[Runequest] Site update & overcoming/resistance

[David Cake]

At 1:28 PM -0400 15/7/08, Peter Maranci wrote:
>My latest thought was that perhaps it would make sense to base 
>overcoming and resistance on a combination of *both* - POW plus 
>current MP. That way being low on MP would have an impact on your 
>ability to overcome others (and to resist the spells of enemies) 
>while not making the use of personal magic points so prohibitively 
>dangerous.
>

	One issue I can see with this is, if you use the standard 
resistance table, this would effectively double the effects of any 
starting differences - ie each poing of POW gives you a 1 pt 
advantage in POW plus a 1 point advantage in base MP. So the 
'overwhelming'95%/5% success rate is reached when you have 5 pt 
advantage in starting POW, rather than 10, which seems to me to be 
much too easy. So perhaps base it on (POW + MP)/2.


>Or would it be better to retain a strong incentive for combat 
>spell-casters to get magic point storage crystals, matrices, 
>familiars, bound spirits, and/or allied spirits?

	There is always a strong incentive to get these, IMO! And if 
you look at things like old RQ2 stats, or high level NPCs statted out 
for RQ3, its very common to have enormous amounts of bound spirits 
etc. The MP + POW mechanic still gives a huge incentive for people to 
get some MP storage - as I expect the tactic of the professional 
caster/sirit combatant will be to endeavour to never have to dip into 
their own native MP for casting if they can ever help it.

	Just as aside, one interesting mechanic in relation to this 
was the Ki Powers in Land of Ninja, which always drew any magic 
points needed from the casters own, note from storage. It was an 
interesting mechanic.
	In my own homebrew rules for high powered RuneQuest, Ki 
powers were a common beginning hero power (known by different names 
for diferent cultures), and very rare Mastery rune related items 
(crystals, etc) could provide MPs that would also power Ki powers.
	Cheers
		David