drohem

Other than the fact I don't entirely like .pdfs (they're okay for occasional reference, but I don't find them particularly easy to read on-screen), that's essentially what I did; I haven't bought a game at a brick and mortar store for years. And my budget is such that most RPGs are past my impulse buy anymore anyway, so the instant gratification issue is out the window.

We're on the same page here

I know that if I were running a game store, I would shrink-wrap all copies but one as a preview/shelf copy.

I hate spending an insane amount of money on a book only to find a page or more torn, tweaked, smudged, etc.

I think it might have something to do with the volume of traffic that a gaming store sees. For a small ma-and-pa store, the volume is low enough that their product is not damaged/compromised by shopper traffic. However, in the large population centers, and few gaming stores, the volume of traffic is such that shelfware becomes an issue.

I'd tend to approach this sort of thing the way RQ:AIG was going to: similar to RQ3 style martial arts, as a secondary skill that allows tradeoffs to get better results in terms of special attacks and the like. Otherwise, as others have said, I don't see it as distinguishable from higher skill.

This approach appeals to me the most since, as already stated, DEX and INT are factored into the weapon skill.

This way, a character can specialize in a finesse attack style that focuses on precision attacks rather than brute strength, and still be highly effective in combat with comparable damage output.

Years ago my group ran a successful Superworld campaign with mulitple GMs. We would trade off adventures and each GM had a regional sphere of influence.

We came to the same conclusion as Nightshade. Our best adventures and encounters were at the beginning of the campaign, and it broke down once the heroes became powerful. Designing villians for the high-powered heroes became difficult.

I grew up in LA area, and found that in the 90's a lot of places started shrink-wrapping their materials.

Since you seem to do that pretty much to everything I say, and similarly tersely, I shan't let it concern me much.

hehe...that's cool. I am sorry my short answers are interpreted as being terse; they're just short and sweet.

Just because I disagree doesn't necessary mean that I am terse or hostile. It's merely a difference of viewpoint on these subjects.

I am simply not going to engage you on matters of opinion because nothing good can come of it. I state my opinion plainly, and elborate when asked or feel it necessary.

I have no antipathy for you.

Peace

Irrelevant to my point however; what function something serves _in the mythology_ has no direct relationship to the reason it exists in an anthropological sense. Anthropological meanings are based on sociology and psychology; mythology meanings are based on divine politics and mythical history. The latter is derived from the former, but they _aren't_ the same things.

No, I disagree.

The GORE PDF is still free. I downloaded the 1.4 version last night from goblinoidgames.com.

You can also download their stuff for free from drivethrurpg.com as well.

I downloaded GORE, OSRIC, and Labyrinth Lord.

GORE = BRP/RQ

OSRIC = 1st AD&D

Labrinth Lord = OD&D

I like his idea- he's basically trying to re-capture that *feeling* when we played those games so long ago in the mythical 80's

I'm not so sure that I would actually want to play those old school rules again, but I definitely like the nostalgic feeling I got when I reviewed the material. It brought up old memories and senarios that I hadn't thought about in a while.

Mythological = anthropological to eariler socities and cutlures.

Even if that works short term in the setting (and it is short term; controlling access to specific skills has never worked in the long term) there's no guarentee it'll actually work amongst a group of PCs unless all PCs are firmly set in their settings mores and not permitted to deviate therefrom.

What are you talking about? Who said anything about restricting access to skills?

Works in the short term, huh?

I don't think you understood my post because your response makes no sense to me.

Cool link and webpage, Thanks!

Thanks for the link Tweaker.

If you add 10 to the values, then it could easily be used with the Resistance Table as Potency vs. Pow.

Now, that's an assessment! Woot! :thumb:

Cultural, religious, or societal morals and/or taboos are the way to limit or grant access to magic in any given game world.

This can seem artificial at face value, but it's not really.

Culture 'X' says that in order to become an apprentice, you must pass a test. This test translates in game terms to having a certain level in 'Z' skills or 'Y' characteristics.

Gratzie.

I've never looked at or read anything about that game.

Ok, I'll bite:

What's UA?

Old editions of Gamma World had a Mental Strength characteristic, and maybe this could be used to resist horrifying situations.

You assign the horrifying event a Potency, and then you match that Potency vs. character's Mental Strength.

Failure to resist the horrifying event could result in Sanity loss (if using Sanity in conjuction with the Mental Strength characteristic)...

or....

failure could mean a phobia, trauma, etc. Maybe something like GURPS.

Anyway, just an idea off the cuff.

Very good assessment ATGXTG!

I felt the same way when I reviewed MRQ materials. It was a D&D/RQ blend.

Some people have sorely underestimated the skills and abilities of ancient armorsmiths. Armorers were able to make armor pieces that were of uniform thickness and density, and we would be hard pressed to duplicate with today's technologies. I don't accept that as an arguement for variable armor points.

At the risk of sounding like a thread policeman (which I'm not), is this argument going anywhere other than one of these two positions?

1. I prefer variable armor protection because it suits my style of play more

vs.

2. I prefer fixed armor protection because it suits my style of play more

No. I choose #2 for a variety of reasons.

Yeah, when I ran a Strombringer campaign, I used armor protections values from RQ3. I don't like the concept of variable armor points.

No problem with me. In my post I just wanted to point out that "having good time" means different things for people.

Hehe...no problem, it's all good. I just wanted to officially note that I do not play or GM the 'carebear' style of play or campaigns.

Ok, I'm watching 13th Warrior again. When is the new BRP and Mythic Iceland coming out? Hurry!

Well the definition of a "good time" varies from group to group, I guess. My group associate "having a good time" with having intense experiences, choices, good acting and an immersive rather "realistic" world. (if you can say roleplaying and realism in one sentence) This implies death of unlucky or careless PCs too. Otherwise it would be unreal and would feel artificial. During the last 20 years I played sometimes such "carebear" games as player where our GM didnt let die the players because they were friends, husbands etc. or claiming that we "all want to have a good time (blablah)..." and they were not fun at all for me. (I had no good time with such games) They were not believeable, lack in authenticity and I always had the feeling that they were just shallow caricatures.

Well, my group plays gritty games and has no problem with character death if it happens. However, I still like the concept and have no problem with it. Most of our characters are heroes, whether saintly or vile, and thusly have an extra edge over 'normals' in the campaign worlds.

One of the alternatives that I conceived during the playtesting (but didn't put into the book) was using Fatigue at [sTR+CON]/2 as non-lethal HP.

With this system:

• Damage with non-lethal weapons (mostly hand-to-hand) is rolled normally.
  
• The minimum possible roll value is subtracted from the roll and applied to HP. The rest come out of Fatigue.
  
• If you're using the Martial Arts skill and succeed in using it, you can chose to make your unarmed attacks all FP, "normal", or all HP. You need to announce what you're doing before rolling, though.
  
• Criticals and specials work as normal, with points subtracted as above.
  
• If your Fatigue reaches 0, you're out cold.
  
• Any excess FP are taken out of HP.
  
• FP regenerate normally.
  

For example, if you're using Brawl (1d3+1d4db), you'd roll your 1d6/2 and your 1d4. Assume a roll of 5 (2+3). You can roll a minimum of 2 on 2 dice. You subtract 2 from 5, inflicting 2 HP and 3 FP on your opponent.

I like the concept of non-lethal damage. I'll have to give it some thought.

Chivalry & Sorcery has an interesting method involving a flat base damage for each weapon, then you modify that with defense and attack rolls.

Thus, with no defense, a broadsword will always do at least 6 damage, a knife will always do at least 4, etc. Your strength and weapon quality and roll and stuff can increase it, certain armors can reduce it, but a lot of the randomness is gone.

4th edition Talislanta does this as well. Weapons do a fixed damage amount and this modified by the success of the attack, strength, weapon quality, or magic.