Re: House Rules/Brontosaurs in Prax

From: Simon Phipp <soltakss>
Date: Tue Apr 24 12:48:43 2007

Steve:
> Greetings, fellow Dragon Pass fans! I'm told this is the place to discuss
> rulesy questions about DP, NG etc. I see from the archives (back to '02)
> that you good people have been thinking about similar sorts of things as I
> have, so it's encouraged me to inflict on you twenty years worth of my
> rules-tinkerings. These are our House Rules for Dragon Pass. Quite a few
> are new and untested - others are well tried-and-trusted. Can you tell which is
> which?

I liked some of the house rules, not too sure about others.

The Ones I liked:

3. Dragonfights eliminate ALL units surrounding and stacked with the Dragon.

Serves them right and seems fair enough. Superheroes should protect, though.

1. Diplomacy Points are used to buy-back lost units, even Spirits, magical, special and allied units. Each turn up to 25 points worth of units may be bought-back and placed, during the Diplomacy segment. Replacements cost the sum of their CF + MF +1 per symbol and, if their RF is non-blank, plus MgF +RF.

Good idea.

1. Superheroes fight in combat with CF of 10, but cannot be disrupted and cost 20 to eliminate as a casualty.

We used 12 rather than 10 and only used the 20 when they went berserk after their best friend was killed.

1. Physical Magic adds to the CF of any units attacking in Melee Combat.

Sounds good to me.

The Ones I'm not sure of:

1. No Defender Doubling: combats are resolved by each side rolling simultaneously.

This doesn't give an advantage to a counter-attack. I'm not sure how it would play out.

4. Dragon CF = 20.

I liked the fact that a dragon is as hard as everyone attacking it.

5. Assassins only kill individuals (must scout the stack first).

They can slip into a camp at night and buthcer everyone in a unit. It makes them look hard.

8. Spirits are not allocated for "DSM", but assumed to be with their magician and are put on the stack if it is attacked.

Only if they aren't being used - if they are used to attack someone else then they shouldn;t be able to help defend as well.

9. Casualties must be selected from the the top of the stack down.

So, if you put Harrek on the top of a stack then he virtually ensures the others are safe, unless you do a lot of damage.

The Ones I Didn't Like:

2. Casualties are just disrupted (Missile Fire, Dragonfights, Chaotic Magic,
assassination and sacrificing eliminate as normal).

How do you kill them? Attack and attack again? Seems a bit long-winded.

6. When a Scapegoat is chosen, it must be an individual if one is present.

Why? Surely if the Ducks killed Beat Pot then Jar-Eel would want to kill the whole of the unit.

7. Superheroes and Dragons do not give any units stacked with them immunity from Exotic/Spirit/Chaotic Magic.

It makes it easier if the have an umbrella all the time for all magic.

1. Major Independents are allied by emissaries, not Diplomacy Points. Each Major Independent allied to your opponent(s) gives +1 on emissary rolls for other Major Independents. Androgeus will only ally if the emissarying side has currently lost at least one home city. Emissaries to the Dragonewts suffer a penalty of -2 on the roll.

I'd go the other way and have everyone allied by Diplomacy Points as I don't particularly like the Emissary rules.

> Can anyone answer this DP/NG crossover question for me, please?

I'll try, but you'll probably get as many different answers as people on the list.

> Brontosaurs have an underlined MgF. So, can they really give support* in the
> Prax chaparral, or is it a misprint?
> (* and a heck of a lot of support, too, with a MgF of 10...)

I'd say yes, because a herd is a herd is a herd. You can butcher the young, drink their blood, eat eggs, use them for transport, carry fodder with them and so on. Sure, chapparal is hard to eat, but they can survive for a while if they eat enough of it. If Grazer Herds can survive in chapparal then why not brontosaurs?

See Ya

Simon