Move rates over 12

[Austin]

I've been aware for a while that several spirit entities have Move equal to their POW; however, elsewhere Move caps at 12—to indicate that the entity can use a movement unit on each strike rank. How have other gamemasters been handling entities with higher Move rates? For example, disease spirits have an average POW of 16-17, and POW equal to their Move. Do they get to use two move "units" in four strike ranks?

[Lordabdul]

2 hours ago, Crel said:

however, elsewhere Move caps at 12

Where is that from?

[Austin]

16 minutes ago, lordabdul said:

Where is that from?

1) As far as I recall, no corporate entity in the Bestiary has a move rate higher than 12.

2) Each strike rank is one "unit" of movement. Ergo, you can't use more than 12 units of movement in a melee round. (p.192)

My understanding is that each Move "unit" is 3 meters; every 3 meters you move adds one to your strike rank. Humans have Move 8 by default, so can move up to 24 meters in a melee round, adding 8 to the strike rank they act in. IIRC there's a sidebar in the Praxian Animals entry in the Bestiary which elaborates further on corporeal movement rates, particularly in the context of chases (and discussing why they cap at 12).

[Bill the barbarian]

37 minutes ago, Crel said:

1) As far as I recall, no corporate entity in the Bestiary has a move rate higher than 12.

 

Heck I will do you one better, though there have been corporate entities in the history of RuneQuest, I will bet there have never been any listed in any of the core books as possible  foes or allies. 

[Dan Z]

8 minutes ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Heck I will do you one better, though there have been corporate entities in the history of RuneQuest, I will bet there have never been any listed in any of the core books as possible  foes or allies. 

What, you mean like Avalon Hill or Mongoose?

[Bill the barbarian]

1 minute ago, Dan Z said:

What, you mean like Avalon Hill or Mongoose?

Yep, overlords, but not foes or allies.

[Lordabdul]

3 hours ago, Crel said:

My understanding is that each Move "unit" is 3 meters; every 3 meters you move adds one to your strike rank.

Yeah that makes sense! Strange that the system doesn't support faster moving creatures... even without considering spirits, I can totally imagine some animals or creatures going faster than MOV 12.

Letting that fast NPC do 2 movements units (6m) for some of their SR seems a bit too much of a jump, maybe? (and you'd have to decide which SRs they get the double move). I would instead experiment with a table where, for them, a unit of movement gets bigger. Something like:

• 12 of below: unit = 3m
• 13 to 16:       unit = 4m
• 17 to 20:       unit = 5m
• etc. (for each +4 in MOV, increase unit by 1)

You can of course tweak the table a bit to make the rounding fall in a different place (here I chose to round up... which means a MOV 13 creature actually reaches its full move before SR 12... but that's easier to deal with than the alternative, where after SR 12 they still have more movement).

Edited December 27, 2019 by lordabdul

[g33k]

19 hours ago, lordabdul said:

Yeah that makes sense! Strange that the system doesn't support faster moving creatures... even without considering spirits, I can totally imagine some animals or creatures going faster than MOV 12.

Letting that fast NPC do 2 movements units (6m) for some of their SR seems a bit too much of a jump, maybe? (and you'd have to decide which SRs they get the double move). I would instead experiment with a table where, for them, a unit of movement gets bigger. Something like:

• 12 of below: unit = 3m
• 13 to 16:       unit = 4m
• 17 to 20:       unit = 5m
• etc. (for each +4 in MOV, increase unit by 1)

You can of course tweak the table a bit to make the rounding fall in a different place (here I chose to round up... which means a MOV 13 creature actually reaches its full move before SR 12... but that's easier to deal with than the alternative, where after SR 12 they still have more movement).

If you often have such speedy characters (whether PC or NPC) this seems like a good approach IMHO.  I'd probably want to tweak it a bit, as you suggest.

I'd also take care to note that movement in a SR should be "up to" the MOV-unit per SR; that is to say, just because they CAN whip across a field at 5m / SR, it doesn't follow that they always WILL do so...

Last but not least:  always remember that anyone attempting to bypass melee merely by "running past" (even with high MOV) is subject to getting hit.  You need to run around CLEAR of the melee, or you risk getting embroiled IN the melee!

[Chromatism]

On 12/27/2019 at 4:09 AM, lordabdul said:

• 12 of below: unit = 3m
• 13 to 16:       unit = 4m
• 17 to 20:       unit = 5m
• etc. (for each +4 in MOV, increase unit by 1)

This is a topic I wanted to come back to now I'm making my second pass through the rules. I do very much like the above approach, but this does hinge a little one whether your combats are firmly theatre of the mind or you're someone who likes to use "MOV units" as an imaginary/visual indicator during combat. What I mean to say is it's potentially a bit of an obfuscation when a character with a MOV below 12 moves four units, and a character with a MOV above 12 moves four units... exactly how far in front does that put it? Sure you can do some quick maths, but personally I'd prefer that calculation up front:

• We're interested in MOV units above 12, so in this example we'll use 15.
• The difference between MOV 12 and 15 is 3 units.
• We can then divide 12 by 3, which equals 4.
• This means that every 4 units of movement, we only expend one Strike Rank to move 2 units.

The question then becomes where to put that "free" movement. You can continue the above example and say that you have a free MOV unit on Strike Ranks 4, 8 and 12. Or, if you're after flexibility (but you're not concerned about things so thematically), you can place the free MOV unit on every fourth strike rank beginning from the 1st. So Strike Ranks 1, 5 and 9.

Why is this important? Two reasons. If you have a character with a MOV of 13, under this system you get one free MOV unit. The question is do you prefer to place it at the end, perhaps to represent acceleration and momentum? Or do you put it at the beginning so that character has more flexibility when compared to a MOV 12 counterpart. We also have to consider how this affects characters with MOV above 6 that isn't so easily divisible. (You can also just fudge MOV 13 and place that free MOV unit on SR 6 or 7 at your discretion)

I'll include two quick tables using the above methods I've calculated. I'm not great when it comes to maths, so please feel free to correct me if I'm being numerically illiterate. Also note that the "Early Strike Rank Table" will be tweaked for reason and sanity:
 

1) Using the "later" Strike Rank method 

• SR 13 = 12
• SR 14 = 6/12
• SR 15 = 4/8/12
• SR 16 = 3/6/9/12
• SR 17 = 2/5/7/10/12
• SR 18 = 2/4/6/8/10/12
• SR 19 = 2/3/5/7/9/10/12
• SR 20 = 2/3/5/6/8/9/11/12
• SR 21 = 1/3/4/5/7/8/9/10/12
• SR 22 = 1/2/4/5/6/7/8/10/11/12
• SR 23 = 1/2/3/4/6/7/8/9/10/11/12
• SR 24 = ... you've got this! 😁

2) Using the "early" Strike Rank method

• SR 13 = 1
• SR 14 = 1/7
• SR 15 = 1/5/9
• SR 16 = 1/4/7/10
• SR 17 = 1/4/6/9/11
• SR 18 = 1/3/5/7/9/11
• SR 19 = 1/2/4/6/8/9/11
• SR 20 = 1/2/4/5/7/8/10/11
• SR 21 = 1/3/4/5/7/8/9/10/12
• SR 22 = 1/2/4/5/6/7/8/10/11/12
• SR 23 = 1/2/3/4/6/7/8/9/10/11/12
• SR 24 = ... you've got this! 😁

 

Well! Now that I've felt the need to type all that. I certainly wouldn't recommend doing this if you're constantly featuring creatures with more than MOV 12 in your games (or at least, if they have ridiculous MOV towards the higher end of the tables...) but for a one off, and if you're that way inclined to run combats with a bit more table top presence, maybe this will see some use.

Cheers!

Edited January 16, 2020 by Chromatism

[French Desperate WindChild]

you can also use a kind of "average" strike rank.

• SR 13 = 6
• SR 14 = 4/8
• SR 15 = 3/6/9

[soltakss]

On Page 126 of the RQG Rulebook, it says "2. Movement of Non-Engaged Characters
Any adventurer or monster actively taking part in melee combat, whether attacking or defending, is engaged in melee combat. All characters and monsters not directly engaged in melee combat may move up to their total movement rate (MOV).
Those moving no more than half of their usual movement allowance may also participate in melee or perform other feats such as throwing a spell. Every 3 meters of movement adds 1 to the mover’s strike rank.".

Unengaged Adventurers just move their full Movement rate, even if it is above 12.

However, Engaged Adventurers are restricted, so someone moving 36m adds +12 to their SR, so that does restrict someone to Move 12.

However, what I would do is to say that someone could move their entire Movement Rate in a Melee Round, splitting the extra Movement among the strike Ranks.

So, someone with Move 18 should be able to move 18x3=54m in a round, so 4.5m per SR, while engaged. 

A human has Move 8, but a human with Mobility cast has Move 16, so moves 16x3m=48 in a round, or 4m per SR. Now, that appears a bit odd, as a normal human can move at 3m per SR but a human moving twice as fast can move 4m per SR, why not have them move 6m per SR? You could do, and that would be fine, their movement just finishes a bit earlier than someone moving for the whole round.