[Runequest] Advice Sought re Damage & HP

[Nick.Middleton at wrsl.com]

Royce,


> Disclaimer:
> I've been failing to keep up on all but job-or-family-essential
> correspondence, and have not made a diligent Internet search, so this
> question may well leave me looking pretty clueless.  If so, my
> apologies ahead of time.

No worries - my disclaimer is that I haven't read all the messages that
yours has generated, so much of what I'm about to say may be redundant.

> Situation:
> This summer, I hope to introduce some roleplayers to RQ.  These players
> are not mindless hack-&-slashers, but they do need action every two
> hours of seat time, or they'll get restless & dissatisfied.

> Worry:
> People in RQ are, well, delicate.  Take an arm, with its measly 3 HP.
> Even average damage with average weapons -- say, a roll of 4 on a D8
> weapon, plus a roll of 3 on a D6 strength bonus -- will leave my
> character carrying his arm home in a bag.
> Most of the players I know will get themselves dismembered or dead in
> fairly short order.
> On the other hand, if I, as GM, double location hit points, then a
> strong hit to the chest (with say, 5 HP doubled to 10) is merely
> inconvenient.  That's even worse.
> I exaggerate, of course, but...

> Request:
> But I'd like to know how other RuneQuesters deal with horrid menace of
> melee.  Do you make sure that PC's always start with some decent armor?
> Start with high shield & weapon parry skills?  Both?  Is there another
> approach?  Start with two or three characters?  What do you do?

Run a mock combat or three before the game proper commences, so that all
the players have actual experience of just how brutal the combat system can
be.

Get players in to the mind set that violence requires - that starting
fights is a good way to get killed or permanently maimed, and the smart
option is always to stack the odds so heavily in your favour that the other
guy can only either back down or face certain death. And then assume that
something will go wrong and a fight will still ensue... :D

For less fragile PC's and a slightly more heroic feel, do THP's CON+SIZ for
PC's and Major NPC's, leaving other NPC's at traditional THP=(SIZ+CON)/2.
Look in to using protracted "death & dying" rules - e.g. provide head &
torso are intact, a character taken to below zero THP survives, losing a
further THP per round until THP=0 - CON when they are dead beyond recall...

If you can find it, the RQIV:AiG weapons table "flattened" out weapon
damage to single die's, so daggers stopped being so insanely dangerous to a
normal human (1D4+2 is high if the average arm has only 3HP - an
unexceptional dagger blow will render an arm permanently maimed / useless
on 1 in 4 blows?!) and in general addressed the anomalies in the RQII/III
weapon damages. Similarly one could use RQIV:AiG fixed DB's, or a die-size
step table (+1, +1d2, +1d3, +1d4, +1d5, +1d6, +1d8, +1d10, +1d12 give s
pretty good spread).

> Wisdom, advice, insights, relevant experiences, old war stories -- all
> feedback is welcome.  Many thanks ahead of time.

Generally, part of the reason I choose to use RQIII for a game is because I
want combat to have that brutal, intimidating edge. Players know this is a
fantasy RPG and so they are expecting combat to rear it's head at some
point - and, once they understand the system, it has a uniquely tension
filled quality.

Cheers,

Nick Middleton




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