Math and BRP

[lawrence.whitaker]

I haven't seen the preview, but I don't know why you'd need a table for this. RQ never had one, and I'm pretty sure it's the only BRP with the special. It's pretty simple: Critical>Special>Success>Failure>Fumble. Whoever has the best success level wins. Use some common sense for how Failure>Fumble plays out verses Critcal>Special and you're good to go. Quick and simple...at least IMO.

The combat table has different effects depending on the success levels of the participants. For eg, Crit vs Fail = full damage, plus rolled damage, plus ignore armour, or parrying weapon/shield takes 4 pts of damage. There are 17 cross referenced entries and, whilst most are common sense, there are some entries where there's a lot to take in. I simply won't be able to remember the various outcomes off the top of my head! When I ran a BRP playtest combat, during the playtest session, I found that combat was slowed considerably whilst I figured the results through using the matrix.

Of course, I'm old now, and the mind isn't what it used to be. Wibble.

[Trifletraxor]

Originally Posted by lawrence.whitaker

The combat table has different effects depending on the success levels of the participants. For eg, Crit vs Fail = full damage, plus rolled damage, plus ignore armour, or parrying weapon/shield takes 4 pts of damage. There are 17 cross referenced entries and, whilst most are common sense, there are some entries where there's a lot to take in. I simply won't be able to remember the various outcomes off the top of my head! When I ran a BRP playtest combat, during the playtest session, I found that combat was slowed considerably whilst I figured the results through using the matrix.

Of course, I'm old now, and the mind isn't what it used to be. Wibble.

Hmm. RQ combat took pretty long time before, I do hope it's not getting any slower...

Sverre.

[badcat]

It's not that bad, Sverre. Have you not played Elric!/Stormbringer 5? That said, I prefer the 10% critical only myself. It makes life so much simpler, even though you sacrifice a certain amount of the combat 'flavor'.

[Trifletraxor]

Originally Posted by badcat

It's not that bad, Sverre. Have you not played Elric!/Stormbringer 5? That said, I prefer the 10% critical only myself. It makes life so much simpler, even though you sacrifice a certain amount of the combat 'flavor'.

Haven't played that one before no. I've been one of those traditional RuneQuest in Glorantha nuts. (with a tiny dish of Cthulhu now and then)

When I worked on houseruling MRQ, I operated with 10% critical hits and 1% perfect hits. Very easy to calculate, and the combat flavour remained. I also made fumbles easier to know by heart.

I have no problems calculating criticals and specials, but with some do, and it bogs down the game a bit. Not much, but I find it kindoff unnecessary. I prefer not having to calculate at all.

Sverre.

[Jason Durall]

Originally Posted by lawrence.whitaker

Hi Jason,

Are saying that criticals are in or out? If they're out, have you amended all the skill entries that give critical effects, and removed that level of success from the combat matrix? Sorry - but I'm not clear on what you mean in the above.

Loz

Criticals are still in the core rulebook at the behest of my co-designer and the early playtest.

My preference would have been to remove them and make the system that much easier to grok.

[Jason Durall]

Originally Posted by lawrence.whitaker

The combat table has different effects depending on the success levels of the participants. For eg, Crit vs Fail = full damage, plus rolled damage, plus ignore armour, or parrying weapon/shield takes 4 pts of damage. There are 17 cross referenced entries and, whilst most are common sense, there are some entries where there's a lot to take in. I simply won't be able to remember the various outcomes off the top of my head! When I ran a BRP playtest combat, during the playtest session, I found that combat was slowed considerably whilst I figured the results through using the matrix.

Of course, I'm old now, and the mind isn't what it used to be. Wibble.

On the other hand, most rolls are going to end up with basic successes or failures, which don't need the chart.

[badcat]

True, thus 'not that bad'. But I still like the 10% better; for me it lets me relax and get into developing the plot and enjoying the game. Sometimes every little bit you simplify helps. And as Sverre just pointed out you don't lose all that much of the 'flavor'.

[RMS]

Originally Posted by lawrence.whitaker

The combat table has different effects depending on the success levels of the participants. For eg, Crit vs Fail = full damage, plus rolled damage, plus ignore armour, or parrying weapon/shield takes 4 pts of damage. There are 17 cross referenced entries and, whilst most are common sense, there are some entries where there's a lot to take in. I simply won't be able to remember the various outcomes off the top of my head! When I ran a BRP playtest combat, during the playtest session, I found that combat was slowed considerably whilst I figured the results through using the matrix.

Since I haven't seen it yet, I'll withhold any judgement until I do. The old RQ way for this was that level of attackers success determined damage and bypassed armor with a critical. Level of defenders success determined how affective the parry was (or the dodge). You could have built a matrix, but it really wasn't necessary.

Of course, I'm old now, and the mind isn't what it used to be. Wibble.

Tell me about it. No doubt part of the charm of all of this is that I already know the system pretty well and have been using it since I was young enough to actually memorize something!

[Atgxtg]

Originally Posted by Lord Twig

So really not everyone needs to be good at math, you just need one.

Or just print the crit chart on the character sheets. About a third of my group could do it in the head on the fly, but the rest could just look in the margins of their sheets and look it up. The ones who couldn't look it up on the chart were just hopeless and that was that.
Some of the RQ sheets even had room to put the crit and special number in with the weapon stats. Fairly useful, although modifers often made the numbers invalid. Still, a player who had a 4% critical chance before Bladesharp, was pretty confident when he rolled an 04 or 05 while under a bladesharp.

[Aycorn]

Originally Posted by Atgxtg

Or just print the crit chart on the character sheets. About a third of my group could do it in the head on the fly, but the rest could just look in the margins of their sheets and look it up. The ones who couldn't look it up on the chart were just hopeless and that was that.
Some of the RQ sheets even had room to put the crit and special number in with the weapon stats. Fairly useful, although modifers often made the numbers invalid. Still, a player who had a 4% critical chance before Bladesharp, was pretty confident when he rolled an 04 or 05 while under a bladesharp.

The FileMaker Pro database I use prints the %, the critical chance, and the fumble chance, each in a different color, so it's right there for ya.