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Yup. Some suggestions based from the Bond RPG, which uses Charisma and Appearance quite a bit. 1) Give reaction rolls (Charisma rolls) to see how NPCs react to the characters. I suggest adjusting this by how the players treat the NPC. If they are nice then the roll gets a bonus, if they are rude the roll gets a penalty. The use the reaction to apply modifiers to future interaction (for example a desk clerk who thinks that a PC is a "nice guy" might be more willing to help the PC find a new car, find them a better room and so forth, while a desk clerk who thinks that a PC is a jerk might not do as much for the PC as he could.). 2) Apply a modifier to Seduction rolls (and may other rolls) based on the characters APP score. A character with APP 18 is probably going to have a much easier time finding a date than one with APP 6.

I was working on a BRP variant awhile ago that did something along these lines. THe relevant points are: I eliminated base skill percentages, and instead each skill started at the base category percentage. This was something like two or three Characteristics added together. For example the Knowledge Category started at INTx2%. or INTx3% Melee was something like DEXx2+STR. The skill categories covered every skill. For instance, if a character picked up a sword for the first time, he would default to whatever his melee base percentage was. Hard Skills used half the base, and Easy skills twice the base. Stuff that cannot be done untrained, such as speaking a language that a character was never exposed to before or performing neurosurgery, would just ber at 0% as with the current rules. Skill checks and training improved individual skills (like driving, sword, read Latin, or first aid). Characters could add 1/10% the base skill category to improvement rolls. So Someone with a base of 30% with knowledge rolls and add 3%. The idea was that we only had to track a half dozen skill categories, rather than dozens of indivual skills, most of which aren't going to be improved much anyway. Not every character becomes a gem-smith or a pilot,. Also, no one is going to be rolling a skill at 10-20% unless they have to, so all we really need for those skills is a default score. Once a character puts work into a skill, then we bothered to track it.

Yes, assuming that human scale remains what it is now. But if optics and range improve, it might not be. With a powerful enough laser, that is accurate, and and the right optics shots at tens of kilometres or more could become a real thing. For instance an assassin who wanted to take out some high level official could do it from an aircraft miles away, assuming he could get a clear shot. It would probably make outdoor speeches by politicians a thing of the past, or else the politians would become a thing of the past. The only real limitation is line of sight. Let's see: D=1/2at^2 D= 1mm or 0.001m a= 9.81 m/s^2 t= (2D/a)^.5 t=(.002/9.81)^.5 = 0.1427 seconds A light beam would travel about 4280 kilometres in that time. Probably far enough out not to be a factor for a sniper, unless he is in space with insane optics, but then, at that point you don't really need a sniper to find the target manually. Not in all, cases, only in anything reasonable for a sniper. About that. Yes there is, the speed of the satellite. Unless the satellite is in a geosynchronous orbit, it will probably be travelling too fast (4 miles or more per second) for a sniper to be able to acquire the target. At that point the weapon would need to have some sort of computer guidance system that could track the satellite and even give it some lead time. A satellite 150 miles up would travel about 4.7 miles per second, or about 13 feet in the time it takes the laser beam to reach it from Earth. Yes, and at that ranges, not only does gravity become a factor again, but the high speeds required to maintain orbit would make the shot impossible for a sniper, and require some sort of targeting computer. Yeah, but I think it is outside the scope of a sniper. It more like a SAM but without the missile, so SAL (Surface-to-Air_Laser) or more actually a SSL (Surface-to-Space-Laser).

Yes, it's just that currently slug throwers do it better, mostly due to the power requirements, and durability/alignment. Lasers are just becoming practical for use as vehicle weapons, and are still away off from being practical for personal weapons.

Possibly. It depends on what else is out there. For instance a smart bullet that can lock onto a target and course correct along the way might be a better choice, if avlaible. Not really true, but the effects of gravity and delay are probably low enough to be ignored. But with a laser and good optics, it possible to be shooting at a target so far out that drop and delay might need to be accounted for. I mean, with a powerful enough laser and optics, snipers could probably shoot out beyond visual range to where curvature of the Earth becomes a factor. And enough collimation to keep the light from diffusing before it reaches the target. Not to mention Line of Sight to the target. Still, a sufficently advanced laser is a great choice for a sniper.

Thanks for the praise, but I think it's only obvious to those who bother with/think in terms of "crunch". As I often have to adapt and convert adventures from one RPG into whatever game I'm actually running (often a BRP based or related game), I end up doing that kinda thing on a regular basis.

You could use anydice to get the bell curve for the other die ranges, and then compare that to a 3d6 bell curve.

You don't even need Faerie magic, glory will do it. Both accumulate glory faster than the aging table reduces characteristics. So they are both essentially ageless.

That's pretty much the reaction roll from the James Bond RPG. A game where Charisma was so useful as to be a skill (based off of willPOWer).

Here is a link to Tennyson's Idylls of the King: The Last Tournament. ,

Well, most new tech doesn't sound all that convincing until someone actually gets it to work. Then it seem obvious. But in theory it's a path of least resistance thing.

Unless you give it some sort of velocity and make some sort of container/path for it to follow. For instance you could use a laser to make a super heated air corridor that could function as a tube to hold the plasma together until it reaches the target. The idea is that as warn air is less dense the plasma will want to flow down the thin super heated air and be blocked off by the colder denser air outside it. If the plasma is ionized gas, then an electrical charge could be used to drive the plasma in the right direction as well. This should also make them viable inside an atmosphere, with the laser burning a path for the plasma. Generally, while this is all possible, at least in thoery, it isn't yet practical. Generally modern firearms tend to do the job simplier and more effeciently, that's why they are still the dominat weapons. Lasers are the most practical alternative out of the technologies you mentioned. THey will probably be the first of the technolgies to become a practical reality, although more for vehicles than as hand carried weapons. Some other tech you might want to consider: Binary propellant weapons: These are slug throwers similar to modern firearms, but use two chemicals that react with each other to act as the propellant that push the bullet down the barrel. This allows the bullet to travel faster that possible with modern gunpowder, which means faster, more accurate, bullets that can hit targets farther out. Gryojet/rocket Ammunition: These rounds have their own source of thrust which accurate the round. This means they actually move faster and hit harder farther down range, as opposed to constantly losing energy like a conventional bullet. Some of the drawback to these round could be compensated for with advanced tech, especially rail gun technology. Smart Bullets: These round can lock onto and follow a target. They kinda exist toward or will exist in the near future for larger grenade rounds, but assuming that the technology could be miniaturized with more advanced tech, you could firearms firing little 10 mm guided missiles that can seek and follow a target.

Me too. Not to mention the fact that it would probably fold up under it's own weight. Yeah, I haven't seen the movie but gold plated seems far more likely than a gold bell. Even a light coating of gold would be a good amount amount on such a huge bell. Considering the surface area even a 1 micro coating would still end up being a tidy sum of gold. Then, as you mentioned, there is the bronze, which i probably worth at least 1/20th the price of silver. So that still £5,000!. . Which is probably far to heavy for the Vikings to transport, especially by long ship. Maybe they were planning on breaking it up into more manageable pieces? Yeah, that's what I was getting at. If truly gold it would be a game changer. It would be like winning the lottery. Smart PKs would give a good percentage of that to the King and to their Liege Lord, and probably wind up as Barons somewhere after the King uses some of his wealth to go conquer another country or three. And they'd have to get permission, and fortify their homes ASAP, as that much wealth puts them at the top of the list for anyone wanting to go raiding. With that kind of money a PK could hire the Huns for a couple of decades and carve out his own kingdom -at least until they turn on him -although they might not. They might just marry off a daughter to him, and get the rest of the gold that way. It's just so much gold that all bets are off.

I never saw the movie, do they give a weight for the bell. Just going with the fluff of it being 3 times the size of a man, and scaling up a steel bell and adjusting for gold I estimate about 47 tons! That would be something in the neighborhood of £100,000 depending on just how pure the bell was (it would have to be some sort of alloy in order to keep from caving in under it's own weight), as the exchange rate of gold to silver (10:1-20:1 ?). Still even if we went with a "low" of £47,000 libra it would be quite a lot in Pendragon.

Yes and lots of dark questions. First off read up on the Attacoti tribe of Picts. They could easily be Mythos cultists of some type. Secondly, take a close look at the Druids. One interesting thing about them is that the Romans really went out of thier way to wipe out the Druids. They didn't do that with the religions of any other peoples they conquered- generally it was pay your taxes, obey the empire, and pay lip service tot he Roman gods, but otherwise keep your own faiths. So why was Druidism signed out for extermination? What was so bad about it? Mythos? Then there are the Ladies of the Lake who seem to live in dwellings underwater. They do not seem to be entirely human, something true with most of the remaining Celtic figures in the story. Just what is the Sword they give to Arthur and why? Almost all of the mosters in Arthurian lore could in fact be some type of Mythos creature. Then there is Merlin. Just who does he follow and what is he up to. His "son of a incubus" origin certainly ties in with various Lovecraftian villains. But, as Tizun Thane has already pointed out, this sort of stuff doesn't really work well within the standard Pendragon campaign. It's great for a Cthuhlu Dark Ages type of campaign, but that is a very different type of game. For standard Pendragon a GM can put a couple of odd things on the fringes of the campaign without disrupting things but anything more pronounced will warp the game.

No, I believe it was a case of people other than Greg having a lot of input into LD. I believe that Greg wasn't entirey in charge of Pendragon at that time, and recall reading something about a supplement he wasn't happy with. Sure you should. Bears can get a lot of muscle behind thier swings. But a skilled combatant would be a lot less danger. Yes, but keep in mind that that 21 year old isn't exactly a rookie. He's spend the lat seven years training to be a knight and learning how to fight. THere are reasons why knights were so powerful. They were professional warriors in a socitey that couldn't afford many professional warriors. Yes. That's actually one of my concerns about the more recent editions. Player characters start off much better than they used to, and most of the PKs I see quickly get thier main weapons and Horsemanship of to 20, making them practically unseatable.

Is it? I thought RQG gave a bonus based on INT like in RQ2. That originated in Strombringer, although in SB the bonuses only kicked in for stats over 12 or below 9.

That's because, like most animals, they aren't all that tough compared to a skilled warrior or hunter. Yes, and it really kicks up the chance of it inflicting a major wound on an unarmored one. At 3d6 the bear would only do about 6 points (twice) through armor. Nothing to sneeze at, but not all that impressive compared to a boar, large deer, or even a big Saxon, all of which will probably inflict a major wound with a single hit, against someone in hunting leathers. It's the 3d6, twice, damage that puts bears in the lower threat ratings. At 3d6, it is hard pressed to even knock a knight down now. I think bears, like a lot of stuff from KAP 1, fell behind in the stat escalation of KAP 3/4 and 5. In KAP1, where the average knight was SIZ 10-11 the bear wound tend to force at least one DEX roll if it one. Maybe up the maul damage to 4d6?

Yup. I could sort of see linking it to whatever scrimpt immunity mechanic used in the system. Typically the heroes of stories tend to be very Charismatic, so getting (extra) Hero Points equal to CHA would work. Yes, althouth that would mean two rolls. Or maybe. if we added another degree of success or two onto the ladder (ala CoC 7th) we could use one roll against both the skill and Charisma with a success under both being worth a bump up. It does for some things, but not for others. I thin it really coes down to APP not really being worth assigning a characteristic to it.

Back in RQ3 the skill categories modified improvement rolls, making them much more important than they are in other versions of RQ or BRP. A 12 APP meant a +1% or 2% to improving various skills. THat added up over time.

Ttraits and passions, and "mental" but do not indicate intelligence per say. .Reckless isn't necessarily stupid, although it is certainly a contributing factor. Nearly, if skill bases were tied to one characteristic. I suppose setting most social skills to something like INT+APP x2% or so would work for games like CoC

I dunno. Bears are pretty wimpy compared to a knight. Skill 13, 3d6 damage, twice. That's really not much better than a footman-less in some cases. With most knight getting spear expertise and being able to hunt mounted, and getting off a lance charge, per the hunting rules, bears are "barely" a threat. I don't see a bear or most other animals being worth as much as a knight.

I would. The whole reason for the reduced glory is that it isn't all that impressive to kill a man or beast safely, from a distance, with missile weapons, as opposed to fighting it face-to face. If it was just about getting rid of the bear the squires could set up traits, put out bait, and wait.

That seems more within the realm of possibility, especially with sites like Lulu. I'm not sure what that would cost Chaosium to set up, or how much he printed book would cost the buyer. I assume there is some reason why everything on Drivethru doesn't have a PoD option. BTW, Are you looking for something in particular or just the general back catalog?

That's why Pendragon ditched INT. That and the fact that it is rather difficult to play a character with an INT score that varies very much from your own.