You & me against the World

[Dr Rotwang!]

Last night, my wife and an NPC teamed up to throw the boom of a ship into a clay golem, knocking him off the ship.

But, uh, I coudn't find rules in FREd for combined efforts. I found coordinated attacks, but not rules for, say, two scientists working together on a math equation, or two sexy pirate chicks throwing wood around.

Your help is appreciated!

[JmOz]

Don't understand the wood refrence but my mind went to the gutter on it :D

For skill based things you use the complimentary rules, so if character A and B are designing a widget one will be the lead (who will actualy do the roll) we will say A, B will then roll there Inventor skill, and by how well they suceed A will get a bonus to her roll

[mikelbarnz]

Isn't there a rule somewhere that states that one character can make a skill roll complimentery to another character's? Maybe it was a house rule we used, but to use your example of two scientist working together on a problem, scientist #1 makes a skill roll, and if he is successful, that roll is complimentery to scientist #2's.
Not sure how to do combined feats of strength, though. And my copy of Fred is on loan (to Mark Bennett, author of Fantasy Hero Companion 2, who's finally going to run a game again, after a loooong hiatus)

[mikelbarnz]

beaten to the punch by 2 minutes!

[Dr Rotwang!]

Ah! Well, kung fu, JmOz!

AaaAAaaaAAAaand if two people try to lift somethin' heavy?

By the way -- the boom of the ship was made of wood, see?

[JmOz]

Ohh, okay...I liked my version better :P

Okay, as for strength (this one is overly complex) add there total lifting together and then figure out the str required to lift that amount, it is there combined strength

I personal just add 1-5 to the strongest person based on gut fealing. Depending on the number of people, and there str, I up the higher number

[Yamo]

AaaAAaaaAAAaand if two people try to lift somethin' heavy?

Just add the amount of weight their STRs allow them to lift together to see if they can lift it and use their combined STR for damage?

[Markdoc]

For skill rolls, I use the complementary approach, with the person actually doing the work using only the highest complementary rolls.

So having 20 people with 11- skill rolls is likely to be less help than one person with a 14- roll, which matches my personal experience: give me one assistant who knows their stuff over 20 assistants who have a vague idea.

With regard to STR, just add up their lifting capacity to get the total STR.

For example, 2 STR10 people can lift 200 Kg: the same as a STR15 person - NOT a STR 20 person: therefore treat them as a 15 STR person IF they can coordinate. As a general rule, lifting something is so simple a task then I would not require a roll, just as I don't require a climbing roll to go up a ladder under normal circumstances. More complicated tasks, I would require a roll.

[Alibear]

Real world Str. doesn't work like that and I'm sure that a Physics geek can explain why, but..

I can't lift half of a Piano, but me and a mate could lift one between us.:(

[Blue Jogger]

Originally posted by Alibear
Real world Str. doesn't work like that and I'm sure that a Physics geek can explain why, but..

I can't lift half of a Piano, but me and a mate could lift one between us.:(

It has to do with leverage. When you tip the piano, you're putting the weight on one end (near the fullcrum) and picking up at the other end. This puts you at a disadvantage. When two people lift (together), you don't have this problem.

[Dauntless]

Adding the STR together doesn't make sense, since every 5pts doubles the amount you can lift. Therefore two 10 STR character's could lift 400kg together, but only 100kg singly?

Just double the amount they could lift, rather than add the STR together and THEN look up the lift amount.

BTW, have they changed how arrays worked in Ultimate Martial Artist? I have UMA, but I'm still reading through the rules.

[Blue]

Player one has 15 STR and can lift 200kg.
Player two has 10 STR and can lift 100kg.
Totalled together, they can lift 300kg. On the STR chart that turns out to be 18 STR. Seems fair to me.

[Blue Angel]

I started a thread once called multiple weilders.

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=296&highlight=multiple+weilder

No one was too impressed at the time but it describes the kind of situations you are refering to. May not be exactly what you want but take a look.