ThornPlutonius

Don't get excited. Someone just optioned the rights to do Elric on TV, but is only at the "shopping around" stage of trying to find a way to actually make it happen. Get excited when it goes into production and some network is starting to promote it. There is more reason to be excited about the Runestaff novels coming to TV, though. They are much further along. I hope they don't screw it up.

it is quite intuitive to me. Roll below skill percentage, but higher skill still gets an advantage in "ties". It is how I immediately thought to do it when I read how the opposed rolls were written to give the lower skill and advantage in ties. One could, of course, think of other ways to deal with the situation. Of course, "intuitive" is not always correct. There is much about reality (esp. in higher math and physics) that is counter-intuitive.

Opposed rolls work just fine in Mythras. Some players want to roll high, but not all of them. Many are smart enough to know that rolling high or rolling low is just an aspect of the dice mechanics.

Orbis Terrarum has a similar mechanic. Percentile basic characteristics, use of points, skills are in ranks, each rank level multiplied by 5% and then added to the relevant characteristic to obtain the target number for a roll. I don't have time to exhaustively reread the rules, though.

"Courtesy" is really culture-based. While there may be common elements in what is considered courteous across cultures, there are also many differences. Knowing those differences can be the difference between being well-received and ill-received.. So, it may be useful to have Courtesy (Culture) skills.

Marc Miller

To avoid extinction. All of our human "eggs" are currently "in one basket". We are becoming increasingly aware of the fragility of our "basket".

Side Bar: Some games that use a D12-based system - "Shadow, Sword, & Spell", "Colonial Gothic", "Thousand Suns".

I am bummed that the "International Edition" is being pushed back. I am more interested in the clarified core rules than in any supplement or setting material. That written, congratulations on the new license! I hope that it brings much success to your team.

The dice are pretty from an artistic point of view, but I find them to be way too busy for practical use. I have several sets and never use them. I end up favoring dice with simpler, more easily read faces.

I would base my choice of time on the nature of the ritual or tome. What are the effects of the ritual? What sort of knowledge is in the tome? The greater the effects of the ritual or the more complex & dangerous the tome, the longer time to perform/read-comprehend. Also, the more time involved, the more room to play out the slow corruption that comes from exposure to them.

Congratulations! You did a hell of a job on the game. I'm glad it is getting the attention that it deserves.

It is a very nice review, too. Thanks for sharing it! The one for Odd Soot is also very nicely done (and very flattering).

Ubiquity dice can be substituted for coins, too. They are geared for binary odd/even rolls. Odd = failure. Even = success. The official Ubiquity dice are further designed to statistically represent the rolls of many dice with few actual dice.

All of which usages have made me twitch. /laugh/ My favorite feline species is that of the Chanur series. I think the author did an excellent job of translating cat behavior into a sentient high-technology species.