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New RQ design questions


DreadDomain

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Guys,

I know the next RQ is supposed to be 90% based on RQ2 but I was wondering if the design choices regarding these topics were shared/known ?

1) In RQ2, INT AND SIZ are based on 3d6 for humans. Is it the case for new RQ ? 

2) What about how the characteristics influence skills. RQ2 category bonus? RQ3 category bonus? RQ6 CHAR+CHAR ?

3) How will CHAR rolls work ? CHARx5% or with characteristic based skills like RQ6 (brawn, influence, etc.)

4) Will the Resistance Table be used ?

5) Will combat skills be weapon specific or combat style ?

Thanks! 

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6 hours ago, DreadDomain said:

Guys,

I know the next RQ is supposed to be 90% based on RQ2 but I was wondering if the design choices regarding these topics were shared/known ?

1) In RQ2, INT AND SIZ are based on 3d6 for humans. Is it the case for new RQ ? 

2) What about how the characteristics influence skills. RQ2 category bonus? RQ3 category bonus? RQ6 CHAR+CHAR ?

3) How will CHAR rolls work ? CHARx5% or with characteristic based skills like RQ6 (brawn, influence, etc.)

4) Will the Resistance Table be used ?

5) Will combat skills be weapon specific or combat style ?

Thanks! 

#2 has already been answered in the design notes : the new RQ will use something close to RQ3's bonuses. It seems to me #5 has also been addressed and weapon skills will be used. There won't be a split attack and parry skills.

In fact, when Chaosium says new RQ will be based on RQ2, they mean it will be based on Chaosium editions of the game, but they won't make it as complex as RQ3.

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4's been answered either here in chat or in the designer notes, the resistance table is going to be in.

I'm not sure about 5; I know Jeff said it's going to be simplified (there won't be separate attack and parry skills, it'll just be a single skill) but I don't think they're using combat styles in the sense that RQ6 did either.  In RQ6 you had a "Town Guardsman" combat style that then collectively included certain weapons, maybe a shield, etc, I believe the new RQ will still be weapon-based.

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15 hours ago, Mugen said:

In fact, when Chaosium says new RQ will be based on RQ2, they mean it will be based on Chaosium editions of the game, but they won't make it as complex as RQ3.

Thanks guys,

I thought Jeff said the new RQ was built on the RQ2 chassis with maybe 10% new stuff ( keeping everything that wasn't broken).

2) RQ3 category modifiers are fine. I slighlty prefer CHAR+CHAR because influence on skills is greater.

4) I would have prefered the Resistance Table to dissappear but again, not a deal breaker.

5) I  slightly prefer combat style over weapon skills.

All of this is fairly minor compared to the addition of runes, personality, passions, background based character generation (all positive for me) but I'm still curious.

Now combat... that part worries me...

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4 hours ago, rsanford said:

Does anyone know if the new RQ will have options for general hit points or will it be hit locations?

Looking back at the rough sketch of a character sheet from the first Designer Note, I see separate spots for "Hit Points" and for "Mr. Man", the location chart.

SDLeary 

 

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10 hours ago, DreadDomain said:

Thanks guys,

I thought Jeff said the new RQ was built on the RQ2 chassis with maybe 10% new stuff ( keeping everything that wasn't broken).

2) RQ3 category modifiers are fine. I slighlty prefer CHAR+CHAR because influence on skills is greater.

4) I would have prefered the Resistance Table to dissappear but again, not a deal breaker.

5) I  slightly prefer combat style over weapon skills.

All of this is fairly minor compared to the addition of runes, personality, passions, background based character generation (all positive for me) but I'm still curious.

Now combat... that part worries me...

Considering #4, they first said it wasn't going back, but they also said by that time that skill bases were meant to work RQ6-style.

So, my guess is we will have Resistance Table.

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I liked the RES Table, but I think it probably should stay in the RQ/BRP Classic line, and the more recent line use Opposed Rolls instead. CoC 7E does it this way, so I think it's only logical that RQ does as well.

My gut instinct tells me that there will be Total HP and Limb HP in this edition of RQ, it's pretty tactile and would be in keeping with the RQ2 stat blocks (which Jeff said will be very similar to the new RQ stat blocks).

I don't mind having Skill Cat Mods, but I felt that they were too weak in RQ2/RQ3. I would much prefer having no individual Skill Base chances at all, and just have a Skill Cat Mod for various categories, one which is almost double the current mods. That way it is much more useful for untrained skills and such.

Edited by Mankcam
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" Sure it's fun, but it is also well known that a D20 roll and an AC is no match against a hefty swing of a D100% and a D20 Hit Location Table!"

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I rather liked the Resistance Table, and would prefer it to opposing skills. To me, it feels simpler.

6 hours ago, TrippyHippy said:

Point of note, but in RQ2 there isn't a general Resistance table - it only applies to POW vs POW for magical confrontation. 

It is true that in the RQ2 rulebook the active/resisting side was labled as POW, but already in the Basic Roleplaying bookled (1980) it was turned into a generic active/resisting force. Because people were using it for all kinds of things! It is useful that way!

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13 hours ago, SDLeary said:

Looking back at the rough sketch of a character sheet from the first Designer Note, I see separate spots for "Hit Points" and for "Mr. Man", the location chart.

SDLeary 

 

Excuse the dumb question. I have only played Magic World and have no experience with RuneQuest, why would you need both general hit points and hit locations? How does that work?

Check out our homebrew rules for freeform magic in BRP ->

No reason for Ars Magica players to have all the fun!

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29 minutes ago, rsanford said:

Excuse the dumb question. I have only played Magic World and have no experience with RuneQuest, why would you need both general hit points and hit locations? How does that work?

You can be disabled - by loosing too many of your general hit points - without any single location being out of commission. This represents the cumulative effect of trauma, blood loss, and just good old-fashioned pain.

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2 minutes ago, pachristian said:

You can be disabled - by loosing too many of your general hit points - without any single location being out of commission. This represents the cumulative effect of trauma, blood loss, and just good old-fashioned pain.

And conversely, you can have your left arm damaged to the point where it is useless (i.e. can't defend with your shield), but can continue to fight.

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43 minutes ago, rsanford said:

Excuse the dumb question. I have only played Magic World and have no experience with RuneQuest, why would you need both general hit points and hit locations? How does that work?

Not a dumb question. It becomes more apparent as you fight larger creatures or heavier armored characters. The total HP use only came about when stormbringer was introduced. That release usef only total hit points and no hit locations. Some adopted it as easier but RQ had always used hit locations as well, so it's a staple of the rule system. The total HP and HP per location rules gave any character  the 'ability' to be as vulnerable by a hit to the head as the largest creature would be so allowed combats to be more 'realistic' (if that can be said) and more of a gamble than a D&d combat. 

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Thanks for all the aswers guys. I thought hit locations were in lieu of general hit points but now know better.  I have the RQ6 book, I just need to read it.

Check out our homebrew rules for freeform magic in BRP ->

No reason for Ars Magica players to have all the fun!

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11 hours ago, rsanford said:

Thanks for all the aswers guys. I thought hit locations were in lieu of general hit points but now know better.  I have the RQ6 book, I just need to read it.

In RQ6 (and the mRQs), locations were in lieu of General HP, but not in the Chaosium days. cRQ 1-3 all had general HP and Locations.

SDLeary

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On June 18, 2016 at 0:36 AM, DreadDomain said:

Guys,

I know the next RQ is supposed to be 90% based on RQ2 but I was wondering if the design choices regarding these topics were shared/known ?

1) In RQ2, INT AND SIZ are based on 3d6 for humans. Is it the case for new RQ ? 

For most humans, INT and SIZ are 2D6+6. That was introduced in RQ2 Trollpak.

Quote

2) What about how the characteristics influence skills. RQ2 category bonus? RQ3 category bonus? RQ6 CHAR+CHAR ?

After much feedback, we are using the RQ2 skills category bonuses. 

Quote

3) How will CHAR rolls work ? CHARx5% or with characteristic based skills like RQ6 (brawn, influence, etc.)

Characteristic x 5% as in RQ2.

Quote

4) Will the Resistance Table be used ?

Yes. It is used primarily for magic resistance. 

Quote

5) Will combat skills be weapon specific or combat style ?

A weapon skill includes attack and parry, and, where appropriate, the ability to use a shield with that weapon. Maintaining three different skills for something that would always be trained together proved to be a degree of granularity too much for too little.

 

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Thanks very much Jeff. You are not kidding, the new RQ is really shaping up very closely to RQ2! So far I love the additions but I am a bit wary it's going to be too close to RQ2 for my taste (and yes, I believe RQ2 was great for its time).

Anyway, waiting with a strange mix of wariness and anticipation. I suppose the worse that can happen is that I will buy the book despite the rules (buying is pretty much a foregone conclusion)...

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20 minutes ago, DreadDomain said:

Thanks very much Jeff. You are not kidding, the new RQ is really shaping up very closely to RQ2! So far I love the additions but I am a bit wary it's going to be too close to RQ2 for my taste (and yes, I believe RQ2 was great for its time).

Anyway, waiting with a strange mix of wariness and anticipation. I suppose the worse that can happen is that I will buy the book despite the rules (buying is pretty much a foregone conclusion)...

There is an awful lot of new material here. Runes, rune points, passions, revised spirit combat, revised shamanism, new spirit rules, economics, far more social activity, ew character creation process including family history background, and lots lots more. But it was the general agreement of the team, that the core mechanics of RQ2 should be the framework.

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20 hours ago, rsanford said:

Thanks for all the aswers guys. I thought hit locations were in lieu of general hit points but now know better.  I have the RQ6 book, I just need to read it.

Let's not forget that locational hit points (IMO) were originally driven by their LACK in D&D.  It's one of the first things new players kind of go "huh" about in that system, that the armor systems (we're talking AD&D here) were so non-granular.  You were either wearing chainmail or you weren't - and your AC didn't change if the hood was off, or you'd lost a sleeve, or whatever.  It's just so bloody illogical.  And don't even get me STARTED about 'vorpal' swords in a game with ostensibly no hit locations.

RQ addressed this in the most logical way possible - instead of rationalizing a single "hit" roll to be "the attacker managed to hit AND CAUSE DAMAGE" per D&D, RQ deconstructed it to say 

"did you hit or not?"

"if you hit, where did you hit?"

"how much damage did you do?"

"in that location, how good is the armor, and how much damage got through?"

The only place in my view where RQ didn't really carry this through to a logical conclusion would have been penalties for injury - ie an arm with 33% of hp gone should be less functional and useful than a fully healthy arm.  Sure, RQ *does* have a couple tiers of failure - your arm's functionally useless, or it's off - but nothing up to that point.

Such detail would almost certainly be considered FAR too simulationist for most people and thus unFun.  (I'd disagree, suggesting damage debuffs mean once you're injured, you get less effective becomes a downward efficacy spiral.  Realistically, then, combatants would be motivated to be the one that does that 'first blood' damage just like real life, and thus a bias toward selection of longer and longer weapons and missiles.  Again, like IRL.  YGMV)

 

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9 hours ago, Jeff said:

After much feedback, we are using the RQ2 skills category bonuses.

I'm familiar with RQ3 (and StormBringer 1st edition) but not with RQ2, so I had to check a character sheet to understand what that means.

From my point of view, it means you're not using Communication and Magic bonus, and Agility is merged with Manipulation. I don't understand what's wrong with RQ3 list of bonuses...

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No, I am using Communication (it is in RQ2) and adding Magic as well.

The main difference is how it is calculated. RQ3's system of point by point granularity for Primary, Secondary, and Negative skills adds a LOT of time, is real finicky (especially since POW goes up and down a lot) and gets you very little for that 2 to 3 points of added granularity. RQ2 just has you add +10%/5%/0/-5% for a characteristic within a range. It is much quicker and gets you to the same place.

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11 hours ago, Jeff said:

Yes. It is used primarily for magic resistance. 

I hope that doesn't apply to combat and most opposed checks. The bonus/penalty die and opposed rules seem like a much more elegant and modern solution. 

 

On 6/19/2016 at 8:52 AM, Mankcam said:

I liked the RES Table, but I think it probably should stay in the RQ/BRP Classic line, and the more recent line use Opposed Rolls instead. CoC 7E does it this way, so I think it's only logical that RQ does as well.

Totally agree with this. 

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On 6/19/2016 at 9:21 AM, TrippyHippy said:

Point of note, but in RQ2 there isn't a general Resistance table - it only applies to POW vs POW for magical confrontation. 

It was also used for grapple, knock down knock back and poison so that would make it pretty much a  general resistance table.

 

 

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