Thread: A five percent solution?

On page 170 of the BGB, under the title Skill Rolls, it says that " Any skill that has a base chance of 5% or higher will always have 5% chance of success, even if difficulty, conditional modifiers, or other factors would reduce the skill rating below 5%." And then on page 191, under the heading Parry, it states that "Each successive parry attempt after the first is at -30% modifier to the skill rating, cumulative. If the chance to parry the attack falls below 1%, your character cannot attempt to parry." How would you resolve this apparent contradiction? Ignore it, or allow a character a base chance of 5% with a weapon despite parry mods taking his skill below 1%?

For me the more specific combat rule wins.

I would read it that way as well. For me the -30% rule is as much a way of determining how many times you can parry as it is determining the chance to parry.

Rod

I agree with filbanto and threedeesix. There isn't really a contradiction, just two rules, one general, one in for a more specific case.

I kind of like the idea that a player gets a miniscule 5% parry after his skill has been modified below 1% by the -30% rule. It adds a desperate dramatic roll for a player overwhelmed by attacks. Since there is an obvious contradiction, weapon skills are often of a base chance of 5% or higher, I hope that in future editions of the BGB some clarification of these two rule sets is offered, so that newcomers to BRP aren't confused by it.

Anyway, giving extra parries at 31%, 61%, 91% etc seems an awful kludge. Remind me, please - what problem is that supposed to solve? Isn't there a better way?

Originally Posted by frogspawner

Anyway, giving extra parries at 31%, 61%, 91% etc seems an awful kludge. Remind me, please - what problem is that supposed to solve? Isn't there a better way?

I suppose the problem was that in RQ3 you couldn't defend agaist multiple attacks unless you had a skill over 100, and then only against two, divided evenly. Stormbringer was probably intended for more heroic/cinematic play where experienced fighters could take on multitudes of foes. And the SB rule ended in the BGB.

Originally Posted by smjn

I suppose the problem was that in RQ3 you couldn't defend agaist multiple attacks unless you had a skill over 100, and then only against two, divided evenly. Stormbringer was probably intended for more heroic/cinematic play where experienced fighters could take on multitudes of foes. And the SB rule ended in the BGB.

That is exactly what the purpose of the rule was.

The BRP rule book was designed with a cascading list of sources, in the following order of authority:

First Tier: Stormbringer/Elric! Call of Cthulhu
Second Tier: RuneQuest (3rd edition)
Third Tier: Worlds of Wonder, Ringworld, ElfQuest, Superworld

All throughout the playtest and development I was quite clear that it was never intended as a generic version of RuneQuest.

Cheers, gents (and no blame, Mr.D). The rule just lacks a certain elegance, so I can't help hankering for another solution...

I've played Stormbringer for ages and I love that rule. In actual play it works great. When the outnumbered player rolls that last parry with a 10% or something and succeeds it feels really heroic and dangerous at the same time.