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sdavies2720

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Everything posted by sdavies2720

  1. Put in travellers' descriptions for arrival. Take each of the major roads into town and the docks and write a one-paragraph description how the city looks from that perspective -- what landmarks are seen, what does the gate look like, how busy is the road, what assails the senses once inside the gate.
  2. Which pdf? I just bought: Trollslayer, Light without Shadow, Outpost 19, and Veni Vidi Vici Steve
  3. Looking at RQ1, about as 'original' as you can get: "A Critical Hit ignores the effects of armor or any other protection..." Later, in an example fight, it says, "...His parry just misses the oncoming cudgel as Rurik rolls a 01!! As neither combatant wear any armor, the referee rules that the Critical Hit does double damage, rather than ignoring the effect of the non-existent armor..." So, the double-damage with no armor rule is sort of an official ad-hoc GM ruling.
  4. My goal was not to make the Styles sound too powerful -- in context I think they're fine. But even if you leave aside the Powers, just getting the bonuses to other skills and attacks is a huge advantage from one 'skill.' I think (based on reading, not yet playing) the styles are self-balanced. It's just in my campaign, Martial Arts are not the main focus, but there is a region for which they would be perfect soI'd like to introduce them. And I know one or two players that would learn them if they could. I just want them to be specialities that some people pursue, rather than core elements that everyone takes. Right now, even with just the skill and attack benefits, everyone would take a martial arts style instead of a 'normal' weapon style. I want to avoid that. Making the style require a Heroic Ability was my quick solution. Maybe there are better ones. I actually hadn't thought through whether the Powers should be Heroic Abilities -- probably not. I would think they get acquired with a similar mechanism to spells and other powers, and limited by the underlying style. I'm running the climax of a scenario tonight (assuming the players don't piddle around too much) which will have a Bathalian bad guy (think mind flayer) with the Water Dragon Style. It's going to be a great way to see how the rules work in action. Steve Steve
  5. I agree that they are slightly different beasts. But when I see something like Air Dragon Style that adds a 20% bonus to 4 attack types, adds 20% to three other skills including fly, makes 3 techniques available and 17 powers available, I want to limit access. Without introducing a new rule mechanism, it looked like Heroic Abilities were a decent way to limit this. In game terms, the character would go to the appropriate center of learning, spend time learning the technique, pay their Hero Points, and emerge with the Style at base. Luckily I don't have any players who are pushing their characters in that direction. Steve
  6. I've had a campaign for a long, long time. First under RQ1, then heavily houseruled RQ3, then under BRP, and now moving to MRQ2. It's happened really rarely, usually as a result of extraordinary circumstances (fumbles, rearguard action against a Giant to let the party escape, etc). But, having the rule in place does make players keep their craft skills up to date and spend time repairing their equipment when they can. The party also scrounges undamaged weapons and armor from vanquished foes, and there is more than one spare weapon in the party. All that adds to the overall gritty feel of the campaign: rough and scrabble fighters making due with what they can find and celebrating their victories when they can. So, the damage rules are critical for the ambiance even if they don't have tactical impact very often. Steve
  7. Yes, that is clearly the issue. One thing I am considering is making the Styles available as Heroic Abilities -- so players would pay hero points to get the base skill for their character, including the bonuses to related skills. And that would allow them to take the more exotic abilities as additional Heroic Abilities. I haven't worked it all through, but the Heroic Ability mechanism is a way to balance it, make the martial arts more rare (in my campaign not everybody has them) and extract a cost for them. Now whether that can make them balanced remains to be seen -- I don't want to create a situation where it costs a lot to get the ability, but then once the cost is paid, they are overpowering. Steve
  8. Ach, that's disappointing. It's the last of the MRQ2 books that I pre-ordered (in part to support my FLGS). In the future I'll wait for reviews and errata before ordering. Steve
  9. Or I can change my currency to GBP and use the coupon!
  10. I'd also add not to worry too much about this. I find every campaign has different reward levels, and adjusting tresure is one of the easiest parts of localizing a published adventure. Steve
  11. Unfortunately it tells me that code is not valid for my currency (USD). So I guess I'll wait a bit. Steve
  12. I've downloaded Dragon Lines and started reading through it. I like what's here, and it looks like the structure is well thought through so that it can be expanded and tailored to my, or any, game. In another thread, you said that the Chi = Power Points equivlency was explicit in the rules. Where? I can't find it and I'd like to read that section. Also, I have a question about Techniques of the various martial arts styles: Are these essentially used as attacks, so I get the bonus when I invoke that technique during a melee? Or are they permanent adds to skills and probabilities. I assume the former, but I'm hoping for a little clarification. It's a good system, thanks! Steve
  13. Nope, never enough But that's good news. I bought my copy of Dragon Lines and hope to have some time this weekend to work through it -- I'm hoping to use it for the Martial Artists whose temples guard the eastern passes of my campaign kingdom. Steve
  14. Well, I've been using the CON + SIZ rules for hit points, so people die a lot less often than they used to. My players are cautious as well. When someone dies, they can only be resurrected by journeying to the land of the dead. The party has only once thought it worthwhile enough to do, and I don't think they're anxious to do it again. They found the challenges tough enough, and the prospect that all of them might end up in the land of the dead, daunting. But, more recently they traveled there again, this time to stop one of their long-time enemies from coming back. That's what happens when you kill off a priest of the god of the undead -- they never really go away! Steve
  15. Thanks. The checkout page definitely was in italian. I'll try to sit on my greedy little hands -- I want the PDF in any case so I'll just wait a bit. Thanks for the update. Steve
  16. Sorry to be a little off-topic: I've been travelling and lost track of this release. Can I buy a PDF copy of Dragon Lines? If so, where? Alephtar Games has it listed but I think the site is under construction, plus it's not 100% cear that I'm buying the PDF, the checkout page is in Italian, and euros...so if there is another source, that would be nice! Thanks, Steve
  17. Yeah, that's not too surprising. What we really need is a poll that allows multiple choices -- it's not-first choices that will most likely tell us something. But I'm guessing the standard polls only allow one choice. Steve
  18. Me too:). I think the trick is to make the effort to integrate/explain the random element. When my mind is really working, the payoff explanation comes during the climax of the story arc, which is satisfying for everyone. My players have gotten used to my saying things like, "hunh. Yeah, that does look inconsistent." or "Yeah, your character does think that's weird." "No, he's got no idea why or how there could be a torch burning down under 200' of water. But he's sure he's seeing it." Or stuff to that effect. Sometimes the explanation never comes out, and it's one more of the mysteries of the world. But the explanation comes out enough times that they now believe there is an explanation.
  19. Before you go too far (and certainly before you finish) take a look at Mongoose's take: http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/home/detail.php?qsID=1790 I'm not trying to be a spoiler, but if their book is any good, you'll need some careful positioning and selection of content. Steve
  20. Fyi, your link to The Primal State goes to a Product not found! page. Steve
  21. That is awesome news. I've been occasionally going to the StormbringeRPG site to see if anything was posted, but didn't want to nag! Steve
  22. That has puzzled me as well -- Steve has both name recognition, and an interesting set of rules. My conclusion was his interest was in working out those rules as he had time, rather than an interest in wide distribution and adoption. You've been consistent and energetic in using the available marketing channels, and I suspect that is why you're successful. I'm guessing Steve Perrin puts his time into rule tinkering rather than marketing & communication. Steve (Davies)
  23. Wow, thanks for the document. I've skimmed through it & it looks great. I'll definitely check this out.
  24. Thanks to everyone for your comments! I'm off to have some fun experimenting with what is out there -- and it's good to know where to start looking for tools that support BRP. Steve
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