Roland

Re: House rules for Comliness - critique, please

Are perks subject to modification by items or powers? If not, this revision would make comeliness immune to both bonuses/penalties and adjustment powers.

Re: combat luck and armor........

I'm coming to this discussion late. I just read the whole thread.

Personally, I think the talents Combat Luck and Deadly Blow are a bit questionable in the first place. Even if they are allowed, however, they should be exceptional abilities for exceptional characters - just like any other talent - not ubiquitous abilities that every fighter has to acquire to stay competitive.

Needless to say, I find the idea of "multiple levels" of either talent ridiculous. While I can sort of understand, conceptually, what Combat Luck is intended to represent, I can't imagine what it would mean to have multiple levels of it. I think Combat Luck should stack with armor (perhaps with limitations, as in The Valdorian Age), but it should not stack with itself!

With that said . . . My own FH character, a light fighter, recently acquired Combat Luck. I'm not entirely comfortable with it, but it fits the character and helps him to stay within concept. He has always worn ring mail because heavier armor would interfere with his minor spell-casting abilities (by increasing the DEX penalty to his Magic Skill roll). But as we began facing more powerful enemies, I found him donning chain mail before major battles. Changing armor and weapons depending on the situation is perfectly within character - members of his order actually pride themselves on their flexibility with equipment - but I didn't see him as someone who wore heavy armor routinely. So the GM suggested Combat Luck as a way to allow him to stick with light armor and remain competitive with the chainmail-clad fighters in the party. We talked about armor restrictions and decided against them for now - but it was made clear that if I started wearing heavy armor all the time my Combat Luck would become less effective.

I think the suggested use of Combat Luck with an additional limitation prohibiting heavy armor in The Valdorian Age makes sense as a way to simulate the S&S genre convention of lightly armored urban and barbarian heroes.

One thing that bothers me about Combat Luck is the luck part. I think "Luck-based" is a bit too vague to warrant the -½ limitation. If it is intended to simulate the character's ability to dodge, perhaps "DEX-based" would be a better limitation to simulate it; if the character can't use his DEX, then he would not get the benefit. We can imagine pretty easily whether someone can use his DEX in a given situation; it's harder to imagine when one's luck is inactive.

Re: dietary quirks / religious rules for a character

The "smear of pork fat in the bottom of the bowl" is something I don't buy for a couple of reasons. First' date=' you'd be able to taste it before you ate much. Second, in most religious circumstances I can think of, intention would be part of it. An accident like that would force you to send the dish back but it isn't going to make your powers go away if you remember to ask forgiveness at the next ceremony. Third, such an incident would seem pretty contrived and not every player would accept such a thing. After all, the player/character is trying to do the right thing and you screw them over...that's weak. It would have to be part of an intelligent and knowing plot to make any sense(ie, the character's archnemesis is in the kitchen and slips the pork fat into the dish, just before attacking). But even then, you're still stretching the breaking point of believability for a lot of players.[/quote']

 

This would depend very much on how you define the religion and its demands. In most ancient religions, sin was more about ritual purity than morality. In such a religion, a tiny unwitting transgression (such as eating a tiny, hidden bit of a forbidden substance) could indeed make one ritually unclean. If the deity is omniscient, then s/he would know about the transgression even if no one else did. There are tales of such unwitting transgressors going to great lengths just to find out why their deity is upset so that they can make amends!

 

In later religions - most notably Christianity, where "Pharasaism" is eschewed - your argument would be correct. But a member of this kind of religion is not likely to have the proposed sort of disadvantage/limitation in the first place. For a Christian, the scrupulosity represented by such a disad/lim might itself be a sin!

Re: Ambidexterty- too expensive?

I have ambidextrous tendencies. I am mostly right-handed, but there are some things that I just naturally do with my left hand. I tend to use my left hand for things that require fine finger manipulation, such as opening locks (both key and combination) and turning pages, while I use my right hand for things that require strength or whole-arm coordination. I mouse better right-handed and keyboard a bit better left-handed.

In basketball I can dribble equally well with either hand, but I shoot much better right-handed. Oddly, I always used my left hand when going up for a jump ball (back before that skill was made obsolete by the possession arrow).

Re: Valdorian Age, Turakian Age

VA actually introduces a lot of peculiar game mechanics. Besides the specialized magic system, it also introduces special rules about characteristics and skills. In addition to standard characteristic maxima, it introduces standard skill maxima: if you want to increase a skill above 13- it costs double.

It also has rules about the Power Skill: Weapon Tricks for various weapons.

I was very impressed with VA - I think it captures the S&S sub-genre quite well. It's basically Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser with Elric-style summoning magic.

Re: Myths about the Middle Ages

The divine right of kings, per se, was a European Christian idea. Its pagan predecessor was the idea that kings were themselves divine - i.e., that they were descended from the gods.

The right of the (divine) king to sleep with the bride before her husband is found in Gilgamesh, but even there it is depicted as a custom no longer embraced enthusiastically by the populace. It was almost certainly practiced in some ancient cultures, but since it was, for obvious reasons, not popular, it would often be replaced by a token payment of some sort to the king to buy off his exercise of the right. A weak king who was more greedy than lusty would happily accept this arrangement, and then his descendants would find it impossible to resume exercise of the former right.

Re: All Scots don't have 17 str!

Until you get a chance to address these questions' date=' an idea I had is that you could make the "STR Min" scores of weapons the STR needed to use the weapon 1-handed. Using the weapon 2-handed reduces the STR Min (or augments the Character's STR for wielding the sword) by 3, taking a 17 down to a 14. (It's just an idea.) [/quote']

 

I agree with this suggestion. I don't see the point of designating weapons as one-handed, one-and-a-half-handed, or two-handed and then having additional rules about what happens when you use each one with more or fewer hands.

 

The one-and-a-half-handed designation is especially ridiculous - it's just a two-handed weapon with very slightly different rules about one-handed use. This complication doesn't add anything to the game.

Re: Thoughts on the Speed Zone

I'll second Hyper-Man's suggestion that END costs could be used to mitigate the effectiveness of the Speed Zone. Don't allow Reduced END on SZ-related powers. Maybe even say that the SZ cancels the Reduced END advantage on powers that have it.

I don't have USP yet, but it sounds like I'll have to pick it up. Maybe I'll wait for The Ultimate Skill (USK?) and order them both at the same time.

Re: PS: Farmer in a Fantasy Campaign

Of course wandering monsters fit the ecology. But the PCs wouldn't know this if they are just passing through.

Not all real-world wandering monsters are animals. There are also bandits, raiders, and pirates, which, from the victims' PoV, are not much different from orcs.

Re: PS: Farmer in a Fantasy Campaign

I'm not using it as an argument for combat trained peasants - I find the whole concept of wandering monsters to be ludicrious and purile to exist outside of CRPGs.

In the real world, wandering monsters are a real problem that peasants have to be able to deal with. Examples:

Wolves, foxes, and big cats poach livestock.

Elephants trample crops.

Bears, raccoons, and deer raid gardens and orchards.

Even when hunting is restricted, peasants will circumvent the law to protect their food supplies. In Africa, farmers sometime run afoul of laws protecting elephants. And in the U.S., gardeners sometimes discreetly kill raccoons, contrary to state wildlife laws. Ranchers around Yellowstone often complain about wolves and grizzly bears, but they can't do much about it under the close scrutiny of federal officials.

And in the real world peasants often made up the bulk of the infantry. In England during the Hundred Years' War, all able-bodied men were required to practice archery every Sunday.

Re: Character Review: Darlene, Mistress of the animals

I think 13 PRE is a bit low for a beastmaster.

What did your wife think of the character?

Re: Your Favorite Fantasy Weapon?

Durendal, obviously.

Re: Medieval Farming Villages

Basil - remember that Glupii's setting includes independent, scattered farms of extended families, in addition to the main village. I think his 18-member families were on these outlying farms, which would not be expected to follow the usual village model.

Re: 6th Edition thoughts

No' date=' I meant exactly what I said. The range for non cinematic heroic level games is thin like twiggy.[/quote']

 

I think I am disagreeing with your semantics, not your substance. A granular system is one that encourages characters to choose from a few super-efficient characteristic levels (e.g., 10, 13, 15, 18, 20). A system where characters have an incentive to take 16 STR or 19 DEX would be less granular, not more granular.

 

Table sugar is granular - i.e., it comes in discrete, visible chunks. Powdered sugar is not granular.

Re: 6th Edition thoughts

First, a small formatting change I'd like to see in 6th edition (or even 5.2): Just as 5ER did away with the clunky '1/2' fraction format in favor of the neater, more compact '½', I would like to see the lower-case 'x' replaced with an actual times sign '×' in Power builds. In a serif font, the letter 'x' just doesn't look like a times sign to me.

Second, and more substantively, I would like to see the current Talents category reconsidered. I think 5E took a wrong turn here - one that some subsequent publications have already started to back away from. Talents are currently a hodge-podge of true Talents, limited Skills, Super Skills, and minor Powers.

I would like to see the category of Talents restricted to its original definition - strange, rare, inborn, non-super, natural abilities like Ambidexterity, Perfect Pitch, Lightning Calculator, and so forth. Characters could start out with these abilities, but they could not gain them thereafter. And they would always be subject to GM approval, just to ensure that all characters did not take the same Talents. This would make Talents an actual ability category with its own integrity, rather than a catch-all hodge-podge category.

The other abilities that have been categorized as Talents in 5E would be better listed as examples of how players and GMs might use Skills and Powers, in conjunction with Advantages and Limitations, to create custom-built Super Skills, Power Skills, and minor Powers, as well as creative applications of Skill Levels and Penalty Skill Levels. Some of the genre and setting books have already gone the Super/Power Skill route, while others have expanded Talents even further. I would prefer to limit/purify the Talents category and place Super/Power Skills more appropriately.

Re: 6th Edition thoughts

10) consider ways of making heroic level games more granular

I assume you meant less granular - i.e., less discrete, more continuous.

At first I thought Archermoo's proposal to do away with figured characteristics was kinda silly, but the more I think about it the more sense it makes. It would certainly address the granularity problem (for the vocal minority who perceive Hero's granularity as a problem). It might also make it easier to address the inconsistencies between normal and killing attacks and their relationship to STR.

OTOH, it is a sufficiently radical change that we would certainly not get it right the first time. As we played this 6th edition, we would find the bugs in the new characteristic costs, and a 7th edition would be sure to follow in short order.

Re: Medieval Farming Villages

If you have the best possible pasture land plus the most efficient feeding regimen, you will need at least 3 acres per cow and 1 acre per sheep. Realistically, you should figure you will need 3 times that much land per animal. (Livestock farming requires a lot of land, relative to crop farming, but less labor.)

You will also need livestock (most likely oxen) to pull the plow. (These can, of course, be eaten when they get too old to work.)

Crop rotation goes a long way toward preserving the fertility of the land, but not quite far enough. One trick is to plant your fallow fields in clover, which adds nitrogen to the soil. When the clover is mature, then you graze your livestock in the field. They eat the high-protein clover and fertilize the field with their manure. Then you plow the clover and manure into the field and it's ready to be planted again. In short, this enters the calculations by letting you count your fallow fields toward your grazing-land requirement. (But you will need additional grazing land besides the fallow fields.)

The question of how the lord collects his share enters the calculations. If he collects his share in kind, then each household must produce enough extra food to pay rent/taxes to the lord. If he requires payment in labor, then each household will have that much less labor available for its own production.

Rafe

May we see Rafe's character sheet?

And how do you pronounce Rafe? Is the e silent?

Re: Medieval Farming Villages

It sounds like your village is shaping up!

Two suggestions:

1) You'll need more than 1 acre for livestock. Cattle and sheep can eat a lot of grass! And, unless the climate is warm year-round, you'll have to grow extra food to feed the livestock through the winter.

2) Don't forget that you will need to leave some of the cultivated land fallow each year. Even with good crop rotation, you can't plant every acre every year without artificial fertilization (though the livestock might be able to help you there).

One question: How does the local lord collect his share? In the early Middle Ages, the lord would have had his own lands, and the peasants would been obligated to spend some time working on their lord's land. Later, many lords collected rents from the peasants in kind or in cash. (As late as the early 20th century in the US, landowners could be required to spend a few days every year working for the county. They would perform tasks such as clearing land for roads and digging ditches.)

Re: Racial Magical Abilities

Halflings are Tolkienesque - quite non-magical. They have a variation on Damage Reduction which I call Magic Reduction. I build it (for 13 points - apply that DIVIDE_BY_THREE multiplier) as 50% Resistant Damage Reduction (Physical' date=' Energy, and Mental), versus Magic only (-1), No Concious Control (-2).[/b'] This applies to ALL magic - both good and bad. A magic dagger is only 1/2 as effective in a Halfiling's hand. A healing spell only cures 1/2 of the damage it would normally affect.

I don't get how Damage Reduction would affect the Halfling's own use of magic items. I think I understand the effect you are going for - a magic dampening field around the Halfling - but Damage Reduction doesn't get you there.

Re: Medieval Farming Villages

However I do see your point on the size iof the farms. Would 7-10 acers for a family of a 12-15 (figuring 7-8 ablebodied men women and older children available for working the farm and animals) be sufficient?

For a family of this size, you would probably want 20-30 acres for crops. Depending on the extent of their feudal duties and the availability and fertility of the land, they might be able to farm a bit more than that. And they would need additional land for any livestock.

Re: Medieval Farming Villages

If the land bordering on the sea ends with a steep cliff, how do the people access the sea for trade, fishing, etc.?

The outlying farmsteads run by extended families will have to be a lot bigger than 1-2 acres. If they were farming full-time (i.e., not spending a lot of time fishing), I would say at least 3 acres per able-bodied adult male, and more likely 5 acres unless the land is especially fertile or extremely limited in availability.

Crops would be rotated to maintain the soil. The key is to include a legume in the rotation - e.g., beans, peas, clover - to replace nitrogen in the soil. Medieval Europeans rotated peas with grains. Peas provided protein for the diet, as well as nitrogen for the soil. (OTOH, your villagers might rely on fish both for protein and to fertilize the soil.)

It sounds like Norway might be a close historical analog to what you are trying to create. Your geography sounds like a fjord. The Norwegians (and Scandinavians/Vikings in general) had economies that mixed farming with various seagoing pursuits - fishing, trading, and raiding. That might give you a focus for further research.

Re: Medieval Farming Villages

Wow! I seriously underestimated my size. Perhaps I need to scale back my Village by a bit. And the cattle I was not looking at raising as a food source. I was thinking they would each farm have 2 or three cows they breed amongst each other and the cows only reason would be for dairy. The main animal crop (?) would be sheep and pigs. Perhaps some goats but not many. See, I am too much the city boy. I didn't even know sheep produced milk. Is that what they did in ancient greece? I know they raised alot of sheep due to the land being what it was.

 

Now to find out how big 3000 acres is.

1 square mile = 640 acres

1 acre = 1 furlong × 4 rods

1 furlong = 220 yards = 1/8 mile

4 rods = 22 yards = 1/80 mile

Medieval farmland was typically laid out in 1-acre plots. An acre was about how much one man with a team of oxen could plow in one day. The furlong was the length of a furrow. After plowing one furrow, the farmer would rest his oxen, then turn them around and plow back in the other direction.

A family's plots would not be adjacent, but would be scattered. This would ensure that the characteristics of the family's plots (slope, drainage, soil type, etc.) would exhibit greater diversity, which would help to hedge against the risk of extreme growing conditions in a given year.

In the early middle ages, they plowed with oxen. Later, after better harnesses were developed, they were able to use horses. Your peasants will need some sort of livestock to pull their plows. If they have dairy cows, they will have a supply of oxen (which are created by neutering male calves).

Re: Hit from behind

I liked the old -1 OCV penalty for making a half-move before attacking. It would serve as a disincentive to this ploy.

Re: Resurrection

Lord Liaden got my reference. According to John (chapter 11), Lazarus was raised on the fourth day.

Actually: according to the Jewish sages of that time' date=' the strength of the souls bond to the body works in stages. The first day, the first week, the first month, the first year. Also, the righteousness of the person would have an affect on this. In general, the cultural assumption at the time (and in some circles today) is that the strength of the bond depended on how mired in the physical world the person was. A righteous person would have a weaker connection to the physical body, and their soul would return to God more quickly - some even after the first day - while a wicked person would take longer. Further, there is an assumption no one is so bad that it would take a whole year, which is why we only say the prayer for the dead for eleven months. The hadith literature contains a similar paradigm, but with differences only a muslim scholar could elucidate for you (as I only have a passing awareness of it). The three day model is specifically christian, appearing in the dark ages. As a result, to model "middle eastern" ressurection, one would want a skill roll that became more difficult based on the time element and took into consideration the targets connection to the Almighty. The more righteous, the shorter your window of opportunity.[/quote']

 

I saw the three-day thing described as a "popular belief," not as rabbinic teaching. It was probably not even specifically Jewish (nor, indeed, is the idea of Resurrection, which appeared in Zoroastrianism before Judaism). But the three-day belief is implicit in the Lazarus story, so it could not have arisen later than the first century AD.

 

Thanks for sharing the teaching of the Jewish sages on this topic. I can see echoes of this in Eastern Christianity, but not, unfortunately, in the Western versions.