Mugen

You're right. I put "modified" because I thought some events could change your die even if it was under 20, but I can't find any...

And given how important INT is in Sorcery, this seems like a good decision. With the Runes/Techniques rule in RQG, I don't know how sorcerers without the right Rune to learn that spell can compete.

I remember someone calculated how high INT could become if a Sorcerer tried to cast Enhance INT multiple times on himself, and the result is not the same. Your first Enhance spell is limited by your base INT, but if you cast it a second time, then the max INT you can get is now based on your newly increased INT. I remember that the bonus INT was lower after each casting of the spell, resulting in a maximum INT value for the Sorcerer. I also don't remember any mention of spells inscriptions in this discussion. It's possible you can reach even higher values with that rule.

The first sentence actually make a reference to the unmodified die roll (13), then to the increased roll (17). The second sentence here only refers to the unmodified die roll. The rule is simple : a critical occurs if your modified die equals your skill value, or if that modified roll is superior or equal to 20. Another important rule : if both protagonists roll a crit, then it's a tie, even if one had a modified roll of 26 and the other rolled 14 (with a skill of 14). If anything in an example make you think crits work differently, it means the example was not clear.

Hmm... What if a Humakti tried to use arrows with very long arrowheads, looking like tiny swords ? Surely those would cost more than standard arrows, and would perhaps be difficult to balance...

I actually made a very poor attempt at verifying my sources... I remembered Half-Trolls from MERP, and wanted to verify they existed in Tolkien's work. But I read too quickly some fan pages and came to the (wrong) conclusion HT were a thing...

But there aren't half-dwarves either. AFAIK, there are only half-elves, half-orcs and half-trolls (which I hope none were born from human mothers...).

I think we can say that it all comes from a model for damage that is inherited from D&D and basically considers that "damage" is essentially kinetic energy. Hence the higher damage output for big weapons, and the bonus damage for strong and massive opponents.

As for myself, I think having some sort of "defensive stance", like in Pendragon, would help simulating this aspect of shields. When focusing on defense, you'd put yourself behind your shield, thus gaining a bonus to parry, but your attack attempts would also receive a malus. The bigger your shield, the bigger your parry bonus - and perhaps also the bigger your attack malus... A "reckless attack" stance could be possible, where you put your weapon forward to have a better reach, making parries difficult for a bonus to attack skill.

Oh, just to return to the thread : for 5e, WotC has published a good number scenarios, which you can play with an free version of the rules, available online. So, they seem to be in line with what @lawrence.whitakersaid.

4th edition line of products was based on these results, and it proved to be not so reliable. WotC tried to maximize profit by selling the kind of products they thought players wanted. That is, essentially multiple Player's Handbooks and players option books, then monster manuals and last scenarios. But in the end, it didn't sell as much as they hoped, especially option books. For 5th edition, they tried another kind of market research. Instead of trying to figure out what their customers wanted out of their sales numbers, they did it through their playtest feedbacks. There were very few rules or technical questions asked required during this time. Instead they regularly asked "do you like option XXX ?" or "does option YYY feel like d&D to you ?" I guess the reason for that is that the number one negative answer that they got was that 4e "didn't feel like" D&D. I personally prefer 4th edition over 5th, but the latter is definitely a better selling line...

@PhilHibbsMy understanding was the same as yours. Edit : after reading the errata file you provided, it seems to me some efforts are still required. If the only change yo 2-weapons fighting is this, it seems to me it's still not possible to understand how it's supposed to work just by reading the book.

What is the SR of Shields in RQG ? If it's 3, most people won't be able to attack with them, as it would require them to wait SR 13 : SR 6 for main weapon + SR 7 for the shield. Only people with DEX SR +SIZ SR < 4 will benefit from this.

To be honest, the idea to base M-E Magic essentially on rune cults sounds odd to me. I feel like elves should be able to develop powers similar to Land of Ninja's Ki powers, reflecting their deep, almost surnatural, understanding of things and their ability to develop their art far beyond human's boundaries. Dwarves Magic is essentially linked to rune carving, which to me sounds like Sorcery enchants. Human magic seems to come from cults. But I don't know what kind of magic people thought the Necromancer used before he was identified as Sauron. Spirit Magic, "Valaric" ("Runic") or rituals more akin to Sorcery ?

And Insult Sword Fighting...

The latest edition didn't even have the Death Dealer ! https://www.legrog.org/jeux/bloodlust/bloodlust-metal/bloodlust-metal-fr

You're right. It was a game by Croc, the man that did the original In Nomine game (very different from the US version, by the way). It used a D100 skill-based roll-under system that was not BRP, but seemed very combat-oriented. Weapons attributes included a series of "drives" : Sex, Violence, Reputation... Obviously, StormBringer -the demon/weapon, not the game- was an inspiration, along with Conan's adventure. The box featured the famous "DeathDealer" by Franzetta. A new version was released in the 2010s, with a completely different system.

Sure, but I was not the one that mentionned d20 first, and I never suggested to use it instead of BRP. 🙂 As an afterthought, I think it was first mentionned because of the Mongoose OGL/d20 line.

And there's the subject of half-orcs...

Note that each of the 3 d20 D&D games has its own attributes scale, which is different from BRP. For instance, D&D4 characters start with attributes in a 8-20, and can reach 28 at level 30 through regular attributes increases. On the other hand, D&D5 characters attributes start in a 8-16 range (unless you use random generation). They can increase if you don't take feats (or some specific feats), and can never go higher than 20. And NPCs or PCs with randomly generated attributes can have values as low as 3.

Simple (except when you're French and only know the metric system...). I remember there was a SIZ chart in StormBringer and Hawkmoon first french editions, with different height range values depending on your body shape. Did it also exist in the english versions ? It was certainly not compatible with the latest BRP "canon", in which SIZ follows a roughly exponential law in its "anthropocentric" range, then becomes linear. But we already discussed the SIZ matter...

SIZ scale is not linear ! You can't just multiply it by a factor to get one's height. Also, even if it's called "Size", it is actually more strongly linked to mass than height. The relationship between mass and height is also not linear, as mass depends on one's volume. A 230 cm tall dwarf will have all his proportions doubled, and his mass is expected to be roughly 8 times the mass of a 115 cm dwarf, if all other factors remain the same. As a result, his SIZ will be far above 14.

As a matter of fact, it's very similar to how I'd do it myself. I would perhaps not put both a negative modifier and a MP cost, though. I think I'd rather let the player chose between the two. If he pays the full MP cost, he casts it at full skill. But for each MP not paid (minimum 1), he suffers a -5% cumulative modifier.

At first, I thought you were referring to Games Workshop's Steve Jackson... Obviously, WarHammer's dwarves can be described as "Jacksonian", in this context. 😄

There's a summary here : https://nehwon.obsidianportal.com/wikis/nehwonian-magic If I understand it correctly, each spell list is a skill, and to cast a spell you must roll under (skill-5*[Spell Level]) and pay [Spell Level] Magic Points.