Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84 +MMDF+MULTI+2.11; site reading.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!mcvax!ukc!reading!cs.reading.UUCP!west From: west@cs.reading.UUCP (Jeremy West @ Reading Unversity) Newsgroups: net.games.frp Subject: Re: Forming our own gaming system? Message-ID: <970@cs.reading.UUCP> Date: Tue, 9-Apr-85 16:15:35 EST Article-I.D.: cs.970 Posted: Tue Apr 9 16:15:35 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 12-Apr-85 06:23:46 EST References: <1179@reed.UUCP> <26000002@siemens.UUCP> Reply-To: west@ru-cs44.UUCP (Jeremy West @ Reading Unversity) Organization: Comp. Sci. Dept., Reading Univ., UK. Lines: 137 Xpath: reading cs In article <26000002@siemens.UUCP> steve@siemens.UUCP writes: >1. Combat should (seem to) be faster to play than D&D. (D&D (or AD&D) can > be pretty fast for people who know the tables and don't use too many > weapon modifiers and critical hit tables and things, but for new people > it's usually a lot of going from table to chart to table.) Why not adopt the RQ! combat style. This gives a %age chance to hit an active opponent with a particular weapon. Do NOT be fooled by D&D calling it's roll a 'to hit' roll. It is NOT, it is a 'penetration' roll! You are assumed to hit (land a blow) automatically in the one minute melee round, and the roll is to see if you penetrated armour or caused fatigue or whatever loss of HTK represents. To see that this is so, consider a greeblie trying to throw his hammer at the alarm button on the wall. What IS the AC of a button on the wall? At least with a "%age chance to hit" system you have something to work on. Combat is always faster under this sytem since there are NO tables to consult. Each player knows how good he/she is with a particular weapon. If you ignore critical hits and fumbles combat reduces to one roll 'to hit' and another for damage. Armour reduces damage, of course, but only the DM need worry about this to start with and can make all necessary adjustments to the players 'raw' rolls. >3. It should allow for some weapons being intrinsically faster than others > as well as some causing more damage than others. A simple (?) rule I adopted for AD&D was :- Each character calculates a combat speed factor for each weapon used (this is not difficult and will not hinder play if a weapon is picked up & used). csf = (wpn speed (less 1 per pt of dx over 15))/3 (round down) giving a number from 0 to 5 initiative = d6 = reaction speed (ie lowest value goes first) segment blow lands (ie roll to penetrate) = csf + initiative. for spell casters, casting starts on initiative segment and ends at end of casting time (so a blow may disrupt casting). I use 1 segment = 1 second. Note: initiative is modified downwards by 1 for every 2" move a character has over 24". AD&D monks automatically win initiative vs non-hasted opponents by about 12th level under this rule. This beefs the poor buggers up a bit, Ghod knows they need all the help they can get. >4. It should allow for people to increase their proficiency in a weapon > by reasonably small increments, and to have proficiency built in from > the start. Use a %age to hit system, where armour absorbs damage. It really can fit into anotherwise bog-standard AD&D system. Use the RQ! system of increasing proficiency (roll > current %age to increase by 5% (or d10% or whatever)). >5. I am not particularly interested in critical hits, so hit location is > not of interest. I too think crits & location is waste of time; if a character looses a leg he's effectively useless. Forever in a low magic world. Why not kill them its the same thing! If you want critical hits, just have them do max damage + another damage roll or something. >By the way, I have a really neat magic system, but it has one flaw that >the obvious solutions won't really fix: a magic user can go off and spend >some huge amount of time making an arbitrary number of potions or enchanted >swords or whatever and then carry huge amounts of magic with him. Any >suggestions on "realistic" reasons why magic users cannot do this, >that don't >restrict the ability to make a few potions or swords or whatever? Huge = very very very very very very very large (for me anyway!) TIME is the critical factor here, all potions, runes, swords etc which you don't want running wild take at least YEARS of campaign time to make. If you run a closed world this is the end of the problem, characters won't stop adventuring just to make a +3 sword when they can pick them up on adventures. Potions of take months not years, so they can make one or two between adventures. If you are going to have a system where mu's can make anything they want, you need to limit 1. the ingredients - their availability (after all, if you have the ingredients for a potion of healing, why sell it to someone else) and their source (vampire dust is a goody!). Basically characters have to get the ingredients themselves. 2. the method of manufacture - potions of undead control require a virgin to stir the brew (and later to be sacrificed if you want vampire control...) 3. TIME 4. COST Any combination of the above four should limit mu's nicely. Since you control EVERYTHING within your world, the characters can ONLY do what you want them to do. Normally, you don't care what they do, but in circumstances like this it is necessary to say NO! >...both became magic users, and spent a year making "runes of >illusion".... >They then set off with backpacks full of runes that they could use at a >moment's notice, effectively having hundreds of illusion spells available. >They were supposed to be able to >make some small number of runes, not hundreds; >but they were also not supposed >to hang around town so long before they left. Why not? If it pays to hang around, characters will do it. If your rules allow them to get away with it.... Limit the availability of rune quills and the special parchments; have them arrested on charges of vagrancy; ensure no hotel will accept long term bookings; have the runes nullify each other if placed within 6 inches of each other; place a time limit on how long first level runes are effective.... for every nasty devious trick they pull, be prepared with a nastier, more devious excuse as to why they can't win! --------- Have fun! Jerry {mcvax|edcaad}!ukc!ru-cs44!west ..............!ukc!reading!cs!west west@reading.cs.uucp