Thread: Neeed Advice On A Small Detail

Some excellent ideas here and I like the scientific touch of Atgxtg. Snakes are a good example and one of my creatures is a snake, so I'll be looking at snake venoms to give me an idea for what to give it in terms of POT and damage.

For others, they're entirely fictional, lie my vamires, medusae and harpies (all of them potentially nasty). I'll look into LD50 and Agentorange's vampire rot idea to help guage my other venoms and toxins. One is a paralysis venom, so its damage should be pretty low as it's more a muscle relaxant, rather than muscle spasms, which can lead to respiratory failure. Maybe I should keep that in mind for cases of overdosing?

The medusa in my game, as mentioned, will have a venomous bite instead of the petrification gaze attack. My idea is that the venom will cause the cells in the body to become solid or calcify, giving them the stony appearance once it has fully done its work. So, am I right in saying it should be high POT and damage? When I think of it, it makes sense that it would be.

Originally Posted by Rob

Some excellent ideas here and I like the scientific touch of Atgxtg. Snakes are a good example and one of my creatures is a snake, so I'll be looking at snake venoms to give me an idea for what to give it in terms of POT and damage.

One thing that is frustrating but helpful about the "scientific method" is that there are so many variables in determining the POT. It varies by age, size, health, diet, and geogrphical location of the creature, by the quantity of venom injected, by the location and depth of the bite, and by the phsiology of the species and even of the individual being bitten. So much so that POT can vary considerably, even by more that 20 points!. It's frustrating in that it makes it impossible to pin POTZ down to one number and have it be at all accruate. It's helpful in that it gives us a lot of wiggle room for assigning a POT score.

I'll pull together some same snake data and the method I used to determine POT.


I really like Agentorange's idea of separating the POT from the damage. It opens up a lot of possibilites, such as a disase that can be deadly but only affect those who are already unhealthy (low CON). Or, as Agentorange mentioned, something like the the common cold, which nearly everybody catches, but doesn't do a lot of "damage".






For others, they're entirely fictional, lie my vamires, medusae and harpies (all of them potentially nasty). I'll look into LD50 and Agentorange's vampire rot idea to help guage my other venoms and toxins. One is a paralysis venom, so its damage should be pretty low as it's more a muscle relaxant, rather than muscle spasms, which can lead to respiratory failure. Maybe I should keep that in mind for cases of overdosing?

The medusa in my game, as mentioned, will have a venomous bite instead of the petrification gaze attack. My idea is that the venom will cause the cells in the body to become solid or calcify, giving them the stony appearance once it has fully done its work. So, am I right in saying it should be high POT and damage? When I think of it, it makes sense that it would be.[/QUOTE]

You're right, I should have added

One other thing. I'm thinking of adding in some fantasy races to give players some versatility, but here's the thing; it's modern day, so do I make them available to both worlds or just the one they will be visiting?

Depends on the races and the worlds.

If there is free travel between worlds then have them on both.
If travel is restricted or magical then they would have to have a very good reason to be on both worlds.

Also, do they look like the other races in the worlds? If not, and the worlds have a xenophobic element, then they might have a reason not be be on both worlds.

Originally Posted by soltakss

Depends on the races and the worlds.

If there is free travel between worlds then have them on both.
If travel is restricted or magical then they would have to have a very good reason to be on both worlds.

Also, do they look like the other races in the worlds? If not, and the worlds have a xenophobic element, then they might have a reason not be be on both worlds.

Not free travel, no. I get needing a good reason for both worlds, so are you thinking maybe just on the one? Because I have thought that, maybe it would provide even more of a different feel? Keeping them off 'our' world could help make it more diverse, more unusual? They don't look like other races in the second world, but are still bound by allegiance, maybe that would help keep things workable.

You could have one of the races as being major on one world and minor on the other. Maybe they were stranded there for some reason and occupy a small part of a continent. If their culture is different to the major one on the other world then it might be a bit of a shock when they encounter their cousins or when other people encounter the race on the other world.

For example, suppose a group left world A as refugees and arrived on world B. In World B they have developed a culture of freedom, as opposed to the tyrannical rule in World A. Or, suppose in World B they are religious heretics with a vastly different world view to those in World A (pacifists for example). People who encounter them in World B would see them as freedom loving pacifists, probably easy targets for slavers and so on. Then they arrive in World A and expect the ultra-tyrannical warmongers to act in the same way.

How did you know one world would have a tyrannical theme? Are you watching me? What are you doing in my house?

Good example, that helps it to make more sense. Good job.

Hey guys, got another question for you.

The group are currently fighting two guards. The guards are wearing chain mail with an AR of 4, meaning not many points of damage go through when shot with a medium pistol (D8 DAM). I think the armour should be less resistant to bullets since they weren't a concern when that armour was made in real life. How should I go about it? A separate rating?

Rob, the Big Gold BRP book has an answer in the Spot Rules for Firearms. On page 254 of the BGB it states that Primitive or Ancient armour offers half protection against high velocity or energy weapons. So your guards would have an AR of 2 against pistol shots.