MPT

Drain never does BODY damage (unless defined as such) --- but in this case it is the fact that hitting someone with a sword causes the Drain so shouldn't the sword do BODY

I put it in this thread myself. The situation only came up the last time we played so I don't know if it will work. The player is very happy for me to tweek the Talent until it works for him and does not break the game for me. The strange thing is that the Deadly Blow talent increases the BODY damage of an attack, so my player wanted to know why can you add on an effect with that talent (all be it an increasing of an existing effect), but not Crippling Blow. I can see how it gives player choices ... either I reduce BODY or I reduce STR ... but there is a degree of 'reality check' here - can you really reduce STR without breaking skin?

I know Steve does not answer 'why' questions, but I am GMing a Tuala Morn campaign and do not know how to reply to one of my player's queries. He wants to know why Crippling Blow only does the Drain and does not also do the BODY damage. He points out that: a] You can use two powers at once so why can't he use Attack and Drain together. b] He could use Sweep to attack once for the BODY and a second time for the Drain. I have taken this into account and stated that since Sweep would be -2 OCV and 1/2 his DCV, combining the BODY and Drain into a single attack (with one to-hit roll) can be done at -4 OCV and normal DCV (to represent the fact that the 'hitting' is harder, but as it is only one attack it doesn't affect his DCV). Does this seem like a good compromise, and what should I have told my player?

This is the history I have come up with, any improvements are welcome. --- The Gods have never told how the world and themselves were created, but that they exist is self-evident and the tale is only theirs to tell should they wish it. Our tale of Oileán Teacht [Olan Tart] (Isle of Arriving) must therefore begin with the Faeriefolk whose land coexists with our own and whose history is mostly that of peaceful coexistance. However, even the Faeriefolk are not immune to conflict for in the past the Prince Ciarán asked for the hand of Queen Orlagh [Arr-la] in marriage and was turned down. In his anger he assembled an army to force his wishes on her but the queen’s army was greater and he was defeated. He and the remains of his army were banished from the Faerie realm with a Geas that they can never return. Corrupted by their vile nature, and no longer being able to access the beauty of the Faerie realm, they created an Unseelie court in mockery of the Seelie court of the queen and their bodies became twisted parodies of their former selves revealing their internal uglyness. However the Unseelie were not the first feet on the isle for the first to arrive were the animals and creatures who travelled to the isle according to their natures. The flyers came by air, the swimmers came by sea and the creatures of the land crossed a land bridge that connected Oileán Teacht to Acquitaine. The next to arrive were the Pictoi. When humans were created a cauldron was filled with the water from the spring of knowledge and each couple drank from it. However, when the final couple came to drink there was only a sip left for each of them. This couple were the father and mother of the Pictoi and their decendants have always hated the other humans for drinking more of the water than they required leaving the dregs for themselves, and they hate the gods for not putting more water in the cauldron. They travelled to Oileán Teacht over the land bridge and, finding that no humans resided there, made it their home. The next to arrive were the Ogres and the Giants that were attempting to destroy them. In order that the Ogres could not escape the Giants destroyed the land bridge as they travelled across it. The two races fought and great losses occured between them. In order to avoid mutual destruction an uneasy truce was agreed amongst themselves, the Ogres would not enter the homes and surrounding areas of the Giants and the Giants would no longer seek the death of the Ogres. This truce is to last until "A Giant kills an Ogre, or an Ogre kills a Giant, other than in a formal duel". The Pictoi, however, were not part of this agreement and so, to save themselves, they entered the caves, tunneled into the land and hid in the areas of darkness. The final race to arrive were the Fir Bolg. The Ogres found conditions on the island not to their liking. They called on their god Crom Cruach to help them and sacrificed much blood to him. Crom opened his veins once and his blood caused the crops to grow threfold. He opened his veins a second time and the cows that drank of it gave milk threefold. He then travelled to other isles and tricked the Fir Bolg into travelling to Oileán Teacht for they are great farmers. Once they arrived the Ogres made them slaves. The Fir Bolg are not warriors so they called on our gods for help. Our gods arrived and in a great battle freed the Fir Bolg from their slavery. This battle was so exhausting that our gods had their first great sleep afterwards making their beds in the hills which the Faerie gave them. This they did in gratitude for what the gods had done for, whilst the Ogres were not their enemy, they did not agree with the slavery they had imposed. This then is the history of the land before we arrived. In our time of need when we left our homeland the gods had already prepared the way and for this we are grateful.

It is because Tuala is not an exact replica of Ireland that made me choose it since it allows me to modify things from 'history' and to hide things from the players. I have read the original mythic history (or at least a summary of it) which is why I knew that the Formians are out of sequence.However, you have all given me something to think about.

I was thinking along similar lines as it does give more variety and possibly leads to an informal version of the selee/unselee courts.

I will be running a Tuala Morn campaign soon and was wondering if anyone has written a history of Tuala Morn before the Tualans arrived. The descriptions of various creatures in the Bestiary refer to 'real life' Irish myths, but the problem here is that the Tualan history does not match this (especially when the Formians arrive) and so these descriptions cannot be used. I am quite happy to write my own history (because my players will ask for it) but would not mind 'borrowing' someone elses work! Particular questions that will be asked are: Are the Giants, Ogres, FirBolg and Fey original inhabitants of Tuala Morn or are they immigrants? What wars etc. have occurred between these races? Do the named gods have particular histories. If this post is not responded to, I may post my own version of the history later.

This may sound a silly question but I hope to be running a Tuala Morn game in a few months time and I am uncertain what counts as a 'Goblin-folk' In the Troll Wars the goblins help the Trolls, but 'goblin' is not a specific creature in the bestiary. A Bogie is defined as 'goblin-like' but this is the only creature so defined. So, were the trolls helped by goblins as defined in Fantasy Hero, or were they helped by one or more of the creatures that are defined?

I was refering to the following previous post ... ... which, given the way it was stated, I incorrectly assumed was refering to a specific example in the rules as to how Reputation could be used. My mistake. Thanks anyhow for the responses. I will use the Reputation option as suggested.

I did think about Reputation but thought that this only ever referred to the PC. I can not find the 'Infamous ancestor' option in either 5ER or Tuala Morn so is this something in 6th Edition?

In 6 months time I am hoping to run a Tuala Morn campaign and I am thinking of allowing PCs to take the following new Perk that I have invented. Has anyone any comments on how I could improve it? Son/Daughter of In Tuala Morn the genealogy of a character may give them reflected status and reputation. For 1 point a character has a famous ancestor. The ancestor may be alive (in which case the character may need to purchase other Perks, Reputations etc. to represent any advantages they gain from this) or dead. It is upto the player and GM to agree on the ancestor’s background. Whilst male PCs may take a female ancestor, and visa-versa, this Perk is most useful where the PC and ancestor are of the same sex. Whenever the GM thinks that the ancestor may influence an NPCs reaction to the character they may apply +1 or more to appropriate rolls.

That is a good point and, given that I suspect that very few GMs would play a rule where skills that were not used were reduced even if such a rule existed, then I can see the logic of your argument to a degree. However: 1) With the exception of melee or magic skills, very few of the characters are better at one skill than another (with the same characteristic). This would indicate that they spent the same amount of time on each skill to keep them up to date, which is unlikely to be the case. 2) Various NPCs in that book have varying number of skills; which is what you would expect (e.g. the lich has 23 skills, Ogarl has 13). This means, however, that a character who learns just one INT skill has the same level of skill as someone who has three INT skills - even though they had more time to spend improving their one skill. I think that this could become a Game v Reality debate if I expand too much on this (and I don't want to hijack this thread) - but I hope you can see why this just feels wrong to me.

I was going to post a similar thread until I saw this one. Looking at the characters in Nobles, Knights and Necromancers I was struck by how few of the NPCs took any of the skills beyond the base values. This seems to break with "reality". Think of any skill or knowledge that you have and think about how much better you are at that skill than when you first started it. Whilst in some cases you could argue that this is a change from 'Familiarity With' to a stat based skill roll - but one of the characters is a 200+ year old lich - do you think that it is likely that in over 200 years none of his skills have improved? The above comments mention how large characteristic values can give you better rolls - but a person's INT is unlikely to improve that much. It is not a problem with my group where player's do spend points on skill levels - but I too think that perhaps this is a small problem in an otherwise excellent system.

Re: Second Best Game System ? I am from the UK and my 2nd choice is Squadron UK (originally called Golden Heroes) which was developed in Britain and can be obtained from RPGNow. The system is D20 with options to Dodge, Parry and Block attacks. PC powers are rolled randomly and are open in scope. Most damage is rolled on d6s e.g. a person with a standard energy attack has 15d6 which they can split over 5 rounds (when it recharges) and which can be split between (the system equivalent of) BODY and STUN damage. It is quick and fun, with the only downside being the experience system (I wrote my own).

Re: Great weird/cthulhu/strange/occult/fringe/conspiracy game resource WOW. As a GM can I ask you delete this thread now to stop my player's seeing it as I may never have to come up with my own ideas ever again.