Mugen

Well, this is a technical document and not a published game.

In this situation, I'd say High roll wins. Or low roll if you use Low Roll Wins, like in HQ2.

Thanks a lot ! In the "01- Character Creation" chapter, "Derived Attributes" section, it seems the "Move" paragraph has been merged with "Might". Unless it's a typo I introduced in my local copy... EDIT: In Chapter 05-Equipment, the note under the Elemental/Energy Damage table appears as one of the chapters in the contents of the document. In Chapter 04a, under "Hitting with the haft" : "Weapon damage is reduced to 1d3, and any extra might the weapon provides is dropped." I think "might" deserves a capital M here.

Well, the good news is that in both cases, the character with the highest ability rating has the best chances of success. However, with high roll wins the chances of success of the highest ability are better than with low roll wins. The problem with low roll wins is that, if the character with the highest ability rolls above his opponent's skill, it's his opponent roll alone that will decide who is the winner.

I'm surprised to see Spirits have a CHA and no INT. That's very different from RuneQuest 2 and 3. Spirit Combat as a skill makes sense.

For BRP games, I prefer semi-random characteristi generation, because of the many "steps" in the game and possible optimization. For instance, roll 1d6+Base for each characteristic (7 for 2d6+6), then spend X points. I disagree. In the original D&D, Wisdom was the prime requisite to be a cleric, and was of no use for a Magic-User, for instance. In more recent versions of the game, Charisma has become the source for some classes, becoming partly akin to POW, and Wisdom became also the "intuition" ability, used for Perception, for instance.

Sure, but as for myself, I don't think an "Essentials" ruleset need to cover every possible needs. I think the list I made above would be sufficient in this kind of product.

Well, you could cover a lot of possibilities with few powers: Attack (Energy) Augment (Stat) Defense Detect (Thing) Heal Illusion Mind Control Summon (entity) Telekinesis Telepathy

Given the list of thrown weapons in RQ2 (dagger, axe, rock, javelin), I'd say all are 1H weapons. Concerning the skills, I'd use the same rules as for 1H Melee weapons: if you want to learn to throw a weapon with your off-hand, you have to learn a specific skill for this, with a base of 5%. I can perfectly envision a fighter using a sword in his right hand, and a dagger in his left one, which he throws occasionally. Finally, I'd say you don't need to get rid of both weapons to use a thrown weapon, only the one in the hand you're going to use.

I did not check it myself, but, AFAIK, there were no change at all.

I do think D100 Revolution is the most interesting version of BRP I've ever read, and it would make a good and modernized "Essentials" version of the game, which IMHO neither CoC 7 nor CRQ 7-or-4 are.

The problem with Armor Class is that it works in a binary way : armor either stops all damage, or has no effect. In a system where damage is tied to margin of success, having a "Defense" attribute based on armor, Dexterity and Parry or Dodge makes perfect sense. Ther's also the attack tables in RoleMaster, which make characters in heavy armor easier to hit, but more difficult to seriously injure.

Yes. I read it 10 years ago, and I didn't rememeber it well...

Some time ago, Tweet wrote on a blog how big a fan of RQ he is, and that its only flaw was that it was a roll-under game and not a roll-over one. Edit: here it is. http://www.jonathantweet.com/jotgamerunequest.html

I'm tempted to answer MJ Sadique's post, but I think we should stop this digression about Japan.

According to wikipedia, Musashi, born in 1584, was 16 at Sekigahara, and he died at age 61, in 1645. Sure, Edo jidai lasted for more than 2 centuries after his death, but he spent the most part of his life and career in this era. I never said that. It was a consequence of the fact Edo period was much more peaceful than the previous centuries. You can't carry a lance with you as easily as a katana.

I never heard of that, and I doubt Musashi saw a lot of Europeans show their sword fighting techniques in the context of the Edo period, honestly. Samurai in the Edo period wore the daishô, so it sounds logical some tried to use the second blade in some occasions. And others did before him, actually. Anyway, my intention was to point out that, during the time where warfare was common (that is, before Edo period and Musashi's career), the main weapon of the samurai was not the sword (or swords) but the lance.

Personnally, I don't see having completely disconnected weapon skills as very "realistic" either.

Personnally, having 1 Attack and 1 Parry skill per weapon is something I see as exceedingly cumbersome. A solution would be to have only 4 or 5 skills : 1H Attack, 1H Parry (including shields), 2H Attack, 2H Parry, and perhaps Off-hand attack. And, obviously, shields need to be more effective as defensive weapons than shortswords.

In RuneQuest 3, you can wear plate over chainmail armor (or, in fact, any rigid armor over non-rigid armor). Also, base Armor Points are for bronze weapons and armors, and armors made of Iron or Steel should have higher values.

Concerning Japan, Dual wielding was definitely not common, and especially on the battlefield. Prior to the Edo period, the main weapon of the samurai was the bow, then the lance. The katana was a close defense weapon, and a secondary one on the battlefield.

It greatly depends on the shield's size. A kite shield is very good at protecting against arrows, but fly awfully bad. A buckler is highly ineffective against arrows, but can make a so-so frisbee. And between the two, there's Captain America's shield, which is good at both tasks, but... well, I think we can categorize it as a quasi-magical item. As for your question on skills, there's none for shield use in melee, but throwing a shield is a completely separate thing, so I guess a different skill would be needed nonetheless, just like there are 2 different skills for daggers in melee and thrown daggers in many RPGs.

Basically, when RQ2 was released, it was a very young game. OpenQuest benefited from years and years of experience. Fact is, such low skills are highly unreliable, and tend to have boring and random fights.

I remember a 30-years old review of RQ3 in Casus Belli (ça m'rajeunit pas...) that pointed the very smooth integration of magic in the SR system as one of the great points of the combat system. I must admit that, although I don't like the SR system in general, I've never been convinced by alternatives for Magic.

French edition says special knockback happens for slashing and bashing weapons (it's the last sub-section in the "Special attacks" section) I never used knockback, so I didn't remember the rule. As for myself, I never had a problem with empaling weapons doing more damage on a special attack, as non-impaling weapons often had higher base damage.