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Atgxtg

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Everything posted by Atgxtg

  1. Atgxtg
    Yes, and that is why there are times when it makes sense to make rolls when failure would not be "meaningful". Using the example given for the lock and the guards - if the GM doesn't have the player roll, then the players realize that the the result of the roll isn't important.
  2. Atgxtg
    Well for one reason, so the players don't know exactly when failure is or isn't meaningful. If the players know that failure ins't meaningful then there is no tension.
  3. Atgxtg
    That just begs for a superhero named the Hornet, or the Bobcat. No wait, Hornet is better.
  4. Atgxtg
    Superworld, that is the boxed set, had rules for doing so. IIRC characters could shunt some of the damage over to their energy score. This kept the lethality, but explained why Heroes (and some significant norms) could soak a bit hit or three that penetrated their defenses. Oh, and another thing to watch out for is "blind spots" of protection. What I mean by that is accord to the BGB you have to buy armor to protect against the type of damage bing inflicted (there are about a half dozen different types in the BGB). The problem with that is if a bad guy shows up who uses one of the more obscure damage types, the hero won't have any armor to soak the damage and it could get ugly pretty quickly. A possible contingency to handle this would be to assume that all armor protects at a a fraction (one half or one third, for instance) against other types of attack. After all, a battleship's armor might have been designed to protect against kinetic attacks, but would still offer several inches of steel that would resist laser attacks.
  5. Atgxtg
    It's like Jurrassic Park. Yeah you can do it, but should you do it? What we did, we did as a sort of test to push the system to it's limits. Yeah, it worked, kinda. But there are a lot of other RPGs that are better for running high powered Superheroes. And, as nearly everyone has mentioned, the big problem with high powered characters is BRP is the lethality of the game system. In Superworld there were some work arounds, but it's a bit tougher with just the BGB. Someone like the Hulk (STR 96 ish, SIZ 30 ish) with a db of about +8d6 is going to kill (not beat up, knock out, incapacitate) most people with a single punch. Note that this includes those heroic characters without the ability to soak lots of damage. Captain America or Spiderman are pretty much toast if they get hit. Now, yes, Cap has his shield to block with and Spidey is even more agile that Cap, but with the way BRP works. sooner or later they are going to blow a roll and get hit. Then characters like Ion Man, who benefit from lots of armor, are still vulnerable to critical hits or even just the occasional high damage roll. If the Hulk rolls high for his damage and gets just 5 points through ol' Shellhead's armor, Stark is probably going to be down and dying. What you probably need, and what BRP lacks, is some form of non-lethal damage point system- so that heroes and villains can beat the hell out of each other and still survive. But, really, why go to the trouble? There are a lot of Superhoero RPGs that can handle this sort of this as good or better than BRP, and which usually have worked through all the pitfalls already, since they were designed for this sort of gaming. Plus, if you grab one of the RPGs out there to handle Marvel or DC, you can get stats for all your favorite characters instead of having to do it yourself.
  6. Atgxtg
    We had a Supergirl knock-off in old Superworld. It wasn't quite cosmic-level, it was built on the point limits - pushed them a bit, but it worked. But the campaign was more low powered and the emphasis for the character was more psychological than super-powered. Also, I was deliberately trying to push the envelope for both the character creation rules of Superworld and the setting (Wild Cards).
  7. Atgxtg
    What I didn't like about it was that most of the modfiers only applied on the first turn, and then it just keep repeating ever so many impulses based on DEX. I think to really work right, an imnpulse system would need weapon reach and integrated movement. Sop a smaller, quicker weapon could be faster, but a longer reach weapon could keep the short weapon at bay. While that doens't quite work right with SRs it doesn't work at all with impulses. At least yet. But back to my question...since the guys lacking DEX and SIZ are probably going to attack last anyway, what is the drawback if the penalties are applied to SR/DEX rank? Looks like a freebie.
  8. Atgxtg
    Interesting, but to what extent? I could see somebody with a bad DEX and SIZ not being concerned about the penalty, since he would be going last anyway. .There p[robably ins't much difference between going off at DEX rank 5 and DEX rank 1. One thing that might be neat would be a Ringworld approach, where DEX ranks didn't reset every round. Then a 1 or 2 point DEX penalty could possibly end up costing an attack over several rounds.
  9. Atgxtg
    Interesting. So according to the BRP RAW someone could still move 5m without a DEX rank reduction? I think I prefer the subtraction method rather that halving and quartering DEX ranks. Something like subtracting 1 DEX rank per MOV used. That way I could port over stuff like -1 DEX rank per magic point expended and so on right over from Strike Ranks. Hmm, lets see, if I did it that way the second shot for a missile weapon would be at DEX/2-3. And the third would be at DEX/3-6.
  10. Atgxtg
    Uh, how? AFAIK the DEX rank system never sequenced in things like weapon speed or movement. THe guy with the higher DEX acts first - even if he has to run across a room to swing his blade - before the guy with the readied arrow. With SRs missile weapons tended to go off first, and moving across a room delayed the attack by one or more SRs. Polearms had reach and so on. But none of that was ported over to the DEX rank systems. A pity, too, as part of the fun of old RQ combat was knowing when to go for a quick action of spell in order to get the attack off before an opponent's action. Spells like Heal 2 might be attempted in battle, but Heal 5 was not something worth attempting while engaged.
  11. Atgxtg
    Okay, but you also loose out on a lot of stuff that way. One neat thing about Strike Ranks is that it allows a guy with a loaded crossbow to shoot a charging foe who is 9m away before they can close into melee range.
  12. Atgxtg
    Yup, and I prefer the old RQ2 method. The SRs for stats and weapons were changed when they went to 10 SR.
  13. Atgxtg
    The trait system from Pendragon actually originated from Chaosium's old Thieves World Boxed set, as a way to handle NPCs. And it worked is a fairly similar fashion, except that there were three scores. Basically something along the lines of Trait/Average/Opposing Trait. So, for instance, someone could have Brave 60%/80%+ Cowardly. The way it worked was that rolling under the Brave score (60%) would mean the character acts bravely, and a roll of 80% or greater means the character acts cowardly. A roll in the middle range (61-80) means the character acts someone in the middle. I could see checks and improvement being used to adjust this like any other skill. Basically you could give it three check boxes.
  14. Atgxtg
    Okay, let me take a stab at it (probably on SR 7). During the declaration phase each player states what his character is going to do for the round. This can be things like attacks, spell casting, and so on. Even things like jumping from one rooftop to another or climbing a wall are actions. During the round, the GM does a count up from SR 1 to SR 10. Each action occurs on a specific Strike Rank, which is determined by adding up various modifiers. For example, an average (SIZ 13, DEX 11) person attacking with a sword (SRM 2) would normally make an attack on Strike Rank 7 (SIZ SR Modifier of 2, DEX SR Modifier of 3, plus SR Modifier of 2 for the weapon). If he were fighting something that attacked on a earlier strike rank (i.e SR1-5) then he would attack after they did. This allows you to sequence events in a combat round fairly easily. You can tell if a spell is cast before an attack goes off or not by looking at what Strike Rank the events occur on.
  15. Atgxtg
    I doubt it was a conscious decision to differiate the two systems. Probably just what came to Steve Perrin's mind when he was creating the system.
  16. Atgxtg
    Yeah. In the films, tv shows, etc. Zorro rarely gets injured, and when he does it is rarely very serious. But with the way BRP works, anyone who fights as much as he does will eventually get clipped jut from the laws of probabilities. And when that happens the injury has a very good chance of disabling the big Z. It's not a question of relative skill and stat ratings. It's simply the inherent style of the game system. In BRP even someone with a skill score of 05% can get lucky and take down a better skilled opponent with one hit. It is what keeps the fights tense and dangerous, and is a big factor in the game and one that really differentiates it from RPGs like D&D, where level is so dominant. Normally amor mitgates this effect, but the lack of armor makes swashbuckling characters more vulnerable than those in a high fantasy setting. The BRP method goes against the swashbuckling genre. Awhile back someone wanted to do something like this with Pendragon, and ran into the same problem - namely that in Pendragon much of the characters ability to continue fighting is due to his armor soaking up damage, thus turning serious blows into minor nicks or stopping them completely.
  17. Atgxtg
    Yes! A lot of complaints I see about RPG math being bad or overly complicated seems to be more a case of people simply lacking ability or interest. While someone shouldn't need to do calculus or advanced algebra to make a skill roll in an RPG, they should be able to do the type of math used in the resistance table.
  18. Atgxtg
    Maybe. And Maybe he did! Wait a few days and try again. If you still can't message him, I'll try to send him an email. I think I still got his email somewhere.
  19. Atgxtg
    It's a tough fit for BRP. The major challenge for something like that is that most people don't wear armor, so combat ends up a bit too deadly than it should be for the genre. What would help is to do something like what was done in Flashing Blades (an RPG with more than a few similarities to BRP) where half the hits were minor wounds that only did about 2 points of damage (think minimum damage in BRP).
  20. Atgxtg
    Looks like some sort of glitch - probably related to the recent change in the forums Triff instigated a few weeks back. The various files all seem to be the same exact file uploaded and updated at the same exact time. Someone should probably drop Triff a line and let him know.
  21. Atgxtg
    But which "standard version of rolling skills and tests" are you referring to? One of the complicated bits about the game is that the "standard version" has been tweaked a bit here and there over the years in the various incarnations and variants. I think most of us now default to thier own favorite version of the rules as the standard. And while most changes don't break the game, per sey, they can have a significant effect on how it plays.
  22. Atgxtg
    I've used mutations and superhero powers in their parent game systems (Hawkmoon, WoW Superworld, and the stand alone Superworld box set) and none worked as a charm. Now they were all pretty easy to adjudicate - they work just fine rule wise. But they can and do lead to characters that can be overpowering. They alsomake the game less forgiving. As the characters get more powerful and thier attacks do more damage, there is less and less of a "safety margin" and a greater chance of overkill. It not much of a surprise that in an RPG where the average person has 12 hit points, someone who can throw lighting that does 6D6 damage is going to be killing a lot of character with one hit. Mutations should be used sparringly, and thought should be given to the pros and cons of any particular mutation. Superpowers either need to be kept at low power levels, or some sort of way to mitigate the damage is needed -otherwise one good punch from the Hulk will kill off most hero PCs. The Superworld boxed set had something to do just that, and there are some options in BRP that can help.
  23. Atgxtg
    I don't know if I can reproduce it. Is that a typo, or have you promoted me to deity status? Let me know before I figure out my rune associations and special divine magic spells. Now if I could only make some other people's postings transparent....
  24. Atgxtg
    Run it maybe. Probably not maintain it though. In real life there are reasons why crews are the size the are. For instance, you want to have enough people on a military ship to run it at all times. You don't want to lose a ship because it was the crew's nap time. Yup In fact I could see Tech Levle adding into the rating of some systems. I suspect a 2 ton TL 15 particle cannon is probably better than a TL 13 one.
  25. Atgxtg
    Yup, I got rid of the list and the background returned! Now, how the list made it transparent is a mystery. Maybe something about have a quote within a list?
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