BRP Amber?

[Joerg]

On 7/10/2018 at 1:41 AM, Atgxtg said:

Okay, I got a bit of a problem and would love to hear of some possible solutions. My problem is that, since Amberites have high STR scores (Amber level STR is about STR 30 AFAIK) they will also have corresponding high damage bonuses (+2D6 for a STR 30, SIZ 13 PC), which is going to take most of the tension and drama out of swordfights. Instead of an attack nicking an opponent, it will probably end up lopping off a body part. Yes, Amberites have a high CON, but the extra Hit points aren't enough to offset the extra damage. And it gets worse with Elder Amberites.

What I think I need to do is scale back the damage bonus a bit, and possibly limit by the success level somehow, so that someone doesn't get decapitated by a 1 point hit that gets backed up by a high db.

I have a quite mechanical rules fix to this - a weapon dealing more damage than its AP will suffer some damage from doing so, much like a weapon damaged by a parry. The wielder's limb might be a limiting factor, too.

Another approach is to make this car-lifting strength a feat rather than normal stats.

 

[Atgxtg]

16 minutes ago, Joerg said:

I have a quite mechanical rules fix to this - a weapon dealing more damage than its AP will suffer some damage from doing so, much like a weapon damaged by a parry. The wielder's limb might be a limiting factor, too.

I was thinking the same thing, and it was one of the reasons why I've considered upping the AP for the weapons used by Amberites. BRTC's Timerlords system had a rule for this. If I recall it correctly, a weapon had to have enough armor to take an average damage roll. If not the weapon would take damage whenever it's armor rating was exceeded. Normally this wasn't a problem as most weapons are strong enough to withstand most characters. But a really strong character could run into problems and start damaging his weapons. 

If we ported that over to BRP, then a broadsword with an average damage score of 5.5 and 10 AP could easily be used by someone with up to a +1D6 db (average damage 5.5+3.5db= 9) without any problems. This would mean most of the population. But if someone with a 2D6 bd used it, they'd be doing 12.5 points on average, which exceeds what the sword can withstand, and so they'd damage their sword every time they did more than 10 points  with it. So such a person would need a sword with 13AP,  and someone with a +3D6 db would need one with 16AP. That might be one of the enhacements a weapon like Grayswandir has- it's tough enough that Corwin can use it without breaking it. 

The problem with such an application in BRP terms is that stronger weapons become better at parrying and so everyone will want them. Likewise stronger shields. Also, there are special hits in RQ that do more damage, and spells, so it would mean opening a can of worms. 

Edited July 19, 2018 by Atgxtg

[Algesan]

On 7/17/2018 at 12:51 AM, Atgxtg said:

(snip)

You can used fixed armor without hit locations. Just go with the normal protection for that tpe. Padding stops 1, leather stops 2, etc. So you could just make you 5.5 armor 6 points.

Yeah that does make armor much more useful in HERO. But then HERO is a much more forgiving system. 

 

It's not normally an issue for me, but Amber will will require that I have to deal with some things that don't crop often enough to become an issue in a typical BRP campaign. I just ant to try to be ready for anything that could derail the campaign. 

(snip)

Some variation of the fetch might work. That is something that the player can slowly improve that ups his POW a point at time. You could do that with a wizard's staff or familiar and it could start off weak and grow as the player devotes more POW to it. 

Another option might be not to raise POW at all but simply raise the refresh rate.  A wizard could have an ability or skill tat let's them recharge their power at a faster rate, maybe twice as fast? Say the tap a ley line for POW and their recharge rate is tied to their success level.

All I can say on the random armor, it seems to be working well for this type of game, especially when you consider it is pretty much torso & head armor only.  In a more melee oriented game, I'd prefer the fixed armor values myself.

Actually, that should work for any system where the armor takes points off the damage. 

Agreed, I worked on various details for my campaign.  Only one thing I'm not happy with, but hasn't been a big issue, is the special rules for the various energy weapons.  Each faction has their own and each have their own little "trick".  The game hasn't progressed far enough for that to be real important yet, so I still have some time to work on it.