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 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. RuneQuest is a trademark of either Chaosium or Avalon Hill. Send submissions, mailing list changes, old article lists, etc. to acb@duke.cs.duke.edu acb@dukeac.ac.duke.edu or ...!mcnc!duke!acb Request old articles by volume number and issue number.