Jump to content

Mechashef

Member
  • Posts

    305
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

Everything posted by Mechashef

  1. Two of my sons and I participated in a CoC session at Can Con. We had a very enjoyable time and I hope we'll be back next year. A big thanks to those who organised it.
  2. I have a spreadsheet containing generated weather for each day of the year (min/max temperature, wind and rain) for my non-Gloranthan world. This is for a few reasons: In my opinion, some missile weapons are over powered if the detrimental effects of wind on accuracy are not played. Rain can slow down travel, leading to interesting encounters Ship travel becomes much less predictable and reliable The character following the Storm God has the useful ability to often predict the weather for the next day (2 days on a special roll, 3 on a critical) It just adds flavour. I use a calendar so the players know when their next holy day is, when long term sorcery spells expire etc. Having generated weather on the calendar wasn't hard to add.
  3. Mechashef

    Ghouls

    It is debatable whether this would apply. Unlike damaging venoms, ghoul venom does not have any effect until it equals or exceeds the victim's Con. If reducing the POT to below the victim's Con is enough to un-paralyze them, then I can see an argument for there not being any healing and thus no rest required. The only "healing" is purging of the remaining venom. This doesn't follow normal natural healing rules: So most adventurers will purge 2 or 3 points of POT per day. Whether rest is required to purge ghoul venom would seem to be an ambiguous point, falling into a GM's call.
  4. Mechashef

    Ghouls

    Ghouls have a nasty venomous bite which paralyzes the victim until they die by losing 1 CON per day. However it can counteracted by an antidote (spider venom is half effective). Can you take an antidote to purge venom from your system even if you are not paralyzed? For example: If an adventurer with a CON of 12 has been bitten and currently has venom POT 10, then takes an antidote of POT 6 (12 before being halved), presumably that drops their current venom to POT 4? Can the POT affecting the adventurer exceed their CON or is it capped at their CON? For example: If an adventurer with a CON of 12 is bitten and their accumulated POT is 14, is the POT that needs to be reduced by the antidote 14 (the POT of the venom) or 12 (their CON value)? If an adventurer is paralyzed, do they need to be given enough antidote to bring the POT down to 0, or is it sufficient to merely bring it to below their CON? Regarding their howl, the bestiary mentions that Countermagic, Shield and Neutralize do not protect. Can spells which remove magic, such as Dispel Magic, Dismiss Magic and possibly Neutralize Magic remove the effect? Thanks
  5. Best wishes to Matt. Your podcast is my favourite gaming one. I look forward to Matt returning.
  6. I agree. The existing index is not great. Yours is a much needed improvement. Thanks. The Bestiary one is also rather annoying and seems to be a confusing mix of an Index and a Table of Contents.
  7. Like many people I've often played using a subset of the rules and until recently have not been very diligent about tracking damage to weapons and shields. Since paying more attention to that aspect, it is surprising how much of an impact it has. One thing I've noticed is that shields (and also spears) have an advantage akin to the old trick in first person shooters of carrying an enemy's weapon. In first person shooters I often carry a weapon commonly used by the enemy because you typically don't run out of ammo, When you kill bad guys you frequently get their ammo. in RQ, many enemies carry shields. If your medium shield is getting too battered, loot one from an enemy you just killed. You can use their medium shield at the same skill as yours. For most weapons, the chances of being able to loot an identical weapon is not great (spears are often an exception). Sure you could probably find someone with another weapon in the same category, but the 1/2 skill modifier is a pain.
  8. I will always play it as the damage goes to the rolled location. It makes more sense to me both from a logical and a gaming point of view. If it goes through to the shield arm then plate armour on that arm will be a must have for just about every shield user. And if Armoring Enchantment is ever brought back, then it is obvious which is the first location to enchant. I feel having the damage go through to the shield arm adds a level or predictability I don't need. And while I have no experience with combat using weapons, I have spent a lot of time holding pads while people punch and kick them. When holding a big shield style kick pad for someone who kicks hard, I put a focus mitt pad between my arm and my ribs. Those hard kicks coming through the kick shield don't hurt my arm, they hurt my ribs as my arm is smashed back into them.
  9. Thanks for the responses people. Very much appreciated.
  10. And another that I forgot to add: When an adventurer gains an RP they also usually gain access to another of the cult's special Rune Spells. If by casting a one-use Rune Spell their RPs are now less than the number of special Rune Spells they "know", do they also lose access to one or more of those special Rune Spells, bring the total they 'know" down to their new number of RPs?
  11. My apologies if these have already been answered and yes they probably fall into the category of "whatever the GM decides". Question 1 Rune Points (RP) can be reduced by casting one-use spells. What happens if casting a one-use Rune Spell would lower a Rune Priest's RPs below the required minimum (typically 5 RPs)? Is it: They can't, the spell won't be successfully cast (similar to not being able to voluntarily reduce their POW to less than 18) The spell is cast and the Rune Priest's RPs are reduced to below the required minimum and the priest loses their Rune Priest benefits (similar to if their POW does go below 18) The spell is cast and there are no issues. Rune Priests are allowed to have less than 5RPs once they have successfully qualified as a Rune Priest Question 2 In a similar way can an Initiate (or priest if option 3 above) go to 0 RPs and if so, what happens? Question 3 For reusable spells, can the RPs be regained while the spell is still in effect? Extension allows spells to last for extended periods. If a spell (Shield for example) was extended for a season, could the RPs used for the Shield spell be regained via a worship ceremony before the Shield spell expires? Warding seems like a very relevant example. If the RPs used for Warding can be regained while the spell is in effect, wouldn't temples and important buildings eventually become infested with dozens or hundreds of Warding spells? Thanks
  12. If someone is fighting on a raft do you limit their skill to their boat skill? If someone is fighting on a ship in rough sea conditions do you limit their skill to their ship handling skill because the waves are moving the ship? Or would you get them to do a DEX test every so often, or perhaps limit their combat skill to DEX X 5 or some other modifier due to the unstable environment? If the charioteer, or someone paddling the raft, or someone actively controlling the ship participates in combat while controlling their vehicles then I would limit their combat skill to their appropriate vehicle skill (and require a skill test under some conditions), but not so for passengers.
  13. I tend to be very lenient in this. The Red Book of Magic states: I interpret that as the visual effects being moderately obvious. I can see an argument for the same spirit magic spell having different visual effects for different cults (and I can also see an argument for the visual effects being the same for all cults). I would expect that even moderately experienced adventurers would become quite good at identifying commonly used spells by frequent foe types. "Yep there is the typical weird shininess on that Orlanthi warrior's sword. He's gone for the old bladesharp again!" Now if I was running a temple, or training new warriors, I would certainly be including the visual descriptions of commonly used spells so the noobs have some idea what they are up against. It would be a standard part of training.
  14. Page 22 "Bracelet, Silver Spiral: As bronze or silver varieties (above), but wrought of silver." The "silver" I've made bold should probably be "gold"
  15. As animated creatures instead of true undead, skeletons don't even have MP. What happens if someone casts disruption against a skeleton. My thought is that it simply has no effect because I don't allow disruption to affect a chair or a door or a goblet. An alternative would be that if the roll to cast the spell succeeds, it automatically takes effect doing at least 1 point of damage and thus destroying the location. But this would then imply it can be used to damage objects. My apologies if this has already been asked and answered.
  16. I agree it is a very important thing. There is a line that each group needs to draw. For my group, they are good enough role-players to act accordingly on the times they do get a fumble on such a skill (knowledge category, Move Quietly etc) but I believe it would be pushing it to get them to do so on a regular basis for fails on perception skills.
  17. I'm not sure I'd agree with all of those. I'd put Hide in the GM category. I can see arguments for Sneak (Move Quietly) being in either. Communication and Knowledge skills could also be in either. I think in general, I have no problems with the players rolling Move Quietly, Communication and Knowledge skills because usually, except for a fumble, they know whether they have succeeded.
  18. Actually for many locks, picking them is very easy. I'm not good at picking locks and there are many common ones that I would have no chance at picking but there are also a surprising number that take only a few seconds. For example, we have a cupboard locked with a cheap padlock in which we keep alcohol and other things we don't want our kids getting into. If I need to get into it and the key is upstairs, it is faster for me to grab the lockpicks and open the lock than to go get the key. I struggle to do the front door lock (though I have several friends who are very good at it), but bike locks, many padlocks, and other low end ones are usually easy. Good locks are hard to pick but a lot of people go cheap and buy padlocks that are easy to pick. Freezing temperatures can make a huge difference. If I attempt to pick the lock on the bag holding vodka which is in our freezer, I need to hold the padlock in my hand for a bit so it warms up.
  19. Question 1) Yes, the Bestiary specifically mentions this (P179): But The description in the bestiary also makes a few references to it being effective in soil, dirt and other softish types of ground but not against solid rock. If the cave-in is mainly of soil then yes. If it is huge chunks of rock fallen from the ceiling then the elemental will have to shift them, not tunnel through them and it would be the GM's call whether it is strong enough to move those boulders. Question 2). Suffocation is an issue. In my opinion, trying to get an Earth and an Air Elemental to occupy the same physical location will not work. So hold your breath. Question 3) (actually a statement) I would imagine so. A tunnel is only a horizontal pit which earth elementals can create. However I can see it being a bit more complex as the soil doesn't just disappear and must actually go somewhere. Perhaps the elemental ejects the soil out into the previous part of the tunnel where it must them be moved further away (probably by the miners). It is much easier to dig and move earth that has just been dumped than to dig through undisturbed ground. (Though, going down a slightly wacky tunnel of thought, perhaps such earth "moved" by the elemental is actually magically transported to the home of the God that the elemental belongs to. Each such use expanding that God's domain). Questions 4 & 5) Not sure. I suspect both spells will need extending.
  20. My group has had some discussion over the use of Scan and Search and we would appreciate other people's opinions. Question 1) Do people use passive Scan and Search or are those skills only attempted when the player declares their adventurer to be using them? i.e. If the adventurers are about to step onto a trap or walk into an ambush, do you allow them to attempt a roll to detect it before it is activated even if the players haven't requested one? Question 2) If so, which skill? Walking into an ambush would seem like a situation appropriate for Scan, but if it is a tripwire or pit trap, would you use Scan or Search? Question 3) If a passive use of the skill is allowed, do the adventurers get to use the skill at: Full skill? Half Skill? Require a Special success to succeed? Some other amount? Thanks heaps people.
  21. Unless I read it wrong, initiates of Waha have access to the Rune spell Discorporation. Could such an initiate get within a couple of km of a herd of animals, cast the spell and then engage a target in Spirit Combat until its MP are reduced to zero and it falls unconscious, then go onto another creature, repeating the process and so on? Potentially this could render many of the herd unconscious and then the initiate (or their companions) could march in and slaughter the defenceless animals. And presumably this technique would make it easy for such a character to kill really impressive animals such as a Tyrannosaurus? Depending on which rule is used, for a creature with 12MP who has been reduced to 0 MP, the time taken for it to regain 1 MP and wake up is either 6 hours or 2 hours. Both giving plenty of time for the initiate to kill multiple creatures.
  22. I find movement in combat to be a bit of a mess. Creatures can move up to half their MOV rating and still participate in melee. That seems reasonable. A Duck (MOV 5) can move 7.5m (5 X 3 X 0.5) A Human (MOV 8 ) can move 12m (8 X 3 X 0.5) A Centaur (MOV 12) can move 18m (12 X 3 X 0.5) But It costs 1 SR per 3M moved. So the time taken to perform that move component is: 3SR for the Duck (7.5 / 3 and round up) 4SR for the Human (12 / 3) 6SR for the Centaur (18 / 3) And this is where in my opinion it breaks down. It only takes the slow duck 1/4 of their SRs to move half their MOV rating, while it takes the centaur 1/2 their SRs to move half their MOV rating. This makes it harder for faster creatures to do their half move then perform an action. I'm sure this has been discussed preciously and hopefully someone has a nice workable solution. I have tried various things, none of which I've ever been really happy with. In my game the number of meters moved per SR is (MOV / 3 then round up). This comes to: MOV of 1,2,3 move 1M per SR (such as Gorp) MOV of 4,5,6 move 2M per SR (such as Duck) MOV of 7,8,9 move 3M per SR (Humans and many other near human creatures such as broo, elves, trolls etc) MOV 10,11,12 move 4M per SR (such as Horses, Centaurs and most flying creatures) Now: The slow Duck moves 2M per SR, taking 4SR to move half its MOV rating. The human is unchanged moving 3m per SR, taking 4SR to move half its MOV rating. The centaur moves 4m per SR, taking 5SR to move half its MOV rating. Not perfect but an improvement over the current system. Btw. Has anyone noticed that Rubble Runners have a MOV of 3 while Snakes have a MOV of 6? Snakes are twice as fast as Rubble Runners!
  23. Though now I do wonder if Newtlings and Ducks can cast spells underwater (I'd guess so) and how many they can cast before they run out of air.
×
×
  • Create New...