Kloster

...

Longer spells are a different story, but by the time you were hitting people doing much longer ones, the chance of success with a quickly case Disrupt wasn't all that exciting in the first place.

It seems to me that on this one, we agree. For large healing spells, disruption is useless compared to a simple melee attack, that is more likely to land and to interupt the casting.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

Unless you both have a _much_ higher Dex than the other, its _very_ hard, and you need a pretty large weapon to boot. After all, other than (as I recall) the lance, all other weapons add at least 1 SR, so even if you're huge, you're at worst going to tie them, which will not interrupt the spell.

You told to put the haling 2 at the end of the round, after you took damage.

What I'm telling is that if you wait for the end of the MR, somebody that declares his action after you (=that has a higher DEX) cal land his attack right in the middle of your preparation and disrupt it.

But if you put the healing 2 at the start of the MR, I agree with you, almost no melee attack can disrupt it.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

I didn't say a thing about dropping those. I said your "pack"; as in, your food, water, miscellaneous gear, and possibly missile weapon if that doesn't seem worth hauling around.

...

Yes. :innocent:

...

A spare weapon was a good idea, but I don't think I ever saw anyone need more than one extra, and even one wasn't typically critical for someone who didn't parry with a weapon but used a shield. The only time you were particularly likely to lose a non-parrying weapon was on certain fumbles, and even then it was usually retrievable.

...

I have only 2 (the darts are throwing weapons): the kukri and the dagger.

And to loose a weapon, you forget the disarming rules and the impales. Even with 2 spare weapons, I have sometimes finished some fights barehanded.

...

That's already more encumberance than I typically saw most characters of average attributes bother with. You'd see more on advanced characters, but they also typically had improved their Strength and Con by that time, and/or routinely augmented them magically; alternatively, they'd get by more lightly and use a lot of Protection or Shield.

We see that quite often, even with (not so) begining characters.

I agree with your comment on more advanced characters.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

Could somebody please explain to me what the SB major wound table is?

In Stormbringer, if you take in 1 hit more than 1/2 your total hit point, it is a major wound and you roll on the table to get nasty results.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

Sure. Its actually more workable than the archery method since it doesn't necessarily require someone to be out of melee, either. But the question was, was spending an action and a magic point, on an effect that _might_ work, worth it just to do two damage points and _possibly_ stop someone casting a Heal 2? With bigger spells it could be more attractive, since someone casting a long time was bound to be doing something you didn't want, but then, those people were more likely to have a high Power, Countermagic, or both, too.

Yes, agreed. But I think it is worth it, or at least as worth as disrupting somebody and doing 2 points WITHOUT disrupting a healing 2.

And with the larger spells, the melee attack has enough time to land.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

Sure, that works, but it has two problems:

1. If the target is in melee with one of your own side, which is often the case with the healing spell, you either have a relatively low chance to hit, fire late, or have a good chance of hitting the wrong person;

2. It requires you to either outnumber the opponents or have good control of the battlefield, since archers are, themselves, good targets because they don't have a shield prepped and don't even really have a decent parrying weapon. They can still dodge, but RQ3 Dodge tended to be a specialists art because of how quickly any encumberance at all chewed it up.

So, yes, it did happen, but not enough to really impact the field utility of things like Heal 2.

On this one, I side with you.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

But almost no melee attack will get off before a small healing spell does in many cases. You have to prep the spell, of course, but its easy to do that at the end of the round after you've taken damage but before your opponent can start his next hit (because of the rules limiting attacks). At that point, a healing 2 (usually enough to get something working again unless you took a fairly massive hit past armor) takes Dex SR +1 to get off; given the melee attack will be Dex SR + SIZ SR + Weapon SR, almost no melee attack will land before its done.

Easy to do (or not too difficult with a higher DEX), quite impossible in the other case.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

So everyone's not happy after all - oh dear. Can't you make do with rolling location for significant hits, instead of every hit? I don't know the 'Stormbringer major damage table', what's wrong with it? And why does it matter?

...

That's just a personal preference. I've never liked the combination of the major wound table and the variable armor, because an unlucky player has a too high probability of loosing his character. And as it is available as an optional rule, I will use it.

I'm not complaining.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

...

I'm guessing from this that your PCs were not in the habit of dropping their packs at the start of fights if they weren't already on pack animals then, which was the habit locally all the way back to RQ1.

No, I don't drop my armor, my shield and my weapons.

Due to weapons breaking (more important with RQII than RQ III, I agree but it still occurs) and disarming rules, plus the fumbles tables and impaling, I usually start with 3 or 4 weapons on me, just to be able to finish the fight.

My current character has a ringmail armor (10 ENC), a broadsword (2 ENC), a hoplite shield (a scutum in fact, but ruleswise it is the same) (5 ENC), a kukri (0.5 ENC) and a dagger (0.5 ENC), plus 4 darts inside the scutum (2 ENC).

That means a minimum ENC of 20. I thus start at 5 (CON 13, STR 12).

I'm not counting a bow and a javelin (carried by my mount), nor the luggages and food (idem).

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

Actually, no. As no hit locations is the default, all published material will most probably exclude them as well, making extra work for those who liked it. As it is, I'm not happy with the major damage table from Stormbringer.

With a mechanism to reward roleplaying, are we talking Hero Points again?

SGL.

On both point's I'm afraid you're right, even if for the 1st point I think it is logical.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

...

I know at one point he suggested having variant character sheets on the website with different configurations of optional rules.

I would like that even if I'm sure I will use customized ones.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

P.S. And I will use hit locations. And strike ranks. And skill categories.

There are a number of things that Jason chose to include on the character sheet (or leave off) that make it pretty unusable for me as is, too. That's OK, and nothing new, though. I have several home-made character sheets on my desk right now, and I don't think I have ever been happy with a published one anyway,Chaosium or otherwise. Just whip up one for yourself with the hit locations included...from the approach taken with the book in general I think that is an expectation (lots of customization of the rules, to have a version of BRP just right for each individual) of the authors' anyway, although I could be dead wrong about that. In earlier posts Jason indicated that the option for hit locations is included with location formulae and the whole nine yards.

That's also my point.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

Just out of curiousity, what is your source for the statement that the gladius was used primarily as a slashing weapon at Cynocephales?

According to Polybus, in "General History of the roman Republic", about the battle of Cynoscephales (chapter 18 to 33), (I'm translating my french translation to english, so some words may be different to one direct latin to english text":

"Each roman legionnaire also uses only 3 feet of terrain; but to be able to both cover themselves with their shields and give cutting strike, they need some space to be given to them, having between them, wether on the side or front to back, at least 3 feet of free space if they want to be able to move freely."

So, the order of battle is made to allow cutting strikes.

After Marius, the rule is to use thrusting strikes to provoke bleeding wounds, but this is 100 years later (Cynoscephales is -197, marius is around -100).

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

One nasty tactic liked to use was having one of the supporting characters sit back with a bow and purposely go for foes who are trying to cast. Since the first shot goes off a DEX SR it would beast just about any spell, and certainly anything with any real POW in it.

Yes, true. This is a nice and viable tactic, if the attack is able to distract (=does damage).

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

I'm in the middle here. I don't mind tactical options at all, so long as they're tactical options that make sense in the world for the characters to be aware of and take advantage of. For example, the idea of getting off a quick Disrupt to mess up someone else's magic makes perfect sense to me. That's a valid tactical choice: toss at the spell caster who is most likely to resist it and ignore it completely, with a payoff of fouling his spell; or, toss at the big baddie charging you who is more likely not to resist it and is quickly closing to melee range. I probably would have issues with a Storm Bull using a sacred spell, like Fanaticism/Beserk, on a chaos creature. At the very least, that decision would lead to some interesting religious consequences for the character, including some sort of heavy duty penance.

...

I completely agree here (on both points).

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

Well, SB5 has essentially the same stuff as battle magic. As long as countermagic exists it can be used offensively.

Personally, I liked the ability to use spells tactically, and creatively. I don't have a problem with sniping the mage while he is casting too.

To quote a favorite Shadowrun quote: "Geek the mage".

And I agree with the comments. I think every tactical opportunity is a benediction because it furthers the removal of the basic attack/parry/attack/parry routine and adds flavor to the game.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

Thats the reason why I dont like the magic system of RQ anymore. It feels too technical and thus can be easily exploited by rule mongers. Nowadays I prefer much more the magic systems of SB1 or SB5.

I don't think it is rulemongering, not too technical. If it is coherent with the background to have characters proficient with magic (and in Glorantha, they are supposed to be), I find logical to use it everytime it is convenient.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

That was considered pretty standard operating procedure for both PC's and NPC's in most RQ games I've played in. Knock that spellcaster off his spell only makes sense.

A favorite tactic of mine is to buff up with defensive magic and then stand there pretending to cast spells just to draw missle fire away from the guys doing the real work.

Fun idea. Nobody ever tried that here.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

I know that both Glorantha and COC have Japanese followings.

When I've discussed on some matters with Sandy Petersen some 10 to 15 years ago, he told me that the japanese edition of CoC was the second most successful in the world. And that the japanese RQ was quite high also. But he didn't spoke of the japanese games.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

I heard that an unofficial (and illegal) English version of the rules is supposed to exist. Unfortunately, I don't know much more or where it could be found. It's a shame, as it is a fine game which many of our English-speaking friends would probably enjoy.

I think that a French version was published years ago, but the translation was quite bad, apparently, and was considered a failure. Here is a link to an article about this editions and several reviews (in French).

As I'm french, the reviews in french are not a problem.

I've checked and the reviews are not bad. It seems (from other sources I've found) it was a commercial failure, but the translation is not declared bad.

I will try to find it.

Thanks a lot.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

It looks a bit old-fashioned, but hey - I like old-fashioned.

I think I could recognize someone in this sentence.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

P.s. Of course, I'm speaking of myself

Our tactic was to use pack animals or remove backpacks before going into battle. We also didn't go down the D&D road of every character lugging around a missile weapon, quiver, etc (that stayed on the pack animal). So, unless we were ambushed, we could just take off the non essential gear, rest a minute or so and attack with more FPs.

If you check, there is no luggage, no missile weapons, and very few equipments.

We also use pack animals or mounts, but still some remains.

Resting 1 minute or so means you have the choice of the combat. In most of the case, if I do have the choice and the opportunity, I don't take the fight.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

According to Wikipedia (which does not count Aquelarre nor BaSIC):

"BRP was also licensed to Japanese companies, BRP games in Japanese are Houkago Kaiki Club (1997, school life and horror, Hobby Japan), Genom Seed (2004, mutant action, Shinkigensha) and Taitei no Ken RPG (2007, SciFi-jidaigeki, based on movie of the same title, Shinkigensha)."

I know nothing about those ones.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

I heard that an unofficial (and illegal) English version of the rules is supposed to exist. Unfortunately, I don't know much more or where it could be found. It's a shame, as it is a fine game which many of our English-speaking friends would probably enjoy.

I think that a French version was published years ago, but the translation was quite bad, apparently, and was considered a failure. Here is a link to an article about this editions and several reviews (in French).

Thanks for the info.

I will take a look.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

* BAMF * I think I heard my name invoked... :cool:

I am the proud owner of a copy of Aquelarre 2nd Ed. How can I help you? Anything you would like to know?

Hello Tweaker,

Kloster here.

I don't know what AgentOrange wants, but I'm very interested in knowing if Aquelarre is available in languages other than spanish (for me and Empeze, english, french or german).

Runequestement votre,

Kloster