RosenMcStern

1 hour ago, rsanford said:

I have Revolution D100 but haven't read it all yet.  Does anyone know if Revolution has any equivalent to magic points? You would also need a sorcery skill (to roll against) to make The Second Way work...

Yes, it does. It has Life Points, which replace Magic Points when casting magic. The only difference is that they are used only in advanced combat, not when you want to cast long-duration, ritual spells. In that case magic works with extended conflicts, like Archivist suggested.

It also has a Sorcery skill. It is the Concentration skill, which regulates all things paranormal. Most supernatural feats depend on it, usually rating at one tenth of the Concentration skill.

As the time for a new print run approaches, I am collecting a list of small changes that might amend/enhance the new version without being different enough to constitute a new edition. Anyone who has an idea compact enough to fit in a space in the sidebars can suggest it here, if it is in line with the rest of the book we will consider it at least as a variant rule.

The list of changes will be made available universally for the convenience of those who have a copy from the first print run. All changes noted in the errata that comes with the current edition will be included, too.

Things that I have already included in the list:

• Restoring the missing "transfer one die instead of inflicting two dice" option on an advantage roll in a conflict exchange (spotted by Pansophy)

• Alternate optional limit for "Bypass Defence" based on the unit die instead of the ten die

  (to tone down the lethality of the effect)

• Changes in the Penalties for defending againt a Projection power (the current version is extremely lethal);
• Inclusion of the Cybernetic power for sci-fi settings
• Increase the number of ammunition created/enhanced in a single Craftng Conflict to 10.

Brainstorm at will!

24 minutes ago, g33k said:

I will suggest that in fact Conan DOES have magic.  Mighty thews notwithstanding, Conan often achieves -- not just the unlikely -- the impossible.  Call it a "genre convention" if you will, but as I read them, the stories are clear portrayals of a man whose abilities are more-than-human; and in that setting, that means magic.

This is usually referred to as "being larger than life". What would kill a commoner is not able to stop me. But in a context where magic does exist, you cannot conflate "doing the impossible" and "using magic". The game mechanics should work differently.

20 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

Now, if the Hulk manages to hit a character such as Hawkeye with a punch, the odds are Hawkeye just got a body party horribly mauled, and is most likely dead or dying. This is probably fairly realistic as to what should happen to a (nearly) normal human who gut hit by something with so much force, but is isn't how things tend to work out in the comics.  

Now what you really need for supers to "work" is a way to make the combat less lethal. The boxed Superworld RPG had some stuff to do that, but even so, it wasn't such a great fit. In the end they were trying to recreate the wheel (that is Champions). It is usually much easier to use a less lethal setting that better suits the comics that try to shoehorn a system that doesn't fit so well. 

I cannot remember any occurrences of the Hulk hitting Hawkeye either in the comics or in the movies. Yes, he could reduce him to a pulp, but this simply does not happen. Superhero comics are regulated by genre tropes and not physical laws.

The problem here is the attempt to use the typical D&D concept of "you are hit but you have enough HP" to emulate the comics. But in fact you are creating a totally different narrative, which might break suspension of disbelief .

A good simulationist ruleset for supers is one based on the concept of "not being hit" rather than "hit point inflation". In this sense, BRP is under some aspects a good system for supers because you know that your character is not supposed to survive even one single hit, if the opponent is too strong. The big problem is that a bad roll might kill your character if you adopt the realistic BRP combat model. In this sense, a superhero game of BRP would necessarily have to include Fate Points, to make sure that events inappropriate to the genre do not take place.

36 minutes ago, Joerg said:

Conan or his entire world may have a magic of refutation (or a Cold Iron effect). It is his raw will or stubbornness against whichever sorcery he struggles against, or as per Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and Grey Mouser the Laugh which weakens even whatever the gods may sling at these heroes. The Laugh might be a use of passion.

In order to run a game with Conan- or Mouser-like characters, you might have to give them effective 100+ skills for their major abilities in systems like RQ3 or RQG (the latter possibly through use of passions).

I do not think RQ classic can really do Conan. The assumption that you need use magic to stay alive is too ingrained in the system. Even if you give them defenses against direct magical attacks (which requires major tweaks in RQ classic, as you use the Resistance Table - a hero should have 20-25 POW to be magically hardened), the combat model that uses sheer damage to determine whether your parry actually worked makes it difficult even for a 100% combatant to face a monstruous construct or a warrior with really heavy weapon magic.

On the other hand, effect-based combat achieves exactly this: Conan or  the Mouser's superior skills and the relative ability to generate effects on a successful exchange can compensate a monster's ability to deal a huge damage, even when the hero scorns using magic himself. Oh, and Luck Points are a big factor, too. Again a feature that compensates the non-ubiquity of magic.

I have had some debates during the last weeks on rpg.net about how the various incarnations of BRP/RuneQuest rendered the various sub-genres of fantasy – notably with John Snead and Loz, but several other people have read and commented. I think this is an interesting subject and deserves more thought, but it is also true that speaking in general is less effective than providing a good example. Which is what I am going to do here.

My thesis here is that any ruleset has a little bit of “impedance” when you apply it to a setting, meaning that an inappropriate approach to fantasy might be ingrained in the rules. For instance, a ruleset which is built around the idea that “everyone has magic” is a little bit problematic when you want to play Conan, who would not touch anything magic with a ten-foot pole, yet kicks sorcerous asses all the time. You need some tweaking, let us admit it. And sometimes game designers tweak the setting to the rules, rather than the opposite (think of Rolemaster Middle Earth…).

On the other hand, a ruleset with even minor variations might make your life extremely easier, requiring little or no adjustments to evoke exactly the feeling you are looking for.

Here I will provide an interesting example: a setting that I have packaged with four different versions of the rules over time, three of which published: Stupor Mundi. Here we will see how the difference between what I wanted to render in game and what the ruleset provided “out of the box” changed with the evolution of the rules, and how this tells you a lot about the “sweet spot” of the rules.

Please note also that I am not implying that any of these rulesets are “impossible to use” with historical fantasy. All of them ultimately work. It is just a matter of how much you have to change until the rules are adapting themselves to the setting instead of the setting being adapting itself to the rules.

Even though all rulesets mentioned were labeled “RuneQuest” at the time, I am posting this in the general section because it applies to all d100 rulesets. Please understand that all of the examples are out of print, so you must trust the report a little bit (or skim ebay for old copies).

Version 1 (unpublished): Avalon Hill RuneQuest 3 (1984)

This is the original version of the setting from the 90s. And it is the least successful one, although the concept was successful enough to persuade me to repackage it 15 years later. Some assumptions in weaponry and armour in the AH ruleset make it less effective in a medieval environment (swords being thrust-oriented weapons, and chain mail being almost impervious to one-handed weapons). But above all, the magic rules are completely out of context: Christians and Muslims are not supposed to have ubiquitous battle magic, and the system labeling it as “coming from spirits” does not match the cultural environment, either. Migrating towards a model where only Divine Magic exists and is reusable and widely available to clerics is a necessity, but this is a major tweak to the rules. Sorcery, being unaligned with any deity, is instead appropriate to depict Ariosto-style evil magicians.

Version 2 (published in English under the OGL): Mongoose RuneQuest 1 (2006)

This version required fewer tweaks. Some adjustments for combat equipment were necessary, but this is due largely to some unfortunate design decisions that plagued that version. Divine Magic is reusable by default, although the dedicated POW mechanic is a bit clunky, so it becomes easier to model priests, monks and imams and leave laymen without magic. The existence of Hero Points helps keep people alive when they lack the ubiquitous Heal spell of other versions of RQ. The big trouble is the basic magic system, based on physical runes and the Runecasting skill: it is much more appropriate to depict pagan magic, and this shows in the published scenarios “The Hounds of Adranos” and “The Lord of the Golden Eagle”, where the party finds runes representing leftovers of pre-Christian worship of natural forces.

Version 3 (published in Italian under a standard license): Mongoose RuneQuest 2 (2010)

This version still required some work. First of all, I had to adapt the concept of combat styles to how medieval people actually used to fight. Magic was easier to represent as the Pact/Allegiance mechanics is a much better representation of how monotheist religions work, although it is still very effective for polytheism. However, some implementation details in how Allegiance works in this version made me choose to introduce an alternate mechanics based on Vows, which I had developed for Merrie England with the help of Simon Phipp and Pete Nash himself.

Version 4 (published in English under the gateway license): RuneQuest 6, aka Mythras (2012)

I think this is a good basis for discussion. It shows that not all rulesets are equally effective at modeling one specific sub-genre, and that the work of the design team can do amazing things to improve the suitability of a particular version of a system to a game world.

8 hours ago, Tanaka84 said:

Having said that, my playtest session was fantastic

Sweet!

In the following months we are going to run several playtest of interesting adventures and campaigns. Since we cannot do everything alone and - most important - blind testing is extremely useful, we would really like to set up a playtester network with which we can schedule in advance the running of important adventures.

Things that we might be able to provide in the near future:

• Sengoku Jidai campaign
• Project Kormoran for Red Moon Rising
• Nomad Campaign or Scenario (by Olivier)
• Exodus Campaign for Mecha
• Other scenarios for Mecha

Anyone interested please report here or send me a PM, or contact me via Alephtar Games contact form.

Additional suggestions by Pansophy:

Quote

How do I model the slow process of "the beast within" taking control?

Give the Player character a Trait like 'Werecreature'. The player can use this Trait with any task that he can argue is plausible. Example possible uses: Melee Combat, Perception, Intimidation.

When the player decides to change into the werecreature form, he has to run a Parallel Conflict against an Opposition of 15 (with a Skill of 50%). The Recource Point Pool for the Player is his (WIL + CON)/2. This Parallel Conflict is active as long as the player is in werecreature form. Once the Conflict is solved, he changes back.

Every time the player uses the 'Werecreature' Trait in combination with a Skill, he also has to Roll for Effect in the Parallel Conflict, using his 'Concentration(Werecreature)' Skill/Trait. This represents the characters effort to keep the beast at bay and stay in control. Once the Parallel Conflict ends (and the player changes back to his human form), one of the following outcomes are possible:

• the player lost the Conflict: he adds a negative Consequence to his character, e.g. 'severe headaches', 'blood on my hands and clothes', 'no recollection of last night'. The character lost control of the beast and it went wild, roaming freely to satisfy its needs.
• the player won the Conflict: if the character already has a negative Condition connected to the werecreature, he reduces the severity by one (crossing off one '-' bracket). In case the character does not have an existing Condition, he just kept the beast under his control - this time - and nothing else happened.

Remember, losing 11 or more points in a Conflict adds a Recurring condition, regardless if you won the Conflict or not. Also, adding a second sign to an existing Condition might warrant it to be changed to a Recurring Condition, too. Feel free to reword the newly established Recurring Condition to something more suitable.

Once the character has 5 negative Recurring Conditions, the beast inside takes over and the player lost his character to the dark side.

I have also just opened the "How d I..." sticky thread that you suggested.

A limited resource track could be modeled with Positive Consequences that you use up, instead, but keep in mind that the system is simply not designed to accomodate this kind of mechanics. It runs on other concepts than "limited resource management":

By popular demand, this sticky thread will list interesting solutions for commonly encountered problems or tropes, using the Revolution D100 rules. Rather than additional rules, these are consequences of the core rules mixed with a little creativity.

To avoid clutter, if you have a question about one of these suggestions, please start a new thread.

2 hours ago, pansophy said:

Why not inclut it to the next review of the book?

Because at 256 pages the rule set is already big enough.

It is inevitable, as you stated, that you read it more than once to understand all the implications. We need to strike a balance between the number of explicit mentions of techniques for using the rules to handle all possible situations, and page limit in order to not scare people away. For everything combat-oriented I assumed that players will experiment with various Traits, Weapons and Powers in battle and discover these details by themselves. Non-violent conflict management is more elusive and I tried to put in as many explicit pieces of advice as possible.

Why do you say so, tanaka?

The majority of powers and weapons do interact with Basic Combat, although the effect is less detailed and granular than what they would do in Advanced Combat - but this is normal, as AC is "more detailed" than BC.

Specifically:

- armour offers 1 or 2 points protection against Resolution Point damage;

- weapons do a specific die of Resolution Point damage;

- weapons with +1 or +2 to Might in addition to the attacker's Might do extra Resolution Point damage;

- two-.handed weapons still bestow a +1 to the attacker's intrinsic Might;

Powers have other important effects, for instance:

- Absorb Energy may still block elemental attacks if sufficiently powerful

- Confusion, Demoralize, Disruption, Dominate, Palsy, Smother and other direct attack spells do direct Resolution Point damage - useful with a physically tough opponent which lacks magical deenses;

- Damage Boosting adds to the weapon die, thus does extra Resolution Point Damage on a successful hit;

- Diminish or Enhance Characteristic may affect Might or starting Resolution Points;

- Fanaticism provides a Bonus to attacks;

- Grant, Improve or Suppress Trait may alter die rolls in a substantial way;

- Haste and Hinder influence Strike Rank, possibly allowing or denying preparatory actions;

- Heal and Restore allow the recuperation of Resolution Points on an Advantage defense roll;

- Neutralise Magic can be used to defend against a magical attack if you lack Willpower or another appropriate trait;

- Project Energy or Web can be used to deal direct damage to Resolution Points, like a weapon;

- Protection subtracts 1 or 2 damage when the target is hit;

- Resist Power may prevent usage of attack spell on a target;

- Shimmer still provides a Penalty to hit the target, possibly multiple times per round;

- Speedart does +1 Resolution Point damage for the additional Might, and provides a Bonus to the attack;

All these, and others, are effects that result from application of the rules, not freeform use of power traits. Nevertheless, you can still use powers such as Illusion, Form, Fly, Telekinesis, Teleport and so on to provide "narrative" bonuses in basic combat if you wish, but the majority of powers have non-narrative effects even in BC.

42 minutes ago, Archivist said:

 Revolution D100 isn't super complex, but it's subtle, and not 100% obvious how to model every trope.

Yes, this is absolutely true. This is the reason why so many people find chapter 3 "verbose": it tries to explain what is already contained in the rules, but not obvious, by providing lots and lots of examples and "how to"''s that are not new rules, but things that are a consequence of existing rules.

Good idea about the "how do I..." thread, I will do it as soon as we are over with this Kickstarter.

Yes, but I also warn you that this would be a very advanced and sophisticated use of Conflicts. It is certainly possible, and covered by the rules of Secondary Conflicts, but it requires some level of comfort with the general rules. Which Pansophy has acquired, judging from his reports. It essentially involves keeping a Narrative Time conflict "open" while the rest of the adventure goes on.

Remember also that you can "challenge" a Consequence in another conflict to get rid of it. So your werecreature could try to counterbalance its dark instincts with an unrelated action (undergoing counseling, trying exotic drugs, etc...), with Narrator permission.

Hardcover is a possibility, but I did not list it as it is not an "expansion of the line".

It might be a good time to make a summary of what you can expect to see in the future for Revolution. Here are the confirmed titles so far, and their status.

Merrie England: Robyn Hode. Done, in delivery while I write this.

Red Moon Rising. Kickstarted with success. ETA 2017, hopefully.

Wind on the Steppes. Olivier is at work on it, we might provide an ETA in the near future.

Mecha D100. Just started some playtesting, will not happen before 2018.

Secret sci-fi project. To be kickstarted in late 2017 for delivery in 2018.

A new edition of Crusaders of the Amber Coast and The Celestial Empire is in course of evaluation, and it is most likely that we will publish my Sengoku campaign as a small supplement, assuming we do not want to make an Oriental sourcebook.

The announced Homeward setting has been cancelled as it became evident that there was not a real agreement between the author and the publisher WRT the contents of the book. However, Charles is planning to use the ideas and materials, including the Philosophical Engine, in a game of his own, so no good idea will get lost.

As hinted, we are also considering a Companion book.

I hope this gives you hope that the line is supported.

I am not familiar with those systems. The big point is the same as I wrote in the other thread: Revolution D100 is not designed to use a "limited resource management" approach, so anything that links long-duration effects to magic point expenditure is not likely to work properly "out of the box", You can of course hack almost anything to fit in the rules, but it might require a substantial rethinking of some core mechanics.

I doubt that modeling these features directly would work well. The reasons, and an alternate suggestion, is as follows.

Revolution D100 is specifically designed to avoid the usual RPG techniques of "resource management" and "countdown timing". There is only one inherent resource, Life Points, and it is stricty reserved to Advanced Combat, becoming undefined and replaced by a Consequence proportional to points lost as soon as Advanced Combat ends. Countdowns are simply non-existent: there is no power, ability, spell or otherwise that lasts "X number of time units". This is a design choice.

A negative side effect of using your powers is, however, easy to model as a Consequence. Just apply an appropriate amount of Recurring, Permanent Consequences that the Narrator can only trigger when the player uses the power or alternate form (the effects of the alternate forms are the same as explained in the Totem of the Beast blessing, and are very easy to balance and adapt to your desired Urban Fantasy setting). For each (-) in the Consequence, the Narrator can give the Opposition a Bonus in a relevant non-violent conflict, or drain Life points by 10 in Advanced Combat, or apply any other nuisance, once. This works similarly to the Consequences attached to familiars and magic items for which the enchanter suffered some Resolution Point loss while enchanting, the only difference is that they are inherent to the character concept rather than the result of a conflict the player decided to run.

A limited resource track could be modeled with Positive Consequences, instead, but I really do not recommend doing so. The system is simply not designed to accomodate this kind of mechanics. It runs on other concepts than "limited resource management":

33 minutes ago, Zit said:

So I suppose that extending a Blessing can only be done with a ritual, not with pre-activating otherwise it would cost no channeling.

Correct.

Quote

But p. 196: "As already explained, Holiness has the same function as Channelling, that is it
limits the number of multi-use powers that a believer can pre-activate or sustain
with extended duration."

Shall this sentence be removed ? Or does Or did I miss a point ?

The term "multi-use powers" hints at the fact that this sentence applies to Cantrips. not Blessings. Pre-activation of Cantrips is an important tactical choice if you are expecting trouble.

Divine magic in Revolution can take many forms. Some cults have only Blessings (see Merrie England), others have a mixture of cantrips and blessings in classic RQ style. Others yet are spirit cults, like the cult of Ragana in the examples, and provide only cantrips (in a more advanced campaign they would probably use your own rules for shamanism).

In the version of Buddhism that I used in my own Sengoku campaign (quite different from Runeblogger's one for Mythras, which he has just released on his blog), Zen and Mikkyo schools teach only cantrips, not Blessings. And it worked quite well, cantrips decided the course of a battle more often than not and we did not feel the lack of Blessings at all.

In all of these context, "Holiness", that is the character's ability to focus his mind and meditate upon the nature of the Spirit World, or the teachings of the Buddhas, acts like Channelling does for arcane magicians or psychichs: it allows him to keep cantrips "on" in preparation for combat.

Yes, 10 km. If you extend a power with the pre-activation procedure range remains in zones/metres, and it is hardly relevant because in most cases you will cast an enhancement spell on a character. Only when you pre-cast some detection magic (rare but possible) is range relevant, and in this case it is the same you would apply in combat.

13 hours ago, Zit said:

So how do you find the Value of the improved power for the Conflict setting if freeforming ? You still need to refer to the attributes, don't you ?

Yes. You have to count Range for sure if you are enlarging the area or range of effect. And you have at least 1 point of Might, sometimes more when the base power has more than 1 point of base Might (for example a Confusion cantrip, or Invisibility). After which you multiply the value by 3 or 4 for the time scale. So imagine you want to enchant a forest to confound the senses of anyone crossing it. You want to leverage your Mass Confusion blessing, which is 2 points base Might, plus one point to add a close Radius of WIL x10, which is enough to cover a medium sized forest. In this case, the GM may want to force the caster to add the Target attribute, too, which is 7 for Mass Confusion, meaning the forest can affect up to 7 targets at a time. That would be 10 points of Value (2+1+7), which becomes 40 for a permanent effect. Stuff that would take Galadriel to perform.

Quote

? I haven't seen this. And I don't see the point here

P.175, "costs of pre-activation" sidebar. The rule is actually optional, but recommended when players use a lot of tactical pre-activation before combat. The advantage here is that if you enter Advanced Combat after using all of your resources for spellcasting you immediately know that you have -10 to Life Points, whereas if you enter Basic Combat or another kind of conflict you have one standard Consequence, which is already covered by standard Conflict rules. It really cannot be simpler than that: you pre-activate up to Channelling - 1, all ok; you pre-activate up to Channelling, -10 to LP or one Consequence for next combat/conflict. The Narrator might even wish to keep the Consequence as a Consequence even in Advanced Combat, as in this way it would make the character more vulnerable to offensive powers.

Quote

p.176, extended range: "...when a skilled power user unleashes his or her paranormal abilities
with an extended Activation procedure, this line of sight limitation is broken"

What is this "extended Activation" ? Pre-activation or ritual casting (conflict) ? If I extend the duration using pre-activation, does it extend the range ?

Typo. It should be "improved activation". Unfortunately, I could not use the term "ritual casting" because it would be inappropriate to psionics, although it is immensely clearer to understand when you are talking about magic. I could not find a better term than "improved activation", which sometimes invites confusion with "extended activation".

Improving means doing something on a different scale with the power, not just improving the attributes. The best example of this is the mages in Red Moon Rising. An air mage can shoot lightning in combat. Outside combat, when using ritual casting for his powers, he can make storms. Sure, the magic is improved in range, but its scope is altered, too: from a mere weapon to manipulating the environment. Please note that there are no ritual/environmental powers in Rd100: players create their environmental effects in game - like in 13th Age - by freeforming their combat spells. This is also a solution to the "but no one will sacrifice for Bless Crops or Cloud Call" problem. There is no Bless Crops spell, you just ritualise a Fertility spell like Healing Touch and use it in a freeform conflict to improve crop yield. Similarly, using Project Lightning on a scale of several kilometres around you can cause a thunderstorm.

Extending means increasing the effect duration to a higher time scale, and requires pre-casting, not a conflict. You do not expend extra Life Points in this case, because you do this outside Combat and Life Points simply do not exist outside combat. You just get a Consequence if you pre-cast stuff equal to your Channelling.

Quote

When extending + improving, only a conflict (improvement with possible consequences) is required with the value multiplied by the time scale. No pre-activation is required, leaving the channeling free.

Correct.

Quote

Question about Extending Blessings, p. 199 : "With Narrator approval, you can use Ritual casting to extend and improve a Blessing". Even if only extending it ? This would contradict the side note on page 176, where pre-activation should be used when only extending a power.

Both these paragraphs hint at the fact that the Narrator will probably need to make a ruling on the spot. In the case of Divine Blessing, the above only applies to a character willing to cast a Blessing in Narrative Time for duration purposes only, and this should be determined on a case-by-case basis, the default being "not recommended". If not enforcing the "ritual required" rule for divine magic in Narrative Time, it would become much more powerful than arcane magic, which has the advantage of being eminently extensible. If trying to extend any effect to Downtime, the magician is in fact Enchanting, and this will require a ritual (Improved casting) in any case.