Bell Digest vol01p09.txt

Subject: RQ Digest,  Volume 1,  Number 9

This issue:
	RQ Training			(Andrew Bell)
	Previous experience		(Andrew Bell)
	A new look at characteristics	(Andrew Bell)
        Size mod for RQ                 (Steven A. Schrader)
	Re: Size mod for RQ		(Andrew Bell)
        Armor and hit locations         (Mark Abbott)

Editor's note:  If you have cults,  new spells,  interesting NPCs,  adventure
write-ups or the like that is too large or inappropriate for the Digest itself,
send them to me and I can archive them and announce their existence in the
following issue.  It is my intention after every volume (12 issues maybe) to
send all and sundry an article list for that volume,  and I'll include the
list of other things received during the time of that volume as well.

Thing(s) I have so far:

	A huge list of spells from Dave Martin  (not highly detailed)

---

From: acb@duke.cs.duke.edu  (Founder of UGGH)

Subject: RQ Training

I dislike the way people can basically train away size,  clumsiness, etcetera,
so when I compute training I consider the skill without the modifier for
purposes of cost,  time,  etc.  I limit training to 60% in general,  and allow
unlimited research.  I replace the research rules with a table based on the
average research rule results to save the time otherwise spent doing lots of
dice rolling.

With the standard rules,  this would allow one to become a RuneLord just by
spending time training.  I feel that RuneLords should have to do more for
their cult than just be prepared to be a RuneLord;  they must do some questing,
perhaps accompany a heroquester,  and so on.  Thus this isn't a problem.

---

From: acb@duke.cs.duke.edu  (More from the Editor)

Subject: Previous experience

If you have used the previous experience charts in the RuneQuest rules,  you
may have noticed that a x4 is much better than 4 x1s,  since the cost of
training is non-linear and the rate of skill increases is non-linear.  To
get a more even skill distribution,  I translated the xA into A*50 hours of
training.  I use this with my x hours of training increases you from x% to
x+1% system,  and it has worked fairly well.

---

From: acb@duke.cs.duke.edu  (Yep,  'tis me!)

Subject: A new look at characteristics

I dislike completely random attributes.  In RPGs,  a person becomes a fighter
because he/she is strong.  In "real life",  a person becomes strong because
he/she is athletic.  There is genetic variation between people,  but their
environment is a large factor too.

I would like to represent this in FRPs.  Note that this is intended to replace
any specific strength training,  con training,  or dex training rules,
although what I write now is incomplete.

Using my ideas, the Strength,  Dexterity,  and Constitution stats should be
considered as measures of the person's genetic potential,  not of the actual
statistic.  From this number and the hours of appropriate exercise the
person does per year,  we can generate their current strength.

Thus the farmboy fresh off the farm has a high strength from all his chores.
The sorceror who spends all of his time studying his books will have his
muscles atrophying.  [Likewise,  those of us who spend all day in front of a
computer...]

What is necessary to implement this system is to determine the exercise value
of various forms of exercise and training,  and determine how much exercise
(based on one's current strength and genetic strength) is needed to maintain
one's strength,  and to increase it.

To make this simpler we can say that it takes a certain number of hours of
"maintenance exercise" missed for attributes to start dropping,  regardless of
how much time that missed exercise is spread over.  Likewise,  additional
hours of appropriate exercise to increase attributes can also be spread over
as much time as necessary.  We can make it even simpler by making the amount
of maintenance or enhancement based on the difference between our genetic
strength and our current strength.  Thus a person with a 12 genetic strength
needs the same time to maintain a 10 strength as a person with 18 Gen Str. and
a 16 strength.

(Thus if we need 10 hours of exercise a week to maintain strength,   missing
one week will have us atrophy as much as if we only did 9 hours of exercise for
10 weeks.)

Any form of activity can be given a rating in terms of aid to strength,
constitution,  and dexterity.   (This is the part that is most of the work,
although we can group skills to make it easier.)

---

From: S9S@PSUVM.BITNET (Steven A. Schrader)

Subject: Siz mod for RQ

It occured to me that by the rules of RQ, size is an indication of how heavy
one is.  I am not sure being heavier makes one strike faster than a
lighter person, so I assume that they are intending to simulate reach
here.  What I thought of doing is making characters roll 1D6/10 to be
the number of meters that a person is larger than 1.6 meters.  this will
generate a person from between 1.7 and 2.2 meters high or 5.1 feet and
6.6 feet.  I would then take 1/3 of the amount of meters and find their
strike rank on the weapon length chart.  As can be inferred the system
does not allow for a lot of "reach" advantage in swordfighting.  but I
think this makes more sense than a fat person can reach quicker.

Any Thoughts??

---

From: acb@duke.cs.duke.edu  (Yep, me...)

Subject: Re: Size mod for RQ

Size in RQ is currently a very simplistic system,  that attempts to simulate
both height and weight.  Thus it affects damage bonus and hit points (effects
of mass) as well as strike rank (effect of height).  The two are to a certain
amount interrelated;  RQ adventurer types are assumed to be fairly healthy,
and thus not fat.
     I expanded the system  (and I will write this up in this journal before
too long) so that size was broken down into two components:  reach and weight.
I did not make the first one height,  simply because this is not usable with
non-humanoid creatures.  The two should be somewhat related,  perhaps equal.
To add a little variance between individuals you can roll 2D3 (or 2D4 or even
2D6 for more variance) and add (total - 4) to reach and subtract (total - 4)
from weight.
The breakdown, then,  is:
33.3% normal
11.1% tall and thin
11.1% short and stocky
22.2% slimmer than average
22.2% stockier than average

This gives you a 0,2, or 4 difference,  which you can smooth out by rolling D6
and:
1-2 subtract 1 from reach
3-4 no change
4-5 add 1 to reach

(If you have a better system,  let me know.)

Reach should affect strike ranks and weapon size limitations  (they don't
exist,  but they should),  while weight would affect damage bonus and hit
points.  The agility (and parry) modifier, stealth modifier,  and bonuses/
penalties for attacks against the being should probably use the combined score.

---

From: acb@duke.cs.duke.edu  (I love making up rules...)

Subject:  Fumbling lock picking

Mark Abbott asked me about my remark regarding failed lock-picking and
untrained pickers,  namely,  how do you determine when a picker has jammed the
lock,  or prevent the "bring along a hoard of trollkin to try and pick a lock"?
I actually have a couple of ideas:

Simple:  If you "special fail" your lockpicking roll (i.e., roll in the top
20% of the failure range), you jam the lock or break your pin,  etc.  It
requires a critical success to unjam the lock.

More complex:  Make it require multiple successes to pick a lock,  and a
failure on any one puts you a step back.  Thus a 5% chance to pick a lock is
effectively no chance at all.  A 50% chance on a "3-step" lock will take a
couple of tries,  typically.  A "special failure" (10% chance per attempt for
a 50% chance) will jam the lock or whatever,  which makes an expert lockpicker
better than two dabblers.

---

From: abbott%dean.Berkeley.EDU@BERKELEY.EDU (+Mark Abbott)

Subject: Armor and hit locations

Okay, here is my setup for using the Harnmaster systems for human
hit locations and armor.  The first table lists the standard RQ armor
types with weight, cost, and time factors.  The second table lists the
hit locations and their % of the body surface.  The final table is
a hit location table for combat.  It shows RQ location, Harn location,
and d100 rolls for melee and missile combat.

Keep in mind that much of this comes straight from Harnmaster with
only a little modification.  The weight factors have been converted
to kg from the Harnmaster pounds, and the time and cost factors were
taken essentially unchanged.  I had to fudge a bit to handle the precise
set of armor types used by RQIII and to accommodate RQ sizes as opposed
to Harnmaster sizes.  The % of body area table is a direct
copy from Harnmaster.  The hit location table uses the RQIII hit location
tables to set basic probabilities which are then further broken down
using the Harnmaster % of body area table.  I heartily recommend
Harnmaster as a source of ideas for RQers.



Armor type	weight	cost	time

Cloth		.03	.5	1
Soft Leather	.04	.7	2
Hard Leather	.055	1	2
Cuirboilli	.055	2.25	5
Ringmail	.11	14	9
Lamellar	.2	36	10
Scale		.225	24	13
Bezainted	.08	5.6	9
Chainmail	.225	50	20
Brigandine	.26	45	15
Laminated	.225	50	20
Plate		.32	65	30


Location	% of body
Skull		4%
Face/eyes	3%
Neck		2%
Shoulders	3%
Upper Arms	6%
Elbows		2%
Fore Arms	5%
Hands		5%
Thorax		12%
Abdomen		12%
Hips		9%
Groin		1%
Thighs		14%
Knees		3%
Calves		12%
Feet		7%

To use the first two tables use this formula:

(PC Size x .04 + .42) * Weight factor * %body covered = weight

Substitute time or cost factor for number of hours to construct the armor
or the cost.

As an example, we'll figure a hard leather cap for a size 10 human.  The cap
will cover his skull only.

(10 x .04 +.42) * .055 * 4= .18 kg or .18 enc
(10 x .04 +.42) * 2 * 4= 6.56 or 6.56 hours to make
(10 x .04 +.42) * 1 * 4= 3.28 or 3p 28 coppers cost

10 is the PC's size, .055 is the weight factor for hard leather (see table
above), and 4 is the % of body to be covered as the cap just covers the skull.
In the second formula, 2 is the time factor from the table above, and in the
last 1 is the cost factor.

Again for a size 10 PC, a chainmail shirt, covering abdomen (12%),
thorax (12%), shoulders (3%), and hanging low enough to cover hips (9%)
and groin (1%) would work out as:

(10 x .04 + .42) * .225 * 37 = 6.8kg or 6.8 enc
(10 x .04 + .42) * 50 * 37 = 1517p
(10 x .04 + .42) * 20 * 37 = 606 hours

Again, 10 is the PC's size, .225 is the weight factor for chain, and 37 is
the % of body area to be covered.  50 is the cost factor and 20 is the time
factor.



RQ Location	Harn Location	d100 Missile	d100 Melee
		Skull		1-2		1-4
Head		Face/eyes	3-4		5-8
		Neck		5		9-10

		Upper Arm	6-11		11-20
Arms		Elbow		12-13		21-24
		Lower Arm	14-19		25-32
		Hand		20-25		33-40

Chest		Thorax		26-43		41-47
		Shoulder	44-47		48-49

		Abdomen		48-59		50-57
Abdomen		Hips		60-69		58-63
		Groin		70		64

		Thigh		71-82		65-78
Legs		Knee		83-84		79-82
		Calf		85-94		83-94
		Foot		95-00		95-00


Even rolls are right side, odd rolls left side.  Blows which penetrate
at shoulder, elbow, or knee do +1 damage.  Blows which penetrate at groin
on male targets do +1 damage.


The hit location table is fairly straight forward.  Use d100 to generate
the location of the strike instead of the usual d20.  The Harn location
column will tell you which location's armor to use.  The RQ location will
tell you where to apply the damage using RQ hit points.

For example, a a PC hits a troll with his sword and rolls location 34
on d100.  34 is a hand, and since the roll is even, it's the right hand.
The troll is only wearing leather gloves despite his chaimail shirt so
he only gets 1 pt of armor protection.  A hand hit is part of the arm
so the damage which gets through the glove is applied to the arm.

If the rolled location had been 26 the strike would have landed on his
right wrist.  Fortunately for the troll, his wrists are covered by his
chainmail sleeves and so the blow will most likely be absorbed by his
armor.

	Mark Abbott
	abbott@dean.berkeley.edu
	{decwrl, sun, hplabs}!ucbvax!dean!abbott



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