StephenMcG

I reckon what I have done is kind of use the Resistance Table but not simply. 🙂 I didn't want to lose the critical, specials and fumbles on either side, so, now they all exist but that needed a much bigger table that was easier to do electronically. I am, however wondering if pushing into a resistance table combat is not actually a good idea. I mean, if a 25% skilled opponent, fights a 25% skilled opponent, should there not be the same chance of success as a 75% skilled opponent fighting a 75% skilled opponent. By success, I don't mean a chance of hitting (could be blocked by parry), I mean a chance of doing damage (could be blocked by armour)... When a 5 POW opponent casts disruption at a 5 POW opponent, the chance of damage is 50%, same as if both their POW was 15. Why does spirit combat work different to physical? Because we want more simulation in the swordplay?

OK. Boiling it down to more simple approach gives me, I think, a nice way of doing this.... I think this works. Happy for anyone to tell me different! 🙂 Runequest calculator (party).xlsx

Nope - made a mistake somewhere. When testing it, I tried skill 70 and defence 55 I got results of failed attack fumbled parry for rolls of 71 through 82. only 3% of failed attacks should see a fumble response. Back to drawing board. 😞

Well, have a look. I plan to try using this. I need to think how many fields I need, whether I need to separate skill from bonuses. I think it works.... Stephen Runequest calculator.xlsx

I think, with the help of one of my friends who is an Excel guru, I have a working model. I am going to tart it up and then I will share it.

It is surprising how often this happens. Gives you a bit on insight into the problems game designers face. 🙂

CoC was never my bag, I don't have any of the rules. Can you give me the flavour?

That is an option. Possibly easier and everything is about reasonable compromises. Last night I sat down to begin putting it together. I mean, with two 1d100 rolls there are only 10,000 possible outcomes right? In each roll there are 5 outcomes, fumble, fail, success, special and critical. Each outcome can face five outcomes. If the attack roll is 60%, the chances of those are 2%, 38%, 45%, 12% and 3%. If the parry roll is 50%, then within that 2% of critical attacks, 3% will face a fumbled parry, 47% will face a failed parry, 38% will face a successful parry, 10% a special parry and 2% a critical parry. You cannot achieve that granularity of resolution in a single roll, so my system would have less granularity but it would instantly provide, for example, you hit and are parried, or you get a critical hit which is not parried. I need to have three inputs: the chance to hit, the chance to parry, and the actual roll. The output would be verbal. I think I almost have this done, I have formulae that, for any pair of skill values provides the chances of upto 25 outcomes, I just need to refine the lookup system. It would also put the dice in the hands of the players most of the time, which, to me, is also desirable. I reckon, with the right front end, it could be on my phone and would be a quick and easy thing to use. Stephen

Yeah, I guess I am not looking at a table but four cells. The first inputs the attack, the second inputs the defence, the third inputs the dice roll and the fourth outputs the result. The table in the background could be any size, the working part could fit on a phone screen. Guess I just need to sit down and work out the formulae...

I am quite keen to reduce combat to players simply rolling dice. I am wondering if anyone has done any work in doing this - I was thinking of a spreadsheet I might have open, putting in attack percentage and parrying percentage and getting a range which might show the range of outcomes in a list from critical attack, fumbled parry to fumbled attack, critical parry. I have doubts it can be done to that resolution in a 1D100 roll but might be willing to accept that as skills increase we will not see extremes such as those. I would be planning that, for contested rolls, the player either rolls the attack with the NPC skill passively changing the outcomes or rolls the parry with the NPC skill passively changing the outcome. Anyone doen anything like that they could share? Or anyone done it and can say it was a nightmare, and to leave it alone?? 🙂 Stephen

We roll the stats four times, in order and take the "best" set. Sometimes POW just happens to be low. I don't think there is a dump stat in the game now that CHA affects your spell load. And it is not easy to increase POW when your POW is below 8. Just ask any Rune Lord who rolled 13 or 14 on their desperation Divine Intervention. Every other stat can be increased with due application of time and cash. I play a session per season, maybe the answer is giving the players the option of a POW increase roll instead of training other skills/stats by devoting time on their local temple's spiritual devotions. Might take some time but it would lift them out of the hole they are in until they can become self-sufficient.

I find people often find the high POW useful for casting Disruption, Befuddle and Harmonise (and passively defending themselves from the same). I also find that people like being able to cast freely, it is all very well to say that you shouldn't roll for stats (or choose POW as the low stat if allocating rolls to characteristics) but I think the double whammy of not being able to cast it and then not being able to be effective with POW vs POW rolls feels unfair.

Yeah, but the place where there are already too many rolls is during combat. I am, perversely, less worried about making magic rolls outside of combat, I agree, only where the roll might make a significant difference (such as losing scarce resource etc). Stephen

Well, the answer is to get your hands on Shadows of Pavis, the 2003 Ian Thompson publication. That has maps and everything....but finding one for sale might be difficult. Am sure that Ian will get around to reproducing that stuff in his new series

I liked, in RQ2, that casting magic happened if you knew the spell and spent the POW. I never liked, in RQ3, having to make another roll just to cast the magic. There were already too many rolls in RQ combat, so I was a little bit disappointed that RQG went the RQ3 route. I also dislike the POWx5 to cast. If someone begins the game low in POW, it really sucks. So few magic points and so little chance to make them work for you. Also, no interaction with the Runes. I was wondering if anyone does it differently? I was musing that, if I was going to go with the roll method, rather than just stick with "it happens", I might make the default chance 50%. You can add POW as a %age and 1/5 of a relevant rune. So high power characters have an advantage but not as much of one. As for relevant rune, it might be that the bladesharp is cast using Death on a sword, that Speedart is cast using Air. But they might both be cast using Fire against a Troll. If I going with a roll, I want it to have an element of flex and to avoid a characteristic disadvantage being a BadWrongFun disability. So. Anyone played around with the casting rules? Stephen

Apologies. I was only on p12 (books arrived today), where Yelmalio is listed among the God's of Storm. Did not realise he would not feature later on (I have been flicking ahead).

I am interested in the new thinking, is there a thread on it? I have no strong opinions on it, just like to keep up. I feel like I have been catching up for decades and find myself behind again! 😄

Am I late to the show with Elmal once more presented as Yelmalio? Was that part of the rollback to 2nd Edition or has the thinking progressed so far we have come full circle? 🙂

Personally, I would be inclined to ensure that whatever plan they have fails. Unless they are Hero level, or this kind of thing would happen all the time. However, I would possibly have them learn/acquire something that gives them some leverage with Fazzur that allows them to gain some of the information that they want. It feels like a heist and a Griselda heist at that. Those NEVER go to plan but usually the key outcome is achieved. So, either there is an additional bit of magic that allows him to escape but reveals something that he would not want internal rivals to know about, or leaves behind something that reveals information, or leaves him interested enough to want to speak to those bold enough to "almost" kidnap him and willing to provide details of some things if they were willing to use these skills to disappear someone else. Stephen

What I can say is that this will be the biggest (and last) version of Glorantha that I ever buy. By the time I am finished I will never be able to play the content I currently have...not enough game hours left before I hit the Great Game Table in the sky.

You say that like it is a good thing. Almost like you were not listening to me.... 🙂

I am looking aghast at what I have been falling behind on. Now I see that there are three cults books with another 7 to come, all about £30. I aso note that there are also three Ian Thompson books, also with another 7 to come, all about £15 for the PDFs. And the flood of other things that I cannot even begin to contemplate before buying these two priority items... ...and my wife still thinks that I am hard to buy for... 😏

I use HeroQuest system rules for heroquesting. I find the more free form style of the rules and less detailed accounting better suits the mythic context and contrasts really well set against the detail of Runequest.

I have only had eyes for thus in Runequest but I am veering heavily to think it should be part of all games. The death of a character should be seen both as a sorrow and an opportunity. In Sentinels of the Multiverse, even a character who is eliminated from the combat can play a role. I like that, keeps players involved. If a character dies, and the player is content with that, then give a boon to the party (plot information, an advantage, an item) that aids the game moving forward. In many cases, I reckon two turns of plot invulnerability and 100% attack rolls to the dying character that allows the party to succeed, escape, etc would be a common request and deliver heroic stories that would be remembered. Much better than just bleeding to death as your friends run away.... 🙂

You can still do it. At the death moment, talk to the player, let their God deliver five minutes of Rune-driven activity, more if it is necessary. It is all explainable within the rules, should you want to do it. A good idea remains just that.