From: owner-rq-rules-digest To: rq-rules-digest@hops.wharton.upenn.edu Subject: RQ Rules Digest: V3 #10 Reply-To: rq-rules Errors-To: owner-rq-rules-digest Precedence: bulk Content-Return: Prohibited Return-Path: owner-rq-rules-digest RQ Rules Digest: Friday, 26 July 1996 Volume 03 : Number 010 TABLE OF CONTENTS Alain RAMEAU Campaign Setting - Magic casting David Weihe RQ3 / Campaigns Settings Steven R Lieb a brutal idea RULES OF THE ROAD 1. Do not include large sections of a message in your reply. Especially not to add "Yeah, I agree" or "No, I disagree." Or be excoriated. If someone writes something good and you want to say "good show" please do. But don't include the whole message you praise. 2. Use an appropriate Subject line. 3. Learn the art of paraphrasing: Don't just quote and comment on a point-by-point basis. When paraphrasing you demonstrate exactly how well you understand the point someone was trying to make. 4. There is no number 4. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Alain_RAMEAU@total.fr (Alain RAMEAU) Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 08:43:12 +0200 Subject: Campaign Setting - Magic casting I/ I do not remember exactly what was the starting plot of my first RQ campaign (12 years ago, but I was not Game master) but I think it was in Sartar. We then quickly use the Griffin Mountain campaign. I recently started a small campaign with totally new players and I used a campaign starting that worked well : the caharcters are sartarite farmer or other crafter from a samll village and they unfortunately assist (convinced to do so) one guy (slave or prisoner) who is hunted down by a few lunar soldiers. After a small fight, they succeed to escape the soldier, but now they are obliged to leave their village to avoid it to be burnt by the Lunar Army. And they become wandering adventurers. This plot is very used in a lot of movies, I recognize it, but it is also very efficient. II/Brian Kondalski wondered about magic casting. I agree that having one roll for casting and one roll for overcoming the target is fastidious. And I was always mind by the fact that this second roll was always the same (i.e unaffected by the strength of the spell or the skill of the caster, any ceremony, ...). Would it be possible to have only one roll ? For example, the roll to be made is the casting skill (as modified by bonus, enc, ceremony, ...) minus 5% for each point the POW of the target is higher to the caster's POWER (if the caster POW is higher, no bonus, as it should not be easier to cast an offensive spell to a weak target than to cast an non offensive spell with no overcoming roll). Example: A caster (60% skill, bonus and enc included) trying to cast a spell to and overcoming a 16 POW target will have 60-(4*5)=40% chance. A ceremony (D6s increase as per the standard RQ3 rules) can raise a little bit his skill. Any other ideas or comments ? Alain ------------------------------ From: David Weihe Date: Tue, 23 Jul 96 12:04:32 EDT Subject: Re: RQ3 / Campaigns Settings > Brian J. Kondalski > brian.kondalski@cdc.com > > The only other area that I often wondered about was when a rune metal > becomes un-attuned. Obviously it does when it breaks, but what other > times does it? Can a person pick up an iron weapon that was attuned > by another person and use it with no penalty? Does it become un-attuned > when the person who attuned it dies? Can you get another person to > attune the item for you (in RQ2, only you could attune your own rune > metal). It is also supposed to "lose temper" (as it was described in RQ2) when the person who enchanted it (via 1pt Divine Intervention) died. After that, it sucked up magic cast by the wearer or wielder and was no better than the raw metal until the ritual was redone for the new owner. As to whether picking up another's sword (for example) and using it at its full capabilities, it would depend on how the attuning ritual was viewed by the GM. If the ritual attunes the weapon to the wielder only, then another's weapon would be inert in the new wielder's hands. If the ritual made a physical change to the weapon, then it would remain at full capabilities no matter who wielded it (barring Restriction Enchantments). This gives the effect that if X loses a weapon then Y can use it upon X at full strength. This seems mythically correct to me, though there are other cultures that would disagree. This also explains why the really famous weapons are so powerful even when just discovered. The person who did the enchanting/attuning is embedded in the Hero or Gods Planes, and thus still alive in some sense. Also, I feel that to the extent that the Mostali are like the European Dwarves, then a Dwarf smith should be able to attune it to you, possibly with something like a sample of your blood. It should also be possible for a Weyland/Volund-like human. Neither of these should occur very often, however. The average priest, shaman, or adept should not be able to do it, in any case. ------------------------------ From: Steven R Lieb Date: Fri, 26 Jul 1996 22:25:26 -0500 Subject: a brutal idea Watching some horrible sword & sorcery epic on Saturday afternoon tv last weekend, i got to thinking about the realism of RQ combat. Now, this *is just an idea*(!!) but what do people think ofthe following: Similar to combat in The Other Game (tm), PCs in RQ can fight without problems until their HP drop to that critical 1 or less. To mitigate this, i was just wondering, what if you added a flat 5% (or whatever number) PER HP DAMAGE TAKEN to EVERY skill roll or characteristic test the character makes? (Modifiers not to effect crits or fumbles). I know this sounds pretty brutal, but think about it - i think it makes combat more real. The battered veteran is really "battered" and (like real life) any serious injury drops the chances of a novice characters' survival to almost nil. Of course, how it affects MGF is another matter. Come to think about it, this might be how i'll handle morale for NPC's, as a rule of thumb. If the effects of the above reduce their primary "task" (bow skill for archers, move silent for sneaky guys, etc) to <0, they flee. - -Steve (liebx004@tc.umn.edu) ------------------------------ End of RQ Rules Digest: V3 #10 ****************************** This is the bottom of the RuneQuest Rules Digest. RuneQuest is a trademark of Avalon Hill, and Glorantha is a trademark of Chaosium. 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