character creation

[Lordabdul]

4 hours ago, French Desperate WindChild said:

I remember how frustrating it was to modify all % on the paper every +1/-1 characteristic changes (particularly power) Seems simpler now

Philosophical question about the RQG character sheet: do you people write the skill category modifier on each category, and then include it in every skill score below? Or do you write the unmodified skill score and add the two on the fly when you roll?

[PhilHibbs]

30 minutes ago, lordabdul said:

Philosophical question about the RQG character sheet: do you people write the skill category modifier on each category, and then include it in every skill score below? Or do you write the unmodified skill score and add the two on the fly when you roll?

I was always on the side of writing down excluding category modifier and adding on the fly, but I can understand that some people don't want to be doing arithmetic all the time. Nowadays I use my Google Docs system.

[Joerg]

I always kept the modifier out of the scores - also because quite a few spirit magics could alter the modifier in RQ3, which was a feature I appreciated.

The feature which sold me to RQ3 was that I could calculate anything on the fly with very few formulas, without the need to consult any tables. Even the Fibonacci sequence for ceremony increases...

Keeping the unmodified skill value on the sheet was helpful for resolving skill checks, too. Easy to substract category bonuses rather than add... Cleaner math, throughout.

 

I can accept the de-coupling between giant size and hit points - while that table was easy to calculate, its result at the upper range were a little weird.

The "skills over 100%" problem started only in RQ3, I believe - RQ2 had Defense which would substract from those skill percentages, which could keep effective skill quite a bit lower than nominal skill.

[jajagappa]

1 hour ago, lordabdul said:

Philosophical question about the RQG character sheet: do you people write the skill category modifier on each category, and then include it in every skill score below? Or do you write the unmodified skill score and add the two on the fly when you roll?

Skill category modifier written separate.  Never include the modifier in the skill score below - sum the two when the roll is needed.

Why?  Two reasons.  1) If the modifier changes, you don't have to recalculate all the skills.  2) When calculating experience, you don't have to back out the modifier to figure out the skill base to determine if you're above or below when you roll.

[DreadDomain]

6 hours ago, French Desperate WindChild said:

At the begining, I was like you. Continuity is softer than gap and I am a softly angry old man

Oh the delicious excitement of rolling a DEX 16 is RQ3. Oh the bitter disapointement of rolling a DEX 16 in RQG.

2 hours ago, lordabdul said:

Philosophical question about the RQG character sheet: do you people write the skill category modifier on each category, and then include it in every skill score below? Or do you write the unmodified skill score and add the two on the fly when you roll?

I've done both. A benefit of RQG is that all modifiers end in 5 and 10 so for some it might be easier to leave them out and add them on the fly. Another pro for RQG is that the modifiers are generally higher than in RQ3. Now if it counterbalance the annoyance of the breakpoints is a matter of personal preferences.

[Baron Wulfraed]

8 hours ago, lordabdul said:

Philosophical question about the RQG character sheet: do you people write the skill category modifier on each category, and then include it in every skill score below? Or do you write the unmodified skill score and add the two on the fly when you roll?

Separate on the skill page, add in real-time.

However, the front page positions for weapons and spirit combat get the combined totals to reduce the need to flip over to he skill page.

I'll need to restudy the rules for skill increase rolls again, after seeing the post two up from here...

[Kloster]

I always write the skill scores not including the category modifiers, and add them on the fly. This makes experience rolls immediate and avoided to rewrite all the skills when a characteristic changed (in RQ3). In addition, when there was temporary changes in the characteristics (mostly because of spells), you just had to write the temporary value of the modifier. With RQG, this is less usefull because the way spirit magic spells affecting characteristics now include the modifiers changes, but I kept the habit.

[soltakss]

On 3/8/2021 at 9:42 PM, lordabdul said:

What I find makes it a pain to create NPCs are things that have been there all the time: the tables for damage bonuses and hit points and strike ranks, the skill category modifiers (which I really dislike for many reasons), etc.  

I have a spreadsheet that calculates all that and puts it into a statblock that I can copy and paste into Word. it makes things a lot easier.

[Godlearner]

6 hours ago, soltakss said:

I have a spreadsheet that calculates all that and puts it into a statblock that I can copy and paste into Word. it makes things a lot easier.

I been avoiding making it.

[davecake]

I like the character history, it's great for giving characters some history at the start of the game. I also appreciate extra resources available on the JC like the Early Family History supplement, or the excellent version for Sun Country in the Sandheart updates, for those running different games than the norm. I also like the Clan history questionnaires from HeroQuest. 

But you don't need to do this for NPCs, and a short and simple version skipping the long family history is already there on pg 29. 

[Squaredeal Sten]

On 3/10/2021 at 8:41 AM, Godlearner said:

I been avoiding making it.

I have found that in order to keep track of how I got to  my final skill% result in character generation,  It helped me to make a table (spreadsheet)  for skills with these column headings:

Skill	Characteristic  p.57 keep separate	Base  p.61	Cultural p.60-63	Occupa-tional	History	Cult (p.74)	Personal (p.79)	Total from base thru personal
				p.63-69

Having this record enabled me to (1) Take a break and come back to the task (2) recheck my work.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 11, 2021 by Squaredeal Sten
clarity

[Lordabdul]

On 3/10/2021 at 6:41 AM, Godlearner said:

I been avoiding making it.

Good thing @PhilHibbs has got you covered if you're into spreadsheets!

 

[Godlearner]

2 hours ago, lordabdul said:

Good thing @PhilHibbs has got you covered if you're into spreadsheets!

 

Nah, I got mine from @soltakss