Actual Play with Skills over 100%

[Chaot]

Originally Posted by soltakss

I've never really started with a Rune Lord, apart from said Centaur who was rolled up with enhanced Character Generation (+20% to skills and incredibly lucky characteristic rolls) and just scraped in.

It's funny. The RQ crowd and the CoC crowd have a very different idea of what a high skill percentage is than the Elric!/SB5 crowd. I think I can honestly say that I've only had one player with under 100% in the primary combat skill role since I've been running it. Of course, it comes down to the various rules for each game and RQ1-3 read to be very different than SB5.

Originally Posted by soltakss

Thanks, we had a blast playing it.

It shows. And thanks, I had a blast reading it.

Originally Posted by soltakss

so a powerful Stormbringer character will have a lower pecentage skill than a RQ character of similar game ability/effect.

Hmmm, not sure I'm following you here. Are you referring to Stormbringer 1-4 or Elric!/SB5? The later start off at a much higher skill pool.

Originally Posted by Jason Durall

I found those files and posted them. Enjoy!

Jason, on behalf of myself and everyone else here, could I just respectfully request that you post your entire hard drive? Um, please?

[fmitchell]

(On porting HeroQuest Mastery to BRP.)

Originally Posted by Tywyll

Honestly, I think that would be too powerful, unless there was some way to block it/reduce it.

Every level of an opponent's Mastery cancels a level of the player's Mastery in the relevant skill, and vice versa.

Example 1: if Fredrik the Bold has a Sword of 33% Mastery 1 (33m for short), and Sontar the Cruel has a Battleaxe of 28 Mastery 1 (28m), they'd roll 33% vs. 28% for attacks and parries.

Example 2: if Fredrik had 33m and Sontar had 28m2 (28% Mastery 2), then Sontar has an extra level of mastery to beat down Fredrik with. Fredrik is in deep trouble.

Also, in HeroQuest characters go from 20 to 1m, so it's likely that a character would be rolling 1% to 10% for a little bit after gaining Mastery. I'd also rule that skills that have Mastery don't improve with normal Experience Rolls, only with training or some sort of Experience Point system.

[AikiGhost]

Originally Posted by fmitchell

Also, in HeroQuest characters go from 20 to 1m, so it's likely that a character would be rolling 1% to 10% for a little bit after gaining Mastery. I'd also rule that skills that have Mastery don't improve with normal Experience Rolls, only with training or some sort of Experience Point system.

You could use the system my group tends to use, which doesn't involve rolling for experience ticks, you simply get an increase for every tick, but the experience % you get goes down dependent on current skill.

The system we use...

Current skill % / % Increase Per tick

01-30 / +5%
31-50 / +4%
51-70 / +3%
71-90 / +2%
91+ / +1%

Initially skills go up quickly but over time the increases get less and less and it still works for skills over 100% (if you were using masterys etc)

[soltakss]

Originally Posted by Chaot

It's funny. The RQ crowd and the CoC crowd have a very different idea of what a high skill percentage is than the Elric!/SB5 crowd.

I think you may have a different idea of what a high skill is than I do

Originally Posted by Chaot

Hmmm, not sure I'm following you here. Are you referring to Stormbringer 1-4 or Elric!/SB5? The later start off at a much higher skill pool.

OK, Stormbringer 5, from what I understand, has an extra attack at -30%, so someone with 130% can attack twice at 130% and 100%. Someone in RQ attackign twice at 100% needs a skill of 200%. Similarly, attacking 3 times needs a skill of 160% in SB (160%, 130%, 100%) but 300% in RQ (100/100/100).

So, someone reasonably powerful in SB who can attack with 3 or 4 automatic hits is at a lower skill level than the equivalent RQ character.

[The Last Conformist]

Originally Posted by soltakss

OK, Stormbringer 5, from what I understand, has an extra attack at -30%, so someone with 130% can attack twice at 130% and 100%.

That's the rule for multiple parries.

For multiple attacks, you need a skill of 101%+, which you then split between the attacks, minimum of 50% each. Your example character of skill 130% could indeed make two attacks, but the better one would be at 80% at best.

[soltakss]

Ah, I see.

I haven't played Stormbringer since the first edition and those rules were very simple, so I didn't know what the SB5 rules were.

In that case, power levels should be about the same, although parrying seems ridiculously easy in Stormbringer.

So, I take back my comments completely.

[The Last Conformist]

Originally Posted by soltakss

parrying seems ridiculously easy in Stormbringer.

Parrying is indeed easy. Highly skilled fighters (such as most PCs) pretty much only need worry about critical attacks. I imagine it's a design choice to allow heroic types to fend off hordes of lesser adversaries (as Elric did on a regular basis).

[frogspawner]

Originally Posted by The Last Conformist

I imagine it's a design choice to allow heroic types to fend off hordes of lesser adversaries (as Elric did on a regular basis).

Yeah. It may seem heretical, but I've previously thought Elric was more suited to D&D (and, conversely, Lhankmar to RQ/BRP).

[Chaot]

Originally Posted by The Last Conformist

Highly skilled fighters (such as most PCs) pretty much only need worry about critical attacks.

Don't forget about weapon breaking rules and closing rules. Unless you're sword and board, you'd better have a second weapon on you. One versus many opponents also puts the high skilled character in a difficult situation. Then there's that whole issue with missile fire.

Originally Posted by frogspawner

It may seem heretical...

Heretic. Remember, Fafhrd once deflected a lightning bolt spell with a long length of wire! Fafhrd and the Mouser used to wade through their enemies, Graywand, Heartseeker, Scalpel and Cat's Claw dripping crimson with blood. The difference, Fafhrd and the Mouser used Spot Rules while Elric just stood there chopping with a howling demon sword.

[The Last Conformist]

Originally Posted by Chaot

Don't forget about weapon breaking rules and closing rules. Unless you're sword and board, you'd better have a second weapon on you.

Absent demon weapons or superhuman strength (either of which should disqualify an adversary from characterization as "lesser"), weapon breaking is only likely if they're rolling critical attacks, which was as said is the one thing highly skilled fighters should fear. Having your sword broken by a succession of critical parries is possible, but unlikely, because your opponent is going to roll about as many critical attacks as critical parries, and the former will, unless you incapacitate him first, most likely have put you and/or your sword out of commission before the later becomes an issue.

And that's assuming you're not using a shield.

One versus many opponents also puts the high skilled character in a difficult situation.

Not really, in my experience. The rules, specifically how multiple parries work, are very lenient on characters with multiple opponents.

Then there's that whole issue with missile fire.

Well, sure, a high weapon skill doesn't help against getting shot. It doesn't help against rocks falling from the sky, or anything else that can't be parried, either. My comment was about close combat.