Damage modifier

[olskool]

10 hours ago, Trifletraxor said:

What rules do you use for Reach?

 

Understand that I used miniatures and a hex map when I gamed.  Each hex was 1 meter and a single character or NPC occupies each hex.      

In my game, every weapon has a Reach in meters.  This ranges from 1 to up to 5 meters based on the weapon (see my post above for the Reach of typical weapons).  A character must be able to reach his opponent with a weapon to attack them.  A dagger has a reach of 1 meter while a long spear has a Reach of 4 meters (this Reach may involve some "minor" movement which is included in the Reach due to the "footwork" most attacks involve).  If you cannot reach a target you wish to attack, you must move to do so.  This will cost you Strike Ranks to do.  You may move up to 4 meters per SR but if you move more than 1 meter per SR, a reduction in Attack Skill will occur.  At 2 meters of movement, Skill is reduced to 3/4.  At 3 meters of movement, Skill is reduced by Half.  No attack can be made if you move 4 meters until you spend 2 SRs to "stabilize yourself" (and then spend the SRs to attack).  You may remove the skill penalty if you spend 2 SRs to "stabilize yourself" before attacking.  For more info on my Initiative System just review my post above.   

[Al.]

My Damage Bonus

• Find the average of Siz and Str (so in your system just take Str)
• Subtract ten
• That is the maximum rollable on the character's damage bonus die

i.e.

• STR bonus
• 11 +1
• 12 +d2
• 13 +d3
• 14 +d4
• 15 +d5
• 16-17 +d6
• 18-19 +d8
• 20 +d10
• 28 +3d6
• etc etc

I too drop weapon damage for negative damage bonuses rather than apply a penalty (I did play with raising weapon damage for a positive bonus but then I lost the distinctions between Crush, Impale, etc Special Successes)

Inspired by Chaot's Magic world character sheet, I have just recently added a Finesse damage bonus which is calculated the same but using Dex not Str (or average of Siz and Str) and is applied to weapon's where placement is more important than brawn (stabby daggers and swords basically)

[Trifletraxor]

On 21.5.2017 at 3:01 AM, olskool said:

As you can see, in my world, "Powergaming" has to take a back seat to "paying the bills."  What all this ends up doing is forcing the players to make hard choices about "stuff" versus "training"  and limiting characters to a bare "handful" of treasured items such as that "favorite sword" or "my father's old plate cuirass."   Ironically, I have never had a player say that they wouldn't game with me again.  In fact, most of my players seemed to enjoy the struggle to rise from poverty.               

I've got something to learn here!

On 21.5.2017 at 11:51 AM, Al. said:

Inspired by Chaot's Magic world character sheet, I have just recently added a Finesse damage bonus which is calculated the same but using Dex not Str (or average of Siz and Str) and is applied to weapon's where placement is more important than brawn (stabby daggers and swords basically)

Can characters choose freely btw the damage modifiers, or are they tied up to weapon type?

[olskool]

I think I'm going to adopt the idea of Subtracting the Weapon's Required STR from the Character's STR and giving a bonus of +1 for every 5 points of Surplus STR the character has.  This provides the lower damage bonuses I desire while not allowing fighters to "double dip" by using a larger weapon in tandem with a large Damage Bonus to push their Weapon's damage to extreme levels.  It is also very easy to calculate.

I have also thought about the HTH damages listed in the basic game (I use Fantasy Hero's STUN system myself) and how to fix them.  My initial thoughts would be to base them on the Character's STR score.  Something like this might work.

Punch Damages:

• STR 1 to 8:    1 Point of Damage
• STR 9 to 16:   1D2 Damage
• STR 17 to 24: 1D3 Damage
• STR 24 to 32: 1D4 Damage
• STR 33 to 40: 1D5 Damage
• STR 41 to 48: 1D6 Damage
• STR 49 to 56: 1D8 Damage
• STR 57+:        1D10 Damage

Kick Damages:

• STR 1 to 6:     1 Point of Damage
• STR 7 to 12:    1D2 Damage
• STR 13 to 18:  1D3 Damage
• STR 19 to 24:  1D4 Damage
• STR 25 to 30:  1D5 Damage
• STR 31 to 36:  1D6 Damage
• STR 37 to 42:  1D8 Damage
• STR 43+:         1D10 Damage

Headbutt Damages:

• STR 1 to 10:    1 Point of Damage
• STR 10 to 20:  1D2 Damage
• STR 21 to 30:  1D3 Damage
• STR 31 to 40:  1D4 Damage
• STR 41 to 50:  1D5 Damage
• STR 51 to 60:  1D6 Damage
• STR 61 to 70:  1D8 Damage
• STR 71 to 80:  1D10 Damage

For every 10 points of SIZ OVER 20 a creature has, add 1 to his STR score for determining his HTH damages.  The above damages include all "STR Bonus damage" as well (no added Damage allowed).

Keep in mind that these damages are designed to put HTH damages into a lower "Damage Threshold" than stabbing someone with a dagger.  Only the largest (and strongest) creatures should do damage like weapons with their bare hands.    I also figure human Characteristic Scores by rolling 3D6+2, making the range of Characteristics from 5 to 20 (the species maximum) in my game. 

Edited June 3, 2017 by olskool
added SIZ modifiers and ran Headbutt out to 1D10 Damage.

[Trifletraxor]

16 hours ago, olskool said:

I think I'm going to adopt the idea of Subtracting the Weapon's Required STR from the Character's STR and giving a bonus of +1 for every 5 points of Surplus STR the character has.  This provides the lower damage bonuses I desire while not allowing fighters to "double dip" by using a larger weapon in tandem with a large Damage Bonus to push their Weapon's damage to extreme levels.  It is also very easy to calculate.

I very much like the idea of the damage bonus being modified by the weapon strength requirement as it makes good sense, but I'm keeping the traditional form of damage modifier for D100rules, at least for now, as it's going to be a rules-light system.

On 18.5.2017 at 5:16 AM, ReignDragonSMH said:

Why do we still use negative modifiers? Why don't we start from ground "0" and move up? It is something I have been thinking about a lot myself. 

I'm going a second round on negative damage modifiers because so many of here have cut it from their games. I understand that for birds and small animals a damage of 1D2 or 1D3 might work better than 1 or 1D4-1. The speed factor is also there. However, a STR 3 human vs. a STR 11 one does the same dagger damage without negative damage modifiers and that runs counter-intuitive for me. So I'd like to see more arguments against a negative damage modifier if anyone has any, or hear if any have applied some other type of "fix" for the example over without negative damage modifiers.

[Trifletraxor]

19 hours ago, olskool said:

I also figure human Characteristic Scores by rolling 3D6+2, making the range of Characteristics from 5 to 20 (the species maximum) in my game. 

What's the reasoning behind this tweak?

[Sean_RDP]

1 hour ago, Trifletraxor said:

I'm going a second round on negative damage modifiers because so many of here have cut it from their games. I understand that for birds and small animals a damage of 1D2 or 1D3 might work better than 1 or 1D4-1. The speed factor is also there. However, a STR 3 human vs. a STR 11 one does the same dagger damage without negative damage modifiers and that runs counter-intuitive for me. So I'd like to see more arguments against a negative damage modifier if anyone has any, or hear if any have applied some other type of "fix" for the example over without negative damage modifiers.

First, philosophically. A weapon is indeed less effective in the hands of a person who has no raining with it. So a discussion of skill vs. damage output is certainly a Valid question to ponder.  Negative damage seems a futile mathematical exercise in my mind, because why have a weapon damage die at all if the STR of the user really is governing the damage out put of the weapon. Well, STR and SIZ, depending on the system. I love crunchy, but that seems a little too crunchy.

Secondly, is practical. matter. My little girl is three and a half. She is strong for her age, but not what we might consider adult strong. In her hands a plastic light sabre isn't merely a little stingy, it is downright brutal. She has rung my bell on a few occasions lol. So here is this little person who can really hurt someone if she does not watch out.

But I do see your POV. There is a dilemma as to where you put the "line", where you start the progression of dice, and how quickly it progresses. Also, how strong are mega strength creatures like giants or dragons? 

One radical idea I have been mulling over is giving weapons damage modifiers, like 1, 2, 3, etc.. and have the variable die be strictly based on the STR+SIZ equation. So a weak character may only do a d2, and the weapon would add a +1 or +4 etc..

[olskool]

4 hours ago, Trifletraxor said:

What's the reasoning behind this tweak?

I'm still of the mind that there isn't as much "variation" in the Human race as many might think.  Also, I do not understand why a percentile based game that uses Humans as the "Standard" by which other races are "indexed" (being either "better" or "worse" in a given characteristic) is still using 3 to 18 with a 9 statistical average and a racial maximum of 21 (which exceeds the 20 that a 100% would derive to) as its base when, statistically, it should be using 20 as its statistical "high mean average" (with a 10 statistical average characteristic).  I believe this was a throwback to older dice games (wargames) that used the 1D6 exclusively.  My 5 to 20 range for characteristics is a little closer to "statistical average" (11) for a percentile based game, shortens the spectrum/range of characteristics from 15 rolled variations and 18 racial maximum variations (based on the 21 racial maximum) down to 15 rolled variations and 15 racial maximum variations (with a mean average of 10 out of 20).  This has very little impact on game balance but helps when new races are added (and to reconcile current races).  

As an example, I will compare the SIZ of a couple of races (I know you are not using SIZ, but it is an example of "scaling" characteristics that we can all easily visualize).  Let's start with Dwarves versus Humans.  I'm going with a Middle Earth style Dwarf here.  The description of such a race says that they are about 2/3rds the size of a normal man.  If this is true, and 3-18 gives a 9 average, the average Dwarf should be SIZ 6.  In RQ2,  Dwarf SIZ is 1D6+6 for an average of 9.  This is the same average as humans yet everyone (even Chaosium) talks about Dwarves like they are smaller than humans (and yes I know that SIZ can refer to "girth" too).  How would Hobbits (who are considered half the size of Humans) be successfully modeled?  How about Pixies?  I decided the "solution" to issues like this was to "shrink" the normal human characteristic range in order to leave more "room" for other races to varying characteristics.  Your game may vary of course.                

Edited June 1, 2017 by olskool
spelling

[olskool]

4 hours ago, Trifletraxor said:

I very much like the idea of the damage bonus being modified by the weapon strength requirement as it makes good sense, but I'm keeping the traditional form of damage modifier for D100rules, at least for now, as it's going to be a rules-light system.

 

There is nothing wrong with that.  It's your game, use what YOU choose to use.

That being said, there is no reason you have to follow Chaosium's ratios for damage bonuses.  You could, for instance, make your "average range" (where you get no bonus) larger.  This reduces the damage bonus/penalty to only the strongest and weakest characters.  For example:

• STR  1 to 5:      -1D4 Damage Penalty
• STR  6 to 15:      0 Damage Bonus
• STR 16 to 20:  +1D4 Damage Bonus
• STR 21 to 25:  +1D6 Damage Bonus
• STR 26 to 30:  +1D8 Damage Bonus

It would just keep going like this.  I used actual dice in the chart (instead of simple bonuses) because you have a dislike for "partial dice" (1D2, 1D3).   

[Al.]

On 30/05/2017 at 9:23 PM, Trifletraxor said:

I've got something to learn here!

Can characters choose freely btw the damage modifiers, or are they tied up to weapon type?

Tied to a combination of mode of attack and weapon type

So jabbing for the sensitive spots with the end of a jo-stick allows finesse but sweeping it around like a long, thin club gets Brawn

[Al.]

On 31/05/2017 at 2:05 AM, olskool said:

 I also figure human Characteristic Scores by rolling 3D6+2, making the range of Characteristics from 5 to 20 (the species maximum) in my game. 

Please consider that stolen. More please.

[olskool]

5 hours ago, Al. said:

Please consider that stolen. More please.

Borrowed?  I give these ideas in the hope that they will be used.