sgates248
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Posts posted by sgates248
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Funnily enough, for entirely other reasons I had my copy of 1e to hand and looked it up - and it is -20! I was surprised too (so much so I I just checked again!) but it's -20 in Hawkmoon and SB 4e as well, so I guess the -30 came with the major rules changes in Elric!/ SB 5e.
Cheers,
Nick
Yeah, our group has decided to try the -30 rather than the -20 in 1e. Our next session isn't for a few weeks but we're going to try the following (excerpt from an email I sent out to our group):
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This was shamelessly pilfered from RuneQuest 6. I'm not suggesting we completely switch to the RQ6 combat system...just stealing a few rules to hopefully make our game better.
Each entity (PC or NPC/Monster) will be assigned Action Points based on their INT and DEX as follows:INT + DEX12 or Less: 1 AP13-24: 2 AP25-36: 3 APFor every additional 12 points: +1To perform an action in combat, you must spend an action point. Actions include attacking, parrying, etc. The defender will subtract 30% per subsequent parry after the first. We've been using 20% but they upped it to 30% in later editions of Stormbringer. I think it makes more sense.To fix how dumb it is that an entity can parry an attack from a large weapon using something small like a hatchet, we will also adopt the following rules from RuneQuest 6:Weapons will be give a size category: Small, Medium, Large, Huge, Enormous.If a defender succeeds in parrying, then he can reduce an attacker's damage, if any, according to the comparative Size of the weapons used. This works as follows:- Parrying an attack with a weapon or shield of equal or greater size deflects ALL damage.- Parrying with a weapon or shield of one size less only deflects HALF damage.- Parrying with a weapon or shield two or more sizes less fails to deflect ANY damage.Further, I'd like to suggest we modify the crit attack rules slightly. If an attacker rolls critical, one of 3 things can happen:- Defender doesn't parry or fails his/her parry so takes the hit.- Defender successfully parries and doesn't roll critical. The defender takes only normal damage (NOT double) but their parrying weapon is broken.- Defender successfully parries with a critical roll. The defender takes NO damage and BOTH the attacking and parrying weapons are broken.I think these rule changes will help combat flow better. We could still have issues with one-on-one combat where every attack is thwarted with a parry for a bit. Aside from lucky rolls, the only way to really remedy this is to gang up on an opponent when possible so they run out of Action Points and can't keep parrying. Also, don't forget you can do things like grapple or disarm an opponent. I will look at any rules for this in Stormbringer and if they don't exist, we can adopt the RuneQuest 6 rules for this, too. A lot of that system can be used in our game if needed.====Thoughts/Comments? I love this game by the way. It's just that the attack/parry rule was slowing our game to a halt. -
Remember that each Parry after the first is at -20; that masters can Riposte and that a parry against a critical ALWAYS breaks the parrying weapon.
Having said all that, the stalemate "problem" is a distinctive feature of SB1-4. The attack / parry rules in Elric! / Stormbringer 5th edition (and BRP and Magic World) are somewhat different.
Cheers,
Nick
Right. If each PC has one opponent though, nobody is parrying more than once so no negatives are suffered until someone is finally dead and 2 PCs can gang up on an opponent.
I haven't looked at Elric!/5e yet but will. I considered buying the BRP gold book as well. I don't own it currently and it seems like it would be good to have to help with rules like this.
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I'm running a campaign in Stormbringer 1e. So far we've had 2 sessions but one thing everyone seems to really dislike is the fact that every successful attack seems to be thwarted by a parry (I have had a lot of lucky rolls). It has made combat drag out way too long. I realize that the idea is to use multiple PCs on an opponent so that their parry percentage is decreased with each attack but when you have say 5 players and 5 or 6 opponents, that doesn't really work.
I looked all the way through Stormbringer 4e so far and it doesn't look like they had changed the attack/parry rules any. I'm not sure if they changed them after this.
One thing we have thought about doing is bringing in Action Points from RuneQuest. I'm not sure this really helps when a PC or opponent has 2+ APs and the number of attackers and opponents is equal. It seems like combat can still screech to a halt in this case.
Any ideas? Anything you've used in your own game to make this better or is there a later rule I don't know about?
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For me, the major flavour thing with running Stormbringer, Elric et al, was that the stories were epic and doomed.
One of my earliest experiences of roleplaying was when our group switched from D&D to Stormbringer after we had bought it for some variation, and mainly because of the artwork (this was the GW 1986 edition - which had a stunning cover). The system and play were all straightforward enough - but I was disappointed with my GMs adventure - which was a ho-hum D&Desque dungeon bash without much narrative drive. So I told him, and he got a bit annoyed with the criticism.
For the next session, he had prepared a much more detailed and dangerous campaign - elaborated on from one of the scenarios in the corebook. Everybody died, or got mutated or had some other horrible fate. He thought it would serve as a good lesson to us all, and we should be careful what we wished for. Little did he know, I thought it was the best adventure he had ever run and loved it!
You don’t need to have happy endings to have a good time, and in my view the anti-hero aspects of the Elric saga are a good example of it.
I loved reading this and I fully agree with you on the happy endings. Some of my most memorable gaming sessions have been when it was a struggle to stay alive. I purposely make my sessions deadly at least some of the time. It not only keeps players on their toes but it's also more fun in my opinion. I have only run a few games in recent years but there has always been at least a few deaths...especially when playing a DCC funnel...now that is hilarious.
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Awesome thanks! Sorry I wasn't clear. I am looking for the various Stormbringer editions in PDF form. I found 1st edition but would like to take a look at the others as well. If I'm not mistaken, they were available on RPGNow/DriveThruRPG a few years ago but are not there anymore.
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I just discovered this forum and I am excited as hell that I found it.
Next month (December 2014) I am slated to start running my first Stormbringer campaign. I've run/played other systems on and off for the last 30+ years but have never played this game. I came across a PDF of the 1st edition rules and I'm loving it. I love Michael Moorcock and can't wait to give this game a whirl.
There seems to be some contention regarding what edition of the rules people like to use. I chose 1st edition because my favorite editions of AD&D are 1st and 2nd so I figured I'd go with the earliest here as well. I can always move to another edition later if I want. I've been playing Dungeon Crawl Classics as of late and really like it but there is something about these rules that draws me to them.
Anyway, I'm glad I found this forum. I can't wait to read through some posts and get my campaign started.
Also, does anyone know why the PDFs are no longer for sale on RPGNow and DriveThruRPG? At least I couldn't find them...maybe I missed something.
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Stormbringer 1e - Attack/Parry Questions
in Stormbringer
Posted
I liked it, too. We'll see how it plays I guess but I think this and the other changes will help. Also, I clicked on your Unbound Publishing link and it looks like I'll need to spend some time checking that out. I have Cthulhu Dark Ages but never had a chance to play. I've also never found anyone that wanted to play Call of Cthulhu. I might be able to convince our group at some point in the future. The idea of a mini-campaign set in the Great War is intriguing. I'll be following that for sure.