Timothy Byrd wrote:
>
> Steve, thanks for posting that character. (It would have been handy
> if you'd just included it in your email, because I tend to read
> offline.)
>
> Wesley, thanks for the analysis.
>
> I think that I begin to understand. A keyword in the description will
> have a (semi-official?) set of skills that it translates to.
The Keyword sets are defined and included with the rulesset for various professions and religions eg, Healer, Warrior, Merchant, Soldier and Bureaucrat (and more of them with the various cultural ones) There's an amazing array of religios.
> So somewhere there is a table that says Lamia means "hypnotize,
> seduce, drink blood, appear human". And broo means "violent,
> impregnate, carry disease, etc."
Um, no. Each critter has its own skill set. The 'Lamia 5W2' would be a
GROTESQUE simplification. But you could see them done in, say, a few
lines.
Lamia
Lamia Combat 19 (strangle with tail, bite) Seduce 6W (and any other
skills here)
Lamia Magic Affinity 8W (Hypnotize, Lust, Drain Magic being feats)
Anything like Diease might be from Malia Initiation (Disease affinity)or
the like.
Numbers are pulled out of my empty head, btw.
> I think there will be far fewer skills than I'm used to. For example,
> it seems that all the various combat skills of my RQ paladin - in the
> sense of the idealistic knight, not the D&D class - will fold into a
> Close Combat skill.
Yes, I suppose so. Though one can take those as specializations inside the skill. There are way s to do that, I suspect.
> It still leaves me wondering. The thing about D&D that I always felt
> nostalgic about was quick character and monster generation. HW might
> well be quicker for characters and definitely seems to be for
> monsters. I like that, but it also brings back the D&D idea that "an
> orc is an orc is an orc", something that RQ rejected at a high price.
Nope. As above, one can do thumbnail sketches but anything simpler is a disservice.
> Maybe I just need to get used to the idea that for heroic tales, most
> of the opposition is faceless and undifferentiated. I guess I can
> accept a generic broo, and give them chaotic features when they're
> encountered.
Nope. Mind you, I always found that the problem with RQ was the scads of hard to bulid NPCs and the like. I remember going through all the books and photocopying every character and organizing them in a big binder to have 'Trolls at hand' or 'instant elves' or whatever I needed.
This is a lot easier and more flexible. Now, I cna have Trolls that are not Whiteeye's moderatly similar clone brothers....
Hope this helps?
Jeff
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