rust

Whether it makes sense to use EDU or not probably depends a lot on genre, setting and campaign. For example, in my science fiction water world setting I have about two dozen Knowledge, Science and Technology skills, and EDU and the Knowledge roll give the cha- racters a chance to deal with the basic, general knowledge of all those skills without ha- ving to spend skill points on all of them. On the other hand, in a combat oriented fantasy campaign where only a couple of combat skills are really important, and these skills need to be as high as possible to keep the characters alive, EDU and the Knowledge roll would certainly make less sense. As for the Idea roll, it cannot replace the Knowledge roll. To give an example from my set- ting, the question "How deep can a dolphin dive ?" is something an aquafarmer could know without the relevant skill, while "How far can a dolphin hear into the infrasonic range ?" is a question which requires a skill like Science (Marine Biology) - but no amount of Intelligen- ce would enable a character to answer one of those questions with an Idea roll without ha- ving the informations.

I do not see a major problem there. While the character indeed gets less skill points for his professional skills when using EDU, he also gets the Knowledge roll to represent his general knowledge about almost every possible subject. With an EDU of 13 this gives the character a chance of 65 % to know at least a little about whatever comes up, and in the long run this seems far more valuable than a few more skill points would have been. To give the character both more skill points and the Knowledge roll would seem too much of a good thing to me.

The Celts originally lived along the Danube, from where they wandered westwards to become the Gauls (in today's France) and Britons (in today's Britain). The Saxons were an alliance of North- west German tribes, they originally inhabited the northwestern part of what is today Germany and the northeastern part of what are today the Netherlands. In 980 there would be descendants of the Celts in the Bretagne (western France) and on the British Isles, and the Saxons would be a part of the Frankish Empire in western Europe and of a mixed culture of Saxons, Angles, Jutes and Britons in what would become England. There is not much BRP related roleplaying material about these people, in my view the best descriptions are to be found in the supplements of the Pendra- gon roleplaying game, which is comparatively easy to convert into BRP.

The problem with this is that reducing the Strength reduces the creature's Damage Bonus, and depending on the specific creature and the setting this can be unwelcome. In the ex- ample of the Whale Shark ^^, a fully grown animal has a weight of more than 30 tons, so an angry (e.g. wounded) Whale Shark should be able to do considerable damage by ram- ming a boat (or a diver). Overall, I think I have given up on attempts to model creatures realistically with the BRP system, it just does not work well. Now all I try is to find a compromise between the real world animal and what I need for a specific setting. If the setting needs a creature with more Hit Points, the Constitution goes up, if it needs one with a higher Damage Bonus, the Strength goes up, and so on.

Yes, indeed. Most of my settings are science fiction, which offers a lot of opportunities to use more or less hostile environments. Not long ago the characters were on a survey mission on Sa- mar, a somewhat Mars like planet, when an accident damaged their vehicle beyond immediate repair, far from the colony's only habitat, and with hardly enough air, water and food to make it there ...

I wanted to make them not too easy to hunt. With the formula Hit Points = (CON + SIZ) : 2 the Giant Manta Ray has an average of 27 Hit Points and the Whale Shark an average of 55 Hit Points, "about right" for a science fiction setting where the available hunting weapons do more average damage than in a fantasy or modern setting.

These are the numbers I finally decided to use: Giant Manta Ray STR: 6W6+4 - 25 CON: 5W6+5 - 22-23 SIZ : 6W6+9 - 30 Whale Shark STR: 6W6+29 - 50 CON: 6W6+20 - 41 SIZ: 6W6+47 - 68 The Strength is a bit lower than the Size because both creatures are not able to use their full body mass for any activities other than perhaps ramming something, and much of the mass is more blubber than muscle anyway. The Constitution is just a pure handwave.

So did I, I just handwaved some stats which look remotely plausible.

For the setting I am currently working on I would need the stats of some really big creatures, like giant manta rays (SIZ from weight max. 45) and whale sharks (SIZ from weight max. 83). This is a bit beyond my usual range of creature design, and I am therefore not at all sure that I know a good way to determine such creatures' STR and CON. Any help with this would be most welcome.

I wonder whether one can copyright "Copyright" ...

Yep, congratulations.

It depends. Once weapons are significantly different, the movements "automated" during the training with another type of weapon can become death traps, so one has to suppress those "automated" trained movements and actually think about each weapon maneuver, which slows one down pretty badly and leads to rather clumsy moves until one has understood the weapon and found out the right way to handle it. While most of the defensive body moves remain most- ly unchanged, parries and attacks can be so different from weapon type to weapon type that an unfamiliar weapon can really turn a master into a beginner. As for the ball-on-a-chain flails, they were used during the Middle Ages as a mounted fighter's weapon with enough impact to injure someone wearing heavy armour, but they are so difficult to use that they were probably not a common weapon.

Give that character with 200% sword a ball-on-a-chain flail, and you can lean back and watch his attempts to decapitate himself ...

Still, give someone trained to use a heft balanced weapon, e.g. a shortsword, an unfamiliar head balanced weapon, e.g. a handaxe, and for several minutes he will fight far, far below his usual level of skill. He will still fight much better than someone who never had any combat training, but for quite a while he will turn from a master into an apprentice. And don't ask what happens if you force an excellent swordsman to try his hand at a halberd ...

It depends on the specific situation. For example, if the characters plan a longer expedition into uninhabited territory, I expect the players to decide what their characters will take with them, from the food and water to the ammunition, and how they intend to transport it. Du- ring the expedition I will make notes about all material that is running low, especially food and water, and remind the players of any shortage their characters might have to deal with. But under more normal circumstances, for example in inhabited territory where supplies are avail- able, I just expect the characters to pay their usual monthly life support bill, which then in- cludes all the minor stuff they will normally use.

I am looking forward to the supplements covering the adventures of Old Glyphhand and Glyphetou or Glypha ben Nemsi and Hadschi Halef Glyphar ...

As far as I know, Mongoose does no longer have the Conan license.

It would depend a bit on the genre you are interested in - what is good for fantasy is not necessarily also good for modern or science fiction. For example, if you are thinking of a Victorian or modern setting, the free Call of Cthulhu Quickstart rules could be better than, for example, GORE.

Yes and no. In my experience with rapier fencing the defensive actions are more or less "automated", but the offensive actions usually still require a little thought to choose the right maneuver for the situation and the specific opponent, becau- se an "automated attack" all too often is a predictable one, and a predictable ma- neuver usually means a lost fight. Many martial arts which are more on the side of sports have this problem to a somewhat lesser degree, because the rules limit the choice of allowed maneuvers, but combat fencing does not have any rules at all.

Well, acting quickly without thinking first is also not exactly a general recipe for success ...

A skilled spearman was trained to use his spear much like a quarterstaff with a point at one end.

A post which is really very much to the point.

Ah, I see. This is probably a MRQ thing, as I never ran into this problem with the various BRP systems I used, and MRQ is the only one I used only to mine it for ideas.

There was, I visited it just a few days ago to copy the stats of a dunkleosteus.

Hmmm, I never had any problem with Chartered Accountants in Runequest ...