A Runequest: Glorantha suggestion

[Pentallion]

If it's not too late.  Just a minor tweak really.

On special to hits, impaling weapons get impale and all other weapons get knockback.  some weapons you can choose.  However, one thing in RQ 6 that my players liked was that different weapons did different things.  So why not allow impaling weapons to impale on specials and crits, while hammers Stun Location and Great Swords Sunder, etc.?

My players fell in love with this innovation to our RQ 3 game.

 

It's not as complicated as the special effects of RQ 6.  It's simple and the game already accomodates it with special successes.  Impaling weapons impale, hammers stun, etc.

Edited May 7, 2016 by Pentallion

[Mankcam]

Yeah at the moment Classic BRP seems to favour Impaling weapons above all else.

 I think that wide range of different damage effects are a highlight of the MRQ/RQ6 lineage and it feels right to me. From a gamist perspective I think damage types should be more or less balanced on their special hits - you roll a special, then get to add the Impale effect, or the Stun effect, etc etc it makes perfect sense to me, and really adds to the tactile flavour of combat. I would be quite happy to see a version of this for the next RQ, as it will not complicate the flow of combat at all, and it means that impaling weapons won't be always chosen over bashing weapons etc.

I would also like to see some consistency with CoC 7E skill mechanics as well - Hard rolls (half value), Extreme Rolls (fifth value) etc and Special Effects will be just the effects different damage types do upon Extreme Rolls.  Combing these things just makes great sense.

I should add that the notion of Hard and Extreme Rolls doesn't necessarily mean that those values need to be recorded on the character sheet - they are easy enough to calculate during game play and there are quick reference tables that can be available for such as well. I prefer my character sheets not to look overly cluttered.

As far as other CoC 7E innovations, I actually don't mind the Bonus/Penalty Dice from a GM perspective; its nice and clean, a quick and easy way to replace fiddly +/- modifiers. Of course we have the D&D 5E Advantage/Disadvantage rules to thank for it, but we also have the original D&D to thank for the Characteristics block so that's not a big issue. It may lend itself to a more 'loose' sense of gameplay that may not suit the RQ setting, although I personally think its an improvement (and I have been playing BRP rpgs since the mid 1980s).

But getting back to the initial suggestion of various Special Effects based on Damage Types, I really hope this is one area that is being considered in the next RQ edition.

Edited May 12, 2016 by Mankcam

[Numtini]

Back in the RQ2 day, we converted impale to special hit and they all did something. I can't quite remember what, but it was something I grabbed from someone's house rules in A&E or The Wild Hunt. I like the various changes in CoC7, particularly the hard/extreme and pushing. However, I tend to cynically guess that we will see the two games mirroring each other when CoC8 comes out and undoes everything that changed in 7. 

[Corvantir]

There are optional rules in RQ2 where weapons can either Impale, Crush or Slash.

Special successes or better trigger one of the three according to the kind of weapons you are using.

With impaling weapons like spears you roll weapon damage, add maximum weapon damage and add strength bonus to compute the HP losses.

With slashing weapons like swords you roll weapon damage twice and then add strength bonus. But your weapon is now stucked in your opponent's body. Roll half your weapon skill to take it out in the same round. If you fail you can try again the next round. If you fumble, you lose the grip...

With crushing weapons like maces you roll weapon damage and Strength bonus as usual and then add maximum strength bonus.

It was our default option.  

[Mankcam]

I forgot there were optional rules for these in RQ2, I will have to read it more thoroughly.

Making them default rules makes more sense

Edited May 8, 2016 by Mankcam

[Mankcam]

On 5/8/2016 at 0:10 AM, Numtini said:

However, I tend to cynically guess that we will see the two games mirroring each other when CoC8 comes out and undoes everything that changed in 7. 

I know what you mean here but I think that would be a bad move as most of the changes have been good updates. I can see the core Characteristics returning to usual range however, primarily just to maintain consistency with the stat blocks in the back catalog.

Edited May 12, 2016 by Mankcam

[Viktor]

I have always done it as this: Special attacks allow the player to describe an effect of their attack such as impaling, knockback, causing the opponent to be sickened or staggered as long as it is nothing to big. 

Critical hits allow the player to: choose a location and do damage, do maximum damage to random location or describe a major effect AND they get to describe their attack in flashy glory.

E.G. Eltonhepe rolls to attack the broo. He gets 03, special. He sinks his blade into the broo's gut, sickening it and causing it to shriek in agony. (Rolls damage, target also suffers minus 10% to strenuous actions. (unless he's dead obviously)

Eltonhepe rolls to attack the broo. He gets 01, critical. (Assuming damage kills the broo) Player chooses the head as location. Eltonhepe's player: I turn on the broo, shouting to Urox that I am sending a sacrifice his way. My blade bites deep into the broo's neck, cutting his head clean from his body. As the head drops, I turn my blade to its flat and strike his head, knocking it as high into the air as I can, sending it to Urox.

If the player doesn't care what effect they cause or cannot think of anything good, I will just improv. something simple for specials, such as impaling, sundering, concussion depending on weapon, or for a critical something cool and gruesome like the above.

Another major effect of a critical instead of choosing location could be, choosing to break the enemies sword, dealing all damage to that even if they had not previously declared the sword as a target. In my eyes criticals represent the turning of tide in battle, blessings of the gods or the sudden inspired renewed vigour of the character surprising the enemy. Maybe all three.

[10baseT]

We always used the optional rules of adding crush and slash. Additionally, if a PC scored a crit, before he rolled damage, i let him choose to roll crit damage or his special as damage, their choice.

[Pentallion]

The optional rules in RQ2 are basically just variations on impale.  Slash is impale that auto gets stuck.  Bash is tossing in damage bonus instead of weapon damage.  They're all well and good, but compared to allowing maces to Stun Location and great swords to Sunder, also easily added without adding any complexity, they are kind of outdated.

[Cowboy Duck]

On ‎5‎/‎7‎/‎2016 at 6:10 PM, Mankcam said:

I would also like to see some consistency with CoC 7E skill mechanics as well - Hard rolls (half value), Extreme Rolls (fifth value) etc and Special Effects will be just the effects different damage types do upon Extreme Rolls.  Combing these things just makes great sense.

I should add that the notion of Hard and Extreme Rolls doesn't necessarily mean that those values need to be recorded on the character sheet - they are easy enough to calculate during game play and there are quick reference tables that can be available for such as well. I prefer my character sheets not to look overly cluttered.

As far as other CoC 7E innovations, I actually don't mind the Bonus/Penalty Dice from a GM perspective; its nice and clean, a quick and easy way to replace fiddly +/- modifiers. Of course we have the D&D 5E Advantage/Disadvantage rules to thank for it, but we also have the original D&D to thank for the Characteristics block so that's not a big issue. It may lend itself to a more 'loose' sense of gameplay that may not suit the RQ setting, although I personally think its an improvement (and I have been playing BRP rpgs since the mid 1980s).

I hope these are included at least as optional rules.

[Viktor]

On 5/11/2016 at 2:24 PM, Pentallion said:

The optional rules in RQ2 are basically just variations on impale.  Slash is impale that auto gets stuck.  Bash is tossing in damage bonus instead of weapon damage.  They're all well and good, but compared to allowing maces to Stun Location and great swords to Sunder, also easily added without adding any complexity, they are kind of outdated.

That is an interesting idea. Perhaps one way to do it is to give every weapon a simple, special critical ability. Weapons in games can often feel very similar to each other, but many are very different in function even if they look similar.