Lowering lethality for newer players?

[Stephen L]

10 hours ago, Fred said:

still keeps some of the excitement

A good idea.  However, combat in our games is quite exciting enough.

Another idea might be if the shield is completely shattered, or a huge blow (double AP of shield?), then its knocked aside, and the excess damage is through to the rolled location?

[Stephen L]

11 hours ago, SharpPointyStick said:

combat heavy game focused on fighting & not much else

But RQ combat is the best combat system I have ever played, precisely because of the suspense of knowing your character might die.  Or get a limb chopped off (when they generally count themselves lucky).  Wading through bands of trollkin is exhilarating, in a way that orcs aren't (especially for the GM who knows that the trollkins' role is to disperse the party.)

That's not to discourage the non-combat roleplaying, because the rules all round are generally very tight.  You really do need someone in the party with high Cha and communication skills, and the character with the more thiefly skills is generally quite busy in our campaign.

[SharpPointyStick]

4 hours ago, Stephen L said:

But RQ combat is the best combat system I have ever played, precisely because of the suspense of knowing your character might die.

I look forward to getting into some RQ combat shenanigans! It does look like a fun system! Just saying it's not exactly the system for someone whose idea of fun combat is being the 10th level Warrior in magical Plate Mail with 150 hit points plowing through a pack of 20 1Hit Die goblins with 4 hit points each & not taking a scratch because they can't even hit you...This is most definitely not that! I'm glad of it too.

Not saying those systems aren't ok when level appropriate challenges are set up by the Game Master. Just saying they often tend to fall into ruts where it's all about fighting & nothing else. May as well be playing a wargame in many instances. Practically are in many cases when using mini's. lol Love that combat is fun in RQ but has serious consequences. Makes people realize that maybe drawing a sword isn't the only way to handle things. Makes the combat more exciting & memorable though when it is needed though I bet!

[g33k]

On 8/28/2020 at 5:11 AM, SharpPointyStick said:

I look forward to getting into some RQ combat shenanigans! It does look like a fun system! Just saying it's not exactly the system for someone whose idea of fun combat is being the 10th level Warrior in magical Plate Mail with 150 hit points plowing through a pack of 20 1Hit Die goblins with 4 hit points each & not taking a scratch because they can't even hit you...This is most definitely not that! I'm glad of it too.

Not saying those systems aren't ok when level appropriate challenges are set up by the Game Master. Just saying they often tend to fall into ruts where it's all about fighting & nothing else. May as well be playing a wargame in many instances. Practically are in many cases when using mini's. lol Love that combat is fun in RQ but has serious consequences. Makes people realize that maybe drawing a sword isn't the only way to handle things. Makes the combat more exciting & memorable though when it is needed though I bet!

There's a similar-ish RQ situation:  a Humakti with Sword Trance, or a Babeester-Gori with Axe Trance.  Those are very limited Rune Magics (few cults get *Trance), which additionally take Magic Points to fuel them to absurd levels of skill.  MP-storage (in crystals / etc) can lead to skill-levels well over 200% !!!

This synergizes with the "over 100% skill" rules, wherein all combatants reduce their skills by the level needed to get the high-skill fighter down to 100%; this can reduce most combatants to the base irreductible "always hit on a 05 or under".  Facing the master with the 100% parry, most of those attacks are futile -- the 5% hit has to match up with a rare failed parry.

Wading through a horde of mooks is actually do-able for such fighters.

Some players go so far as to call the rules "broken" in such areas (I'm not one of them).

(Just a spot of the rules worth noting... )

 

 

Edited August 31, 2020 by g33k

[Manimati]

15 hours ago, g33k said:

Wading through a horde of mooks is actually do-able for such fighters.

Yes, but beware of massed arrow fire (see Fun with RuneQuest and statistics) : a few archers can really ruin your day with a few impales or even critical hits.

[Rodney Dangerduck]

16 hours ago, g33k said:

Wading through a horde of mooks is actually do-able for such fighters.

Some players go so far as to call the rules "broken" in such areas

The problem isn't that the Tranced warrior can wade through a horde of mooks.

The problem is that the Tranced warrior can wade through a horde of high quality opponents (or the PCs). 

RQ prides itself on not having "character classes".  Yet here they do: if you don't have access to a Trance spell, you aren't a real melee warrior.  You can be an archer, or spell caster, healer, face, or versatile skills/spells monkey, but leave the serious combat to the Humakti and Babs Gor.  And, like it or not, combat is a big deal in most RPG.

I'm trying to adjust, and maybe this isn't "broken", but I don't think it should be glossed over as "a-ok".

Edited August 31, 2020 by Rodney Dangerduck

[Lordabdul]

5 minutes ago, Rodney Dangerduck said:

RQ prides itself on not having "character classes".  Yet here they do: if you don't have access to a Trance spell, you aren't a real melee warrior.  You can be an archer, or spell caster, healer, face, or versatile skills/spells monkey, but leave the serious combat to the Humakti and Babs Gor.

Not having character classes doesn't mean everybody's equivalent. Humakti and Babeester Gori are professional warriors. There are no character classes in real-life, but there are still professions. I'm gonna leave the serious combat to professional soldiers and bodyguards in real life, if they're around.

Edited August 31, 2020 by lordabdul

[Dissolv]

If the entire PC party lacks 2 points of Dispel Magic to rub together, then I have to question if they actually are high quality opponents though.  The main thing about RQ is that it is very much three dimensional, and if the players are wholly devoted to just having higher combat skills and decent equipment to win, then they aren't going to beat a troll war band, much less a Humakti Rune level and his retinue. 

Note: I run that the 1 point Rune spell is not made harder to dispel by the magic points powering it up.

But either way, if confronted with such a magically empowered hand to hand specialist, Babeester Gor or Humakti, you can either beat them at their own game (using your own party Humakti or Babeester Gor follower), or you can work one of the other combat dimensions.  Everyone cast Mobility 1 and dance out of range.  Firearrow en masse and gun him down.  Shield 6 on your Yelmalian, let him tank the hits -- and then Heal Body when the critical comes in.  Burn your own Rune spells -- Lightning, Sun Spear, Thunderstorm.  Or Dismiss Magic the divine favor and even the playing field out again. 

High level followers of serious, dedicated war gods are supposed to be totally bad-a@@ed. 

 

[RogerDee]

Thing is Runequest is a sort of D100 version of DnD, further copied in Classic Fantasy. Heck to get technical, Runequest inspired Exalted.

So it should highly lethal for the antagonists, but very low for the heroes. If they face dozens of opponents, running is good just like you see in some of the 1980's S&S films. But facing down two or three should be well within the heroes remit, and abilities. And this includes the GM fudging rolls in the player's favour.

It should not be plain sailing, but neither should they die in a bar brawl, or to some random street thug.

They're heroes.

And the game needs to reflect such.

Edited August 31, 2020 by RogerDee

[Dissolv]

2 hours ago, RogerDee said:

They're heroes.

And the game needs to reflect such.

Interesting point of view.    I play it so that my players have to learn to be Batman (hard work, planning, using every angle, little bit of luck) before they can graduate to being Superman.

[soltakss]

3 hours ago, Dissolv said:

If the entire PC party lacks 2 points of Dispel Magic to rub together, then I have to question if they actually are high quality opponents though. 

Dismiss Magic is a Common Runespell that everyone gets and can knock down Sword Trance or Axe Trance quite easily, with just a POW vs POW roll.

 

[Rodney Dangerduck]

3 hours ago, Dissolv said:

Shield 6 on your Yelmalian, let him tank the hits -- and then Heal Body when the critical comes in

So you are going to burn 9 points of Rune Magic to counter their 1 point Trance Spell?  Good strategy.  This just proves how good Trance is.  What if they cast Mobility and run away for 15 minutes?  🙂

>Humakti and Babeester Gori are professional warriors.

So are Yelmalians.  And many other cults.  Our party contains a Storm Bull and two Orlanthi who are professional warriors.  Or at least have that as their profession.  They cannot compete in melee.  (They are still very fun in other aspects)

In any case, we are off track of the original topic...

[Akhôrahil]

3 hours ago, Dissolv said:

If the entire PC party lacks 2 points of Dispel Magic to rub together, then I have to question if they actually are high quality opponents though. 

A Humakti with time to prepare might well have defensive-boosted that Sword Trance with 10-20 MP, which makes it all but undispellable for typical PCs.

Edit: Saw that you houseruled against this, but that kinda proves the point...

Edited August 31, 2020 by Akhôrahil

[Akhôrahil]

13 minutes ago, soltakss said:

Dismiss Magic is a Common Runespell that everyone gets and can knock down Sword Trance or Axe Trance quite easily, with just a POW vs POW roll.

No need for POW vs, POW.

[Dissolv]

5 minutes ago, Rodney Dangerduck said:

So you are going to burn 9 points of Rune Magic to counter their 1 point Trance Spell?  Good strategy.

I'm not.  However I am the GM, not the players, and I have witnessed different groups doing all kind of crazy things.  Some PC's might not have much of a better option, frankly.  This is when you get a bad mismatch like in a buddy cop movie.  In this case your party Humakti is taking on the trollkin while the Issaries initiate is left to deal with the Babeester Gor Rune Priest.  Under pressure all kinds of crazy ideas get floated around, lol.

5 minutes ago, Rodney Dangerduck said:

So are Yelmalians.  And many other cults.  Our party contains a Storm Bull and two Orlanthi who are professional warriors.  Or at least have that as their profession.  They cannot compete in melee.

Again, there is a strong case to be made here for them being a tier down as warriors from the Humakti.  The Orlanthi is much more well rounded (Dark Walk, lack of Geas, Teleportation, Flight, etc.)  He's the ultimate bag of tricks god if you play him right, not just a warrior.   Storm Bull is an anti-chaos specialist who goes all out offense and relies on others to support him.  Yelmalians are mythically stripped of magic that helps in combat, sadly, and they suffer nasty Geas possibilities as well.  This isn't wrong, just the way the world is set up.

And really it is the divine magic that makes the Humakti a "better warrior", not anything to do with the profession.   I've said it before, but in my campaigns following death is an extremely risky endeavor, as everyone and their brother is trying to get you to fight the most dangerous fights for the clan, kind, and country.  It is a MUCH easier go for the players that can run away, not be honor bound, and can be resurrected.   YGMV, but I think that this may be strongly connected to my earlier statements about how I lean on the combat difficulty of the Runequest system and the Gloranthan setting rather hard.  It isn't a romp in the park for the players, but those who hit upper levels don't just have a strong character -- they have become strong players of the system.  This has proven to be more fun for everyone over the years than just jumping in to higher level play from the start.  At least for my guys.

 

[g33k]

Yes... there's actually *A*LOT* of ways to beat Sword/AxeTrance.  It's the premier spell for melee fighters (if they've got the Cults for it (plus Arrow Trance; only for Aldryami archers)), but when the fight is no longer about melee supremacy... well, it's no longer the premier spell...

• Ranged attacks -- both magical & mundane -- are the trivially-obvious way to beat the B.Gor/H Trances.
• Extra speed, so the *Trancer just cannot close to melee range.
• Exploit the monomania:  these are Trance spells, and the subject won't do any further magic (self-buff, defensive casting, mobility to catch a runaway foe, etc) or even mundane non-Trance-y stuff... like take a single step into available cover, when a dozen archers aim at him/her.
• Exploit your OWN special Cult magic (Orlanth Lightning, Yelm Sunspear, BlackFang Shatter, etc).

Even "hordes of mooks" actually *is* a valid strategy:  the "hordes" are generating a BUNCH of attack-rolls and (statistically speaking) a few are likely to generate Specials and Criticals, and max-damage-ignore-armor makes hitting that parry pretty important... but at -20% per extra parry, per round... the "hordes" suddenly become a viable threat (eventually).  It was just such a threat (a lowly Trollkin that crit'ed a spear) that took down the Rune-Lord Soltak Storm-Spear.

I'm... unsympathetic... to the Orlanthi who has all the OTHER stuff they have, and ALSO wants to be able to match the avatar of Death in melee combat, blow for blow.

 

[Lordabdul]

3 hours ago, RogerDee said:

Thing is Runequest is a sort of D100 version of DnD,

[...]

They're heroes.

And the game needs to reflect such.

I personally strongly disagree. In BRP games, the PCs are the protagonists, not the heroes (although they could be that if they're lucky). This is mainly evidenced by the fact that PCs health points and damage rolls don't increase that much from the baseline of a "normal" individual. In D&D, once you get up a couple levels, you already have three times as many HPs than a "normal" individual, and can routinely kill human guards or whoever in one blow. In RQ/BRP/etc., you might be an excellent and skilled fighter, but any combat is still going to be dangerous. That's a feature of both the system and the setting. If someone wants a D&D-like power curve, there's 13th Age for that... there's nothing wrong with it (both D&D and 13th Age are very fine games), but trying to retrofit the power fantasy of D&D into RQ is bound to either fail, or force the GM to make so many house rules they will probably regret not using 13th Age or D&D or something else that was designed for that kind of gameplay specifically.

38 minutes ago, Akhôrahil said:

No need for POW vs, POW.

RQG p244. All spells require a POW resistance roll if they are directed at a target that doesn't consciously accept the spell. We've been over this already: just because some spells sadly specifically call for a POW resistance roll doesn't mean that the other spells don't (although many spells don't have a resistance roll because they don't target anybody in particular).

We have also gone over how to effectively deal with beefed up Humaktis and such multiple times. There are a couple threads with a lot of good advice and insights. We can take it to those threads if there's anything new to this debate, but I doubt there is.

Edited August 31, 2020 by lordabdul

[g33k]

On 8/24/2020 at 12:22 PM, Hiro Protagonist said:

I ran the Rattling Wind for a group of new players and two characters were dying/dead before they could act. Any advice for making it less lethal? Maybe a better introductory adventure?

The classic moves for new characters:

1. Run Away (to fight again another day).
2. Ambush the foe at range, get a round (or two, or more...) of missile/magic before they can reply in kind... and be closing range so they don't have much time for that "in kind" reply.
3. Outnumber the foe.

But ideally, there's a 0'th principle:  try to understand the foe, what they are, what are their resources and weaknesses.  If you prep a missle-ambush against an elf archer, it's not likely to turn out the way you wanted.  If you surround a Sword of Humakt in an ambush, he may just thank you for bringing all his foes in reach... Etc.

 

All that said... Rattling Wind *is* kind of a dangerous fight there.  But then, luck of the dice sometimes roll that way, even on the easier scenarios.

Edited September 1, 2020 by g33k

[Akhôrahil]

5 minutes ago, lordabdul said:

RQG p244. All spells require a POW resistance roll if they are directed at a target that doesn't consciously accept the spell. We've been over this already: just because some spells sadly specifically call for a POW resistance roll doesn't mean that the other spells don't (although many spells don't have a resistance roll because they don't target anybody in particular)

This is different - the spell is the relevant  target, not the person. Pretty sure it has been ruled officially, too.

[Dissolv]

2 hours ago, lordabdul said:

We have also gone over how to effectively deal with beefed up Humaktis and such multiple times. There are a couple threads with a lot of good advice and insights. We can take it to those threads if there's anything new to this debate, but I doubt there is.

I don't think that there is much new in the way of tactics.  Heck, Runemasters was what? 1980?   However the system is complex enough and dynamic enough that I do think that a long talk about cultural tactics in different situations remains difficult to adopt for most players.   So the problems remain.  I did a big long post in response to someone's question a long time ago, but the topic remains an issue for many people, based on the forums, and the astonished look on my current group's face when something new is trotted out.   I think every time a "Humakti are invincible!" post is made is evidence of this. 

1. Too much instant-melee combat, not enough quiver dumps.
2. Not enough ambushing and pre-combat maneuvering.
3. Not enough magical counter measures and support.
4. Not enough multi-encounters before return to temple. 

You know what should be a rough go for Humakti?  Any trip to Prax.  That's a LOT of missile armed cavalry which can fairly trivially dispatch a walker.  Even better when they have two handed swords and no shield.  Even if they do try melee, as soon as the Humakti light saber's up, they should just pull back and be patient with it.  Send for help (and more ammo) while forcing the Humakti to dump his Rune points with threatened charges.   And why isn't the Nomad shaman dispelling/dullblade/demoralizing the Humakti?

The reason it doesn't play out this way is normally because all encounters are run as if everyone in the world was heavy infantry.  Immediate move to melee attacks with no preparatory missile/spell combat, fight in a losing combat far too long, and may the best man win.  Bronze age combat wasn't like that, and I'm sure as Hades that Gloranthan combat shouldn't be like that!  But the point is that people are still experiencing it this way, and that's the problem.  How to deal with combat powerhouses is posted on the forum.  How to get your campaign to be a place with enough flexibility to do so isn't.

[Rodney Dangerduck]

2 hours ago, Dissolv said:

The reason it doesn't play out this way is normally because all encounters are run as if everyone in the world was heavy infantry

Excellent point.

Not sure if it is our GM, our generally melee oriented group style influencing him, or the scenarios we have run, but we have been able to do basically zero scouting and tactical preparation before battles, there has never been a reasonable option to avoid battle, and there's been only one battle where my PC could use archery effectively for more than a single quick snap shot.

I've participated in one other group's session, a hack and slash in Snakepipe Hollow.  And watched one full session from "White Bull", when the PCs protected Argrath from assassins.  Both of those were also basically "instant melee".  (The first understandable)

So I completely understand that a different approach, as @Dissolv advocates, that allows pre-combat maneuvering, tactics and magic, would tone down the Humakti, and, more importantly for this thread's original topic, lower lethality.  Or at least you can blame the PCs for when they die.

I'm just not seeing these options in practice.

[RogerDee]

10 hours ago, Dissolv said:

Interesting point of view.    I play it so that my players have to learn to be Batman (hard work, planning, using every angle, little bit of luck) before they can graduate to being Superman.

Absolutely, don't make it too easy, but like I said some random thug should not inconvenience them.

9 hours ago, lordabdul said:

I personally strongly disagree. In BRP games, the PCs are the protagonists, not the heroes (although they could be that if they're lucky). This is mainly evidenced by the fact that PCs health points and damage rolls don't increase that much from the baseline of a "normal" individual. In D&D, once you get up a couple levels, you already have three times as many HPs than a "normal" individual, and can routinely kill human guards or whoever in one blow. In RQ/BRP/etc., you might be an excellent and skilled fighter, but any combat is still going to be dangerous. That's a feature of both the system and the setting. If someone wants a D&D-like power curve, there's 13th Age for that... there's nothing wrong with it (both D&D and 13th Age are very fine games), but trying to retrofit the power fantasy of D&D into RQ is bound to either fail, or force the GM to make so many house rules they will probably regret not using 13th Age or D&D or something else that was designed for that kind of gameplay specifically.

YMMV I guess.

Look at it another way, it does not have to be a feature of the system, nor the setting. And in fact Pulp Cthulhu stands as an excellent counterpoint - in a game where the PC meme is either dying or going mad. The rule in there is that they can keep going until they reach nearly 0 HP - I would have the check to confirm, without ill effects. So the system can easily include such abilities. in fact a lot of the 80's Sword and Sorcery movies show that it can be gritty, and the protagonists can still be heroic all at the same time.

It does not need to be mutually exclusive if you see what I mean?

 

 

Edited September 1, 2020 by RogerDee

[Lordabdul]

8 hours ago, RogerDee said:

And in fact Pulp Cthulhu stands as an excellent counterpoint

Haha no, Pulp Cthulhu stands as an excellent argument for what I said: it contains around 100 pages of custom rules to change the fundamental gameplay of CoC: archetypes with special feats, custom rules for rolling stats, "pulp talents", new luck rules, additional sanity rules, mook/villain rules, etc. That's what I meant by "force the GM to make so many house rules they will probably regret not using 13th Age or D&D or something else that was designed for that kind of gameplay specifically". Pulp Cthulhu is effectively a different game (and a great game too!).

If the GM would not regret writing 100 pages of custom rules (maybe more, because there's cults and magic in RQ to deal with too) rather than picking a different game system, then by all means go for it! And post it online or sell it on the Jonstown Compendium! I'm sure a lot of people will be interested in adopting at least a few rules out of the whole... That kind of extensive system hack, while easy to start, is often hard to polish and finalize, and requires patient and willing players, however.

8 hours ago, RogerDee said:

The rule in there is that they can keep going until they reach nearly 0 HP - I would have the check to confirm, without ill effects.

IIRC, default CoC rules also let you do that. I think the only "ill effect" you can ever get while above 0 HP is when you suffer a major wound (more than half HP in damage in one hit), which makes your character fall prone and require a CON roll to stay conscious. But otherwise, you can merrily do whatever you want until you hit 0 HP (although at my table we do narrate the character limping, grunting, losing blood, etc. when they get low in HP).

Pulp Cthulhu changes those rules only slightly: it removes the "major wound" tick box, but keeps the CON roll for when you get hit for a lot of damage. It also changes the rules for healing, so the heroes can recover faster (with an archetype feat to make it even faster).

An RQ house rule to change the threshold or conditions for a character dying will lower lethality, but it will absolutely not magically change RQ to have the same power curve as D&D. It will not even make the characters any more resilient, because it would just change when they die, but not when they get taken out of combat.

8 hours ago, RogerDee said:

in fact a lot of the 80's Sword and Sorcery movies show that it can be gritty, and the protagonists can still be heroic all at the same time.

It does not need to be mutually exclusive if you see what I mean?

I think you may be confusing the treatment and the mechanics. You can run a game of D&D or Savage Worlds that is super gritty and dark, but it doesn't change the fact that PCs are soon going to be overpowered compared to armies of mooks and other normal NPCs. That's by design (SW even has rules for mooks!). Conan or Batman are dark and gritty, but they're still heroes and they're vastly superior to the rank and file warriors and thugs (well... usually.. there have been many many very different treatments of Batman!).

The main questions are: do you want to play Batman or Conan with a system that mechanically, intrinsically, gives any random mook a chance to kill the hero? Or should danger come only from archvillains, with mooks mostly only adding pressure and point attrition? Do you want to play a hero that gets an order of magnitude better in the span of a few adventures, or do you want to play a protagonist who only got better by 30%? (or, in the case of CoC, a protagonist that can really only get worse!) You can change the treatment as much as you want, but these things are driven by the system's mechanics... so like I said, you either need extensive house rules, or, you know, a different system. These days, there are soooo many systems to choose from that I'm questioning the need to write more than a few pages of house rules but hey, that's just me, I like playing different systems.

Edited September 1, 2020 by lordabdul

[RogerDee]

1 hour ago, lordabdul said:

Haha no, Pulp Cthulhu stands as an excellent argument for what I said: it contains around 100 pages of custom rules to change the fundamental gameplay of CoC: archetypes with special feats, custom rules for rolling stats, "pulp talents", new luck rules, additional sanity rules, mook/villain rules, etc. That's what I meant by "force the GM to make so many house rules they will probably regret not using 13th Age or D&D or something else that was designed for that kind of gameplay specifically". Pulp Cthulhu is effectively a different game (and a great game too!).

If the GM would not regret writing 100 pages of custom rules (maybe more, because there's cults and magic in RQ to deal with too) rather than picking a different game system, then by all means go for it! And post it online or sell it on the Jonstown Compendium! I'm sure a lot of people will be interested in adopting at least a few rules out of the whole... That kind of extensive system hack, while easy to start, is often hard to polish and finalize, and requires patient and willing players, however.

IIRC, default CoC rules also let you do that. I think the only "ill effect" you can ever get while above 0 HP is when you suffer a major wound (more than half HP in damage in one hit), which makes your character fall prone and require a CON roll to stay conscious. But otherwise, you can merrily do whatever you want until you hit 0 HP (although at my table we do narrate the character limping, grunting, losing blood, etc. when they get low in HP).

Pulp Cthulhu changes those rules only slightly: it removes the "major wound" tick box, but keeps the CON roll for when you get hit for a lot of damage. It also changes the rules for healing, so the heroes can recover faster (with an archetype feat to make it even faster).

An RQ house rule to change the threshold or conditions for a character dying will lower lethality, but it will absolutely not magically change RQ to have the same power curve as D&D. It will not even make the characters any more resilient, because it would just change when they die, but not when they get taken out of combat.

I think you may be confusing the treatment and the mechanics. You can run a game of D&D or Savage Worlds that is super gritty and dark, but it doesn't change the fact that PCs are soon going to be overpowered compared to armies of mooks and other normal NPCs. That's by design (SW even has rules for mooks!). Conan or Batman are dark and gritty, but they're still heroes and they're vastly superior to the rank and file warriors and thugs (well... usually.. there have been many many very different treatments of Batman!).

The main questions are: do you want to play Batman or Conan with a system that mechanically, intrinsically, gives any random mook a chance to kill the hero? Or should danger come only from archvillains, with mooks mostly only adding pressure and point attrition? Do you want to play a hero that gets an order of magnitude better in the span of a few adventures, or do you want to play a protagonist who only got better by 30%? (or, in the case of CoC, a protagonist that can really only get worse!) You can change the treatment as much as you want, but these things are driven by the system's mechanics... so like I said, you either need extensive house rules, or, you know, a different system. These days, there are soooo many systems to choose from that I'm questioning the need to write more than a few pages of house rules but hey, that's just me, I like playing different systems.

Well no, Pulp does not have 100 pages of custom rules. Other than Archetypes, and a few talents. To be fair, you could bespoke that into five pages or less if you were not bothered with nice pictures etc - which is exactly what I'm putting together for my CoC Immortals Through Time Campaign - but simplifying it, and in my own words. Primarily as i do not expect my online players to have the books.

You seem to be very hidebound on the RQ must be lethal schtick. Keep going if you are happy with that, I am not and will change the conditions to make it fit the players being heroes. And it does not take a lot of house ruling, far from it. Just sensible in what rules apply to the players (heroes). No mooks should challenge a hero - boring, too much like real life.

In fact most systems are fairly easy to hack nowadays with not a lot of effort.

 

 

 

 

Edited September 1, 2020 by RogerDee

[PhilHibbs]

Dismiss Magic

18 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

This is different - the spell is the relevant  target, not the person. Pretty sure it has been ruled officially, too.

I agree. If you laumch an offensive spell at someone, it has to get past their magic before it hits their POW resistance. Therefore you can dismiss that magic before you hit their POW resistance.