soltakss

Not really, RuneQuest and BRP are generic systems, Stormbringer is a setting-based system. BRP/RQ armour covers anything from prehistoric to far future. Armour is designed to be wearable, durable and protecting. It is not designed to protect from a bazooka shell or from being trampled by an elephant, so most armour will be designed to protect against common damage. In fantasy games this normally means hand to hand or fairly primitive missile weapons. In modern games, it covers hammers, axes, knives, clubs and firearms. In future games, it can cover knives, clubs, forceblade weapons, blasters and so on. Weapons designed to kill humans do enough damage to kill humans, so armour should protect against that kind of damage. Hence, all the D100-style games have a very similar range of damage and damage protection. Not sure that plate cannot be cut through - it can certainly be punctured and I would guess that a very heavy weapon would slash through plate. There are far more armour materials than bronze and iron. Ancients used leather, linothorax, wicker and ceramic armour. Whilst they wouldn't stop a Bastard Sword or Greatsword, they might reduce the damage enough to survive the blow. For playability, tripling bronze is quite a heavy penalty. Long-hafted weapons such as Axes and Spears tend to be wooden most of the way up, with a metal head. So, ENC and HPs should not change that much, unless they are protected by a wire coil. Why double small weapons and treble large ones? Surely, if a weapon is made entirely of bronze it should be 3 times the ENC regardless of its size. Even Viking shields were wooden, covered with leather and with a metal rim. Wicker or leather shields should be lighter and offer less protection. Wooden shields should absorb about as much as a Viking shield, as they would probably be leather bound. Stone maces are as heavy as metal ones. Spears have a wooden haft and a stone head, so should have the same HPs/Aps. Long bladed weapons should be fragile. It is a common misconception that Glorantha is a Bronze Age world. Sure, main weapons are based on bronze, but iron is relatively common for magical characters. In any case, the Gloranthan metals are analogues of real world ones, but are substantially different. I am not entirely convinced that this is true. I strongly disagree. The best modern-day flint-knappers are nowhere near as skilled as their Stone Age predecessors. Many skills have been lost or now exist in a rudimentary form compared to ancient masters. D100 systems have a relative skill base. This means that 90% is considered Mastery. Anyone who dedicates their life to the pursuit of a skill will become a master of the skill, given enough practise and talent. The ancient world had stone masons, architects, poets, painters, scholars and many more professions. Many of these were very skilled at what they did. The idea that ancient cultures did not specialise as they were too focussed on survival is just wrong in many respects. Evidence is there that many of these societies has specialised people who spent their lives doing one or two things really well. Chinese, Persians, Greeks and Romans had specialised soldiers. They were well trained for their time. Many other cultures had a specialised corps of soldiers backed up with militia. These were well-trained. Epics and tales tell of great warriors, they would have been equally skilled. No, no, no, no. Because D100 skills are relative, this means that a master of the skill is measured relative to peers. Sure, a Babylonian Priest would have a good grasp of basic mathematics but would not know of algebra, calculus, group theory and the many newer branches of mathematics. This does not mean that a Babylonian Priest should not have 90% Mathematics. What was once cutting-edge theory is now being taught in high schools., What is now cutting-edge will be taught in the schools of the future. How are ancient Egyptians and Babylonians basically cavemen with 80-word vocabularies? Did you know that more ancient languages have richer and more complex grammar than most modern languages? Vocabulary is based on what people are talking about. Ancient vocabularies are going to be as rich, if not richer than today's languages. Sure, they won't have terms for computers or spaceships, but so what? Saying that a Babylonian epic is limited and formulaic is misunderstanding the purpose of ancient epics. They were often written for specific purposes, sometimes as religious works, sometimes as records of historical or legendary people. You might as well say that Haiku or limericks are limited and formulaic. The only time that relative skills do not work well is when you have a genre mix. A modern-day mathematician going to the Babylonians would have a higher Mathematics skill, for example. In this case, it is best to establish what the baseline is and then assign a bonus or penalty to the skill. The baseline should be the predominant culture of the setting. In fact, genre-mixing also means that you do need rules for different types of armour and weapons as well, as they will be important.

One thing I have found is that fictional characters are exactly that - fictional. They do not follow rules based on logic and do not have internal logic, as their activities depend on the stories involved. Also, as each character has its own frame of reference, you cannot compare two characters from different literary works. The best you can do is to establish a base line of what to expect and then model characters on that.

World English Dictionary [TABLE=width: 100%] [TR=class: tr1] [TD=class: td1, colspan: 2]athletics (æθˈlɛtɪks) [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=colspan: 2] [/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: tr2] [TD=class: td2, colspan: 2]— n[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: tr3] [TD=class: td3n1, width: 1%, align: right]1.[/TD] [TD=class: td3n2]a. track and field events[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: tr3] [TD=class: td3n1, width: 1%, align: right] [/TD] [TD=class: td3n2]b. ( as modifier ): an athletics meeting[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: tr3] [TD=class: td3n1, width: 1%, align: right]2.[/TD] [TD=class: td3n2]sports or exercises engaged in by athletes[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: tr3] [TD=class: td3n1, width: 1%, align: right]3.[/TD] [TD=class: td3n2]the theory or practice of athletic activities and training[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] So, sports or exercises engaged in by athletes describes running, and jumping. Climbing might be seen as a specialised activity, especially in modern times.

Some people prefer it, some don't. Legend has split Swimming out, but has Athletics for other things. I can see the point, if you want reduced skill lists. I like more skills, so would prefer Climbing and Running to be different skills, but I don;t mind either way.

If you prefer, have the next hit an automatic success. That should scare the player a bit.

You need to make the roll after the exposure period. If it can be deadly after 5 minutes, then roll after 5 minutes to see if you die. If it takes 30 days and you are not exposed for 30 days then there is no need to roll. However, I would add up all exposure times, so if you were exposed for 10 days, then went away and came back for 10 days and went away again and came back again for 10 days, that adds up to 30 days exposure, so needs a roll.

I think images are controlled like attachments and you need to have a certain number of posts to do that. You might be able to do it with the Wrap HTML Tags button to refer to an image that is on the web, but I have never tried it.

I spent a lot of time with torture in the last Merrie England - The Spanish Inquisition is very good for that kind of thing.

In that case, you are right I don't have my copy of Legend available at work, unfortunately, so was going from memory. Professions certainly charge 10 points for each advanced skill.

To me, a Craft is in the doing and a Lore is in the knowing. Torturing is in the doing, so it should be a Craft, in my opinion. It is the difference between knowing that slowly pulling someone's arms out of their sockets causes excruciating pain and being able to do it without killing the person and allowing a confession to be obtained. Your torture may vary, of course.

All Advanced Skills cost 10 to buy. Normally, Backgrounds don't give Advanced skills out. If you look at all the culture skills in Legend then all are Basic skills. But, you can always handwave that in your game by saying that these are 0 cost Advanced skills, like Language (Native) or Lore (Regional).

And I'm back - they've had a lot of SPAM lately - must have clicked on the wrong user to ban. Of course, I can now no longer claim to have never been banned from a forum

Advanced skills cost 10 points to get, which should come out of your allowance.

Hi All Sorry for the interruption, but I have apparently been issued with a permanent ban on the Mongoose Forums for being a Spammer. Has this happened to anyone else or is it just me? Hopefully this is a software glitch, which is why I am wondering if it has affected anyone else. I have contacted the Administrator. Has anyone seen any SPAM posts under my username (soltakss) on the Legend Forums over the past few days? Regards Simon

Some skills are culturally dependent. many barbarian or nomadic cultures had carts, so I can see Drive as being a common skill. Similarly, many Bronze Age and beyound cultures had riding beasts, so Ride is fairly common. Pre-Columbian Americans would not have a Ride skill at all, even as an Advanced skill. This is one pf the problems with differentiating between Common and Advanced skills. Some cultures have the skills and some do not. I don't see a problem with removing Drive and Ride as Common skills and making them Advanced for some cultures, but others should still have them as Common skills. Steppe nomads would definitely have both Drive and Ride as Common Skills, for example.

j0nnyfive is alive! Yep, that's about as good as you'll get, I think.

Yep, exactly. If they developed nuclear weapons then they either nuked themselves, survived and still became technologically advanced, in which case they are a huge threat, or they managed to avoid nuking themselves and became technologically advanced, in which case they are an even bigger threat. If they didn't develop nukes then they either have something else or don't need powerful weapons, either way they are a threat. I always assumed that any encounter with a space-faring alien species is one of weak humans vs powerful aliens. You counter their weapons superiority by severely upgrading or being extremely hostile/persistent. The other technique would be to be nice and peaceful all the while, just in case.

Legend either assumes that people are literate or not. Having a Literacy skill will work without any problems.

Sounds good to me. However, I am interested in anything BRP/RQ/Legend based. PDFs tend to be cheap and don't fill my study, so I don't mind buying lots of supplements.

What this really means is that BRP is not suitable for SuperHeroes.

When you start playing it, you will see how easy it is to use in practice. Having said that, some people absolutely hate the idea and will not use percentile systems, often because of the very concerns that you raised. I can't see it myself, but people should use whichever systems they are happiest with.

Yes, basically 90% means that you are a master of the skill, the "best" that a normal person is likely to be. Any more means that you are superb, incredible and so on. So, thinking of 100% as the best that a normal human could be works very well.

Status is only important in settings where status is important. So, at a feast, the local bigwig puts you at the lower table, even though your Status is higher than his. You could use it to move to a higher table - "Don't you know who I am?". You play an impoverished noble who turns up as a beggar to a court. You use your Status to cadge a free meal and new clothes. You play a socialite who wants to get ion on the best parties but the bouncers try to stop you. Use Status to intimidate them into letting you in. Status measures your status in society. Allegiance measures your status in a cult or organization. They can be used together but are not the same skill at all. In fact, some cults might not care about your Status - "I don't care who you are, unless you have passed the fourth degree then you cannot enter this part of the temple". Obviously, having a high Status can win influence in certain situations.

OK, try this. 100% means that you should be able to succeed in using a skill under optimal circumstances most of the time. However, BRP has modifiers for difficulty. A Difficult roll means your skill is halved. So, someone who is pretty good with a skill, say Climbing, most of the time should be able to climb a wall fairly easily. However, if he is climbing a mountain in a blizzard then his skill would be halved. Someone with 100% skill has a 50% chance of climbing the mountain in a blizzard. Someone with 200% Climbing can climb the mountain in a blizzard most of the time. Also, some special effects rely on scoring a Special or Critical roll. If your normal chance is 100% then you special on a 20 and critical on 05. If your skill is 200% then you special on 40 and critical on 10. This means that people with higher skills than 100% have a better chance of getting a better result. Finally, in combat, people with more than 100% skill can do more things. If you make multiple attacks then you split your skill across the attacks. So, someone with 100% could attack twice at 50% with the same weapon. Someone with a skill of 200% could attack twice at 100%. The higher skill indicates a higher proficiency. What happens if you are doing something very difficult? Do you automatically succeed? Nope. It is just a matter of perception. Your idea of what 100% means isn't the same as ours. With magic, if you can increase your skill level by 20% and are at 90% what happens? Sure, increasing crits gives you a way of handling that, but it is a less elegant solution than having skills over 100%.

A few supplements have setting-specific creatures, which I prefer. Basic Creatures has all the creatures from RQ3 for BRP. Monsters of Legend has standard creatures, Monsters of Legend 2 has strange ones. It all depends on what you want.