex adjacent to the path of the animal and into a hex ahead of the rider or else damage bonus is forfeited. It cannot occur before the fourth movement hex is entered for the move and the target must have been visible for at least three hexes (this allows time to aim). The mount must complete the full declared movement, fall from an attack, or collide with an unavoidable obstacle. If you voluntarily stop too early, you didn't have enough momentum to receive the damage bonus. Any running creature must move forward Movement / 4 in hexes (round off) between each hex face of turning. The alternative is to stop at the end of the movement and begin the next round with a new facing. I don't expect applause from most of you... any obvious flaws? Bob Stancliff *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.ient.com with the line 'unsubscribe runequest-rules' as the body of the message. ------------------------------ End of RuneQuest Rules Digest V4 #26 ************************************ *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com with the line 'unsubscribe runequest-rules' as the body of the message. RuneQuest is a Trademark of Hasbro/Avalon Hill Games. 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