soltakss

Maybe, although cranium size does not necessarily affect INT - Neanderthals had a larger brain that modern humans, for example. INT is more to do with frontal lobe size, probably, but I am not a biologist or doctor.

Yes, I have that Neanderthals (Red Men) are more instinctive, so start off with higher skills, but it costs double to improve non-basic skills. Devinsonians would do something similar, being of the same root, but I haven't decided what, yet, they also need a better name.

Thanks, it is at http://www.soltakss.com/rq_scifi.doc - it touches on Cyberpunk, but just in pasing, really.

Thanks, I had not seen that reference before. Southern Africa is a bit out of the way, due to the massive deserts that filled central Africa at the time, but it is worth bearing in mind.

I have added Aces High: New Mexico, Blood and Badges, A Nation Ransomed and Blood Tide to the Alternate Earth RQ Supplements page http://www.soltakss.com/alternateearthrq/AESupplements.html, which should contain the RQ/BRP/Legend/OpenQuest/Renaissance Alternate Earth supplements currently available. If I have missed any, then please PM me with the details.

It covers Long Men, Short Men and Red Men, the equivalents of Cro-Magnons, Moderns (Grimaldis) and Neanderthals, each has its own Background and set of characteristics. I will probably cover the Devinsonians if I do the Mammoth Steppe, as that will touch on the Altai, far to the south, where they have been found.

If it is straight years of school, then an average person might have between 10 and 12, starting school around 5-6 and finishing around 16, so that makes sense. A holder of a Bachelor's degree in England would probably have EDU 16, a Master's EDU 19 and a PhD EDU 22. Of course, you could have a high EDU and not have the qualification, or have the qualification and not have the EDU, depending on the life story. In the RQ SciFi document I put together, it gave Adventurers an EDUx5% boost to their skills, but this had to be applied to a certain list of skills. As for the LifePath idea, it looks good, but I didn't really understand it well enough to give it a full treatment. When I played Traveller, I was guided through it by experienced hands, so didn't need to understand the whole process. I only rolled up 2 Traveller PCs when I played and that was over 20 years ago. Having said that, it should b e easy enough to do. I suppose I should buy the Traveller rulebook, to see how it works properly, as the Mongoose Traveller SRD is not that complete. I am glad that you are trying this, Layec, as you might be able to work out any issues in it.

RQ3 Vikings had some simple and fun rules for this - Viking drinking games are wonderful. Basically, you totalled up the POT of the drinks and, when they passed a CON threshold, you rolled to see if they had an effect. So, someone with CON 14 drinking POT 6 beer was Ok for two drinks, as the POT was 6, then 12, but when it reached 18 this is higher than CON, so you made a CONx5% roll, subtracting the POT drunk, so 70-18=58%, if you succeeded you were fine, otherwise something happened. The more you drink, the more likely that something happened. At least, I think that was how it worked.

Low level magic, certainly, Mammoths, Cave Bears, Cave Lions, Cave Hyenas, Wooly Rhinos and Scimitar-Tooth Cats certainly. Dinosaurs are several million years too early, unfortunately.

Um, not sure how you found the link - that was something I was experimenting with a while ago. I don't think it has been announced yet. The link has been taken down now.

With Legend, you could mimic this with a number of Heroic Abilities - Swirling Cape might give the opponent a reduction in their chance to hit, for example.

Hmmm, the PCs from most of the CoC scenarios I have played would be over these like a rash.

RQ always used Characteristics for STR/CON/SIZ/INT/POW/DEX/CHA and Attributes for derived things, such as Hit Points/Strike Ranks. As to why this is different from D&D, I haven't a clue. Maybe because they are different games and wanted to differentiate themselves? Maybe because it makes sense for the two to have different terms.

To be honest, the way that BRP/RQ2/RQ3 uses characteristics to add to skills is harder to remember than the way that Legend/RQ6 does it. I am definitely a convert to having 2 characteristics as the base of a skill.

Although I have a bookcase full of RPG books, I only buy PDFs nowadays. For portability, ease of use and convenience, they win hands down.

So, if I roll an 01 then that's a Catastrophic Failure/Marginal Success and if I roll 100, That's an Extraordinary Success/Marginal Failure? That's completely against all the D100 systems that I use (RQ/BRP/Legend). Two opponents, A and B, with skills of 60% and 65%, the first rolls 10, the second 70, what would be the result under your table?

I prefer using Characteristics (Legend/RQ6). It is easier to use and is very generic. You don;t need to have lots of different categories and starting skills, either.

Legend and RuneQuest 6 use this mechanic.

Working in IT, have you tried turning it off and back on again? It fixes 90% of issues. Either coming out of the browser and going back in, or rebooting the computer normally works wonders.

I would think it is better to have the Legend system. The special has always been a nice to have, doing a bit more than a normal but less than a critical, but what does it really achieve? It allows thrusting weapons to impale. If you lose the Special then you get a few benefits: Maths gets easier to work out criticals The roll-high mechanic makes sense It ties in with HeroQuest, allowing you to use the HeroQuest results table So, rather than introducing specials to Legend, remove them from BRP.

I've used "Knock of the digit and double/halve" in the past and it is quick and dirty. So, with a skill of 65, remove the digit (5), leaves 6, double it for a special (12), halve for a critical (03), the special is not alway exactly right, but it close enough for most purposes. Recently, I have also used "Double roll and and a 0 to the end" or "Halve the roll and add a 0 on the end" to check the skill, which is about as quick. Rolling an 04 means I double and add a 0 to get 80, which is too high for a critical, but halve and add a 0 gives me 20, which is below 65 and means it's a special. Again, not especially accurate, but gives a good ball-park figure.

Three metre wide stairs? They must have had to move a lot of pianos.

Getting there faster now ... On the "View New Content" page, to the left of every thread, there is a button that is either a star or a circle. Clicking on that takes you to the First Unread Thread. It isn't obvious, but it is there. It might be worth posting similar tricks to a FAQ Thread.