From: owner-rq-rules-digest To: rq-rules-digest@hops.wharton.upenn.edu Subject: RQ Rules Digest: V1 #33 Reply-To: rq-rules Errors-To: owner-rq-rules-digest Precedence: bulk Content-Return: Prohibited Return-Path: owner-rq-rules-digest RQ Rules Digest: Thursday, 1 December 1994 Volume 01 : Number 033 RULES OF THE ROAD 1. Do not include large sections of a message in your reply. Especially not to say "Yeah, I agree." Those who do will be lynched. 2. Use an appropriate Subject line. RQR: will be prepended to it. 3. Do not engage in a point-by-point analysis or rebuttal of another person's message. It is too confusing for others to follow, qualifies as nit-picking, and it usually leads to flame wars. 4. There is no number 4. TABLE OF CONTENTS David Dunham via RadioMail RQR: POW, Horse Archery, Errata Graeme A Lindsell RQR: POW, Errata David Cake RQR: POW, Horse Archery, Errata Carl-Johan Lundell RQR: Spirit magic in "official" RQ3, quest GAWINTER@aol.com RQR: Pow Gain rolls for spirits Bryan J. Maloney RQR: The errata Chris Cooke RQR: The errata PAUL POFANDT RQR: Why do writers not know the rules? Hal Bowman RQR: POW Gains : House Rules ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: David Dunham (via RadioMail) Date: Tue, 29 Nov 1994 21:45:58 -0800 Subject: RQR: Re: POW, Horse Archery, Errata >From: PAUL POFANDT >__What mechanics cover the POW gain of Allied Spirits/Familiars?__ I believe in RQ2 there was a flat 5% chance. >From: davidc@cs.uwa.edu.au (David Cake) > Err.... I think that we can probably assume that Kuschile Horse >Archery itself is not limited by your Ride skill. Yes, but it seemed more cost effective to learn Archery and Ride instead of an archery skill that wouldn't work off a horse. >From: Truls.Parsson@eua.ericsson.se (Truls Parsson) >It was mentioned that NPCs usually has a huge POW. Something about NPCs >that bother me even more is that they don't follow the rules. Specifically >I'm talking about the chance to cast spirit magic. A NPC might have 16 Pow >but his chance to cast spell say Heal 2 is 107%. Yet the rules clearly states >that the chance to cast a spirit magic spell is Pow*5 no modifiers added >and no experience gain possible. So his chance should be 80% not 107%. Not knowing the specific example, I'd remind you that the errata add the magic bonus to spirit magic chance. So the chance is probably not 80%. I see Peter is ignorant of the errata as well. These have always been available (for SASE, I believe -- which admittedly excuses both of you non-Americans) from Avalon Hill. And someone with more Net savvy can tell you where they're uploaded. Please, before you enter into rules discussions, GET THE ERRATA! >Why o why can't RQ writers follow the rules? To illustrate that the rules don't really matter? Because there are ways outside the standard rules to do these things? Because they made a mistake? ------------------------------ From: Graeme A Lindsell Date: Wed, 30 Nov 1994 18:23:31 +1100 (EST) Subject: RQR: Re: POW, Errata David Dunham writes: > > >From: PAUL POFANDT > >__What mechanics cover the POW gain of Allied Spirits/Familiars?__ > > I believe in RQ2 there was a flat 5% chance. > Which my GM likes, and uses in his RQ3 game. Which is irritating, as my Sword of Humakt rolled up an allied spirit with a POW of 5... > I see Peter is ignorant of the errata as well. These have always been > available (for SASE, I believe -- which admittedly excuses both of you > non-Americans) from Avalon Hill. And someone with more Net savvy can tell > you where they're uploaded. They're on the ftp site ftp.csua.berkeley.edu, in the directory /pub/runequest/errata, strangely enough. They've been reduced in size using the Unix compress format. Of course, this isn't much use to those on the list without ftp access (I suppose I should call them the "ftp challenged"). > >Why o why can't RQ writers follow the rules? > > To illustrate that the rules don't really matter? Because there are ways > outside the standard rules to do these things? Because they made a mistake? > Actually, I agree with Loren's comment: I don't think there are very many people who play the RQ3 rules without modifications. Still, a publication should abide by them, if only so everyone can continue to grumble about the more clumsy rules in RQ3. - -- Graeme Lindsell a.k.a Graeme.Lindsell@anu.edu.au Research School of Chemistry, Australian National University ------------------------------ From: davidc@cs.uwa.edu.au (David Cake) Date: Wed, 30 Nov 1994 17:07:25 +0800 Subject: Re: RQR: Re: POW, Horse Archery, Errata >>From: davidc@cs.uwa.edu.au (David Cake) >> Err.... I think that we can probably assume that Kuschile Horse >>Archery itself is not limited by your Ride skill. > >Yes, but it seemed more cost effective to learn Archery and Ride instead of >an archery skill that wouldn't work off a horse. > But now, Kuschile Horse Archery can be quite worthwhile. If you can ride sort of OK (say, 50%), but shoot really well (say, 100%), then Kuschile archery can up your chance to hit by quite a bit, as Kuschile starts at 25%+ bonus, and if you suceed at you roll (which doesn't cost an action) then you get your full 100% chance to hit. Of course, it does not seem to be much use for all those that are already master riders. Which is why it should allow them a few other useful abilities, like stringing bows on horseback. Actually, horse archery was pretty uncommon, so maybe it should be even harder to do without training than using other weapons from horseback. Cheers Dave ------------------------------ From: cjl@carmenta.se (Carl-Johan Lundell) Date: Wed, 30 Nov 1994 10:53:06 +0100 Subject: RQR: Spirit magic in "official" RQ3, questions On the matter of spirit magic spell casting abilities, this is from the Official RQ3 Errata: > Page 16: > SPELL CASTING ABILITY. Replace first sentence with: "A spirit > magician has a percentile chance of successfully casting non-ritual > spells equal to his POWx5, plus his Magic skill category bonus." I have some questions regarding magic in RQ3 which I would like to discuss: - - Does a Protection (Shield) spell count against critical hits? I let the AP from the spell reduce critical damage. I assume criticals are hits on spots where the armor does not cover. Protection perfectly covers the body, and would thus stop critical hits. - - Is there any limit to the number of bound spirit a person can have? In RQ2 there was a limit (CHA/4?). - - Is there a limit to the number of MP matrices a person can have? If not why would anyone bother to make a single matrix with many points instead of making several 1POW (1d10 MP)? Best regards, Carl-Johan Lundell Gothenburg Sweden ------------------------------ From: GAWINTER@aol.com Date: Wed, 30 Nov 1994 08:17:56 -0500 Subject: RQR: Re: Pow Gain rolls for spirits RQ2 had a flat 5% chance for a POW Gain roll, which resulted in few gains for the spirits. It was kind of unfortunate as you could get a wimpy Allied Spirit and it would never improve. Why not assume the Species Maximum of the Rune-level, and 5% flat thereafter. One side effect would be that AS could sacrifice for Divine magic more easily, which might over-magic a campaign. This of course depends on the cults attitudes on spiritual-priests. ------------------------------ From: jacobus@sonata.cc.purdue.edu (Bryan J. Maloney) Date: Wed, 30 Nov 94 16:23:30 -0500 Subject: RQR: The errata Y'know, since this is the RQ-Rules list, might the errata qualify to be posted as a monthly FAQ document? ------------------------------ From: Chris Cooke Date: Wed, 30 Nov 94 17:11:47 EST Subject: Re: RQR: The errata : Y'know, since this is the RQ-Rules list, might the errata qualify to be : posted as a monthly FAQ document? I would think so, who is the lucky person who will maintain the FAQ? - -- /> Chris Cooke // (//////[O]>====================================- \\ \> cookec@mml.mmc.com OR cookec@io.com ------------------------------ From: PAUL POFANDT Date: Thu, 1 Dec 94 09:15:44 +1100 Subject: Re: RQR: Why do writers not know the rules? >>I'm talking about the chance to cast spirit magic. A NPC might have 16 Pow >>but his chance to cast spell say Heal 2 is 107%. Yet the rules clearly states >>that the chance to cast a spirit magic spell is Pow*5 no modifiers added >>and no experience gain possible. So his chance should be 80% not 107%. >Actually it appears to be a house rule of Oliver Jainocovic (sp?). >Add the magic bonus to the POW x 5 and it adds up. Is this just a 'house rules' modification? I seem to recall that the RQ Errata included a similar ruling. Catch Ya Paul. ------------------------------ From: Hal Bowman Date: Wed, 30 Nov 94 19:31:23 EST Subject: RQR: POW Gains : House Rules Greetings, all! I'd like to offer my house rules on POW gains. Rule 1: For POW gains that result from overcoming the MP's of another being. Chance of POW Gain = ((Max Roll + Min Roll) - Current Pow)*5% + (X - 50%) Where X is the Chance of success in the attempt to over come the MP's of the other being. The intent of this rule is to dicourage the disruption of squirrels, etc. I'm still working on a way to distinguish 'real' from 'fake' successes as well. 'Fake' would be PC's trading disruption just for the POW gains. Rule 2: For POW gains resulting from Religious activities (I give these for HHD rituals) Chance of POW Gain = ((Max Roll+Min Roll)- Current POW)*5% + Divine Magic Pts Spent * 5% Note, there is still the problem of 'fakery', but for initiates, spending divine magic is not going to be the way to cheat your POW up. By spending a Point of DM, for which one paid a point of POW, one only increases the chance of success by 5%. I allow iniatiates to regain 1 pt of divine magic each seasonal HD. ( I still make them sacrifice MP's, FP, time, $, etc; and they have to be on really good behavior) In my setting, I have retained a 5 season calendar, allowing up to 5 regains (HHD is a SHD). Thus, spending more than 5 divine magic points becomes 'inefficient' in terms of stocking up (of course, the spells are _used_, not just spent). As for priests, well, this would mean that they could gain a POW pretty much every year, except that there are lots of places in my house rules where they get spent. Also, I play with a racial maximum of Max Roll + Min Roll. Gaining more points of POW is a result of Heroquesting. Note that gaining more POW isn't the same as gaining more MPs: these can come from bound or allied spirits, from matrices, from fetches, etc. In truth, these rules have seen limited testing, though they seem to work. Also, I am by no means an expert, and they could be fatally flawed. - - Hal Bowman habowman@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu ------------------------------ End of RQ Rules Digest: V1 #33 ****************************** This is the bottom of the RuneQuest Rules Digest. RuneQuest is a trademark of Avalon Hill, and Glorantha is a trademark of Chaosium. With the exception of previously copyrighted material, unless specified otherwise all text in this digest is copyright by the author or authors, with rights granted to copy for personal use, to excerpt in reviews and replies, and to archive unchanged for electronic retrieval. Send electronic mail to Majordomo@hops.wharton.upenn.edu with "help" in the body of the message for subscription information on this and other mailing lists.