RuneQuest Digest Compilation Edition. Volume 1, issues 1-3. edited by: Andrew Bell transfered to CIS by: Janet Naylor 72727,574 Copyright, Andrew Bell ************************************************************************* *** RQ Digest, Volume 1, Number 1 From: abbott@dean.berkeley.edu (Mark Abbott) Subject: RQ Martial Arts Here's a home grown system for running martial artists. This assumes RQIII but could easily be modified to work with RQII. It's developed from my experience studying the Korean art of Hapkido, with a bit of other stuff thrown in for the fun of it. For instance, we most definitely do not practice parrying missiles but I really liked that on the old Kung Fu TV shows so it's in here. The belt progression shown is a nice easy one to compute. It's not really accurate compared to the real world but it's fine for game terms. In reality, 4th dan (4th degree black) is considered mastery but with this belt system RQ-defined mastery comes right at 1st Kub or 1st dan black belt. Using these skills, you can easily simulate a variety of arts. Hapkido emphasizes both throwing and striking techniques but many arts do not. To set up another art, just change the emphasis on the different sets of skills, or drop some out entirely. By the way, this does not use the RQIII martial arts skill which doubles damage. This replaces it. The skills are mostly obvious but: Kicking is just that, Strike/Block is all hand strikes and parrying with the hands/arms. Normal RQIII rules apply as to which weapons will damage the parrying object. Joint locks are the joint breaking holds and twists which are characteristic of jujitsu and aikido. Throws are what is normally associated with jujitsu and judo. Falling is exactly that, the ability to fall safely. Dodge is the RQIII skill. Missile parry is the ability to parry missile weapons. In our local games these skills are all used by specialized groups which restricts their availability. Also, these groups all frown on the use of armor which further limits the power of these skills. In practice, the martial artist is a weaker but somewhat more versatile fighter than the run of the mill. His lack of armor keeps him from being really tough. However, if armor is uncommon then the martial artist will really shine. MARTIAL ARTIST SKILLS SKILL SR BASIC DAMAGE NOTES Kicking 3 15% d8 Specials do automatic knockback, flying kicks do automatic knockback but use both actions for that round, ie you cannot dodge/block/do another attack. Strike/Block 3 15% d4 Specials do automatic knockback Joint Locks 3 00% 2d4 Armor absorbs damage. Assume arms to be the target under normal circumstances. Occasionally the target will be neck or legs. Come-alongs fall in this category. If the skill is successfully used and the damage rolled is enough to incapacitate the limb, the player may opt for a come-along with the damage inflicted if the opponent attempts to escape. Joint locks may be executed using a short stick or staff at the weapon percentage or the joint locking percentage, whichever is lower. Throwing 3 00% 1/4 Size of target Successful use gives a resistance roll of STR+AGI+(Throwing skill/5) vs. SIZE+AGI. Both the skill roll and resistance roll are necessary for a completed throw. A succesful throw gives the thrower one extra attack that round at +20%. Falling - 15% - Negates 1/4 Size +d6 falling damage, +2d6 for specials and +3d6 for criticals Missile Parry - 00% - Allows the user to stop missile weapons. Success indicates that the missile was deflected, a special that it was caught, a critical that it may be thrown back. One use constitutes one of the PC's actions that round. May be used twice in the same round. Shafted/hafted missiles may be parried with the hands. Other missiles must be parried with a weapon or object. Arrows/javelins/hatchets are shafted/ hafted, sling bullets are not. Ability to parry with a weapon is based missile parry or weapon parry, whichever is lower. Dodge - 05% - If used at 1/2 percentage the martial artist need not count Dodging as one of his two actions in a round. This option may only be taken once per round. A Martial Artist attacking the same opponent more than once in the same round may not use the same attack skill more than once in that round. In other words, he may not kick the same opponent twice in the same round although he could first throw and then kick. This rule applies to all attacks except Strikes-an opponent may be punched twice in the same round. For Hapkido belt progression use this formula. N=Average of all 8 skills (Kick, Strike, Block, Throw, Joint Locks, Fall, Missile Parry, Dodge) or lowest skill +20%, whichever is lower. Kub # = 10- (N/10). Drop fractions. Negative numbers are degrees of Black. Kub # 10,9 8,7 6,5,4 3,2,1 0 and lower Belt White Yellow Blue Brown Black -Mark Abbott abbott@dean.berkeley.edu The RuneQuest(tm) Digest is a courtesy of Andrew Bell. All opinions and material above is the responsibility of the originator, and copyrights are held by them. RuneQuest is a trademark of Chaosium, Inc. ***************************************************************** *** RQ Mailing list, Volume 1, Number 2 From: 8hum190@violet.Berkeley.edu (Elliot Wilen) Subject: Potions for RuneQuest They ain't perfect, I'm sure, but everybody would change them anyway. --Elliot Wilen Here they are: These rules are intended to re-introduce man-made poisons and potions to the RQ III system. For the most part, they amount to an update and extension of the RQ II rules. I'll be the first to admit that they aren't, strictly speaking, 'realistic'. Real poisons do not improve in potency according to the skill of their maker--they are simply manufactured according to recipe, and they have a more-or-less constant effect. But I'm presenting these rules anyway since they do integrate well with the overall RuneQuest system, and people may find some or all of them useful. Disclaimer: these rules have not been playtested. They may be sketchy in places. Suggestions for improvement, especially after playtest, are welcome. Throughout the text, I've indicated notes by using a number inside of square brackets [ ] . Alchemical Skills Poison, as described in the Player's Book, usually causes damage to total hit points. However, other types of drugs, breathed, injected, ingested, poured into an ear, or contacted by the skin, do exist. Some alternatives to simple damage-causing poison are: acid, drugs which cause sleep, drugs which cause paralysis, and mind-altering drugs which cause hallucinations, changes in behavior, or loss of willpower. Healing potions and salves may also exist. There are also antidotes to the various kinds of poisons. Finally, certain types of magic spells may be stored in a potion. (At GM discretion, not all 'potions' need necessarily be in liquid form: cakes, pills, and powders are okay, too.) Making Potions Each type of potion, poison, drug, or acid requires a different skill to manufacture. We can classify all of these skills under the general rubric of Alchemical skills, just as Play Instrument and Craft are also sets of skills. Alchemy skills are Knowledge skills with base chance of 00% and no experience check box. This means that they cannot be learned or increased through experience, only through training and research, though they may be trained/researched up to 100%.[1] Use of Alchemy is somewhat different from the usual application of a skill percentage.[2] The maximum potency of a specific item which a character is capable of making is 1/5 of the character's skill, rounded up. Thus the highest possible potency is 20.[3] Success is guaranteed unless the player fumbles. If this happens, roll again against the skill percentage. A normal success on this roll indicates that the character realized his mistake; otherwise the faulty product will not be detected until it is used. A fumble on this roll would mean something especially bad happened: not only is the potion weakened/useless/having unintended effect, but the alchemist accidentally imbibed/ingested/inhaled (etc.) some of it! (In this case, it may take normal effect the important point is that something happened to the poor guy.) Cost of Manufacture and Prices The cost of manufacturing a potion depends on its type and POT. Since people will inevitably set their own prices, I've made no effort to set precise costs. Instead, I've extrapolated prices from RQ II and multiplied them by a semi-arbitrary factor of 10 to convert from Lunars to pennies. The cost of purchase would be roughly ten times the cost of manufacture. These prices should be considered to apply for a small city. Adjust as appropriate for other locations of manufacture/sale. One dose is approx. 100 ml. = 1 U.S. gill = 4 fluid oz. = 1/2 cup General Type Cost of Ingredients per Dose (per point of POT) Acid 50p Poison 40p (should be increased considerably for special poisons, such as slow-acting or contact) Drug 200p minimum; cost varies highly depending on effect Antidote As Cost of Countered Agent Healing 200p (if used) Magic 400p (POT=maximum MP which may go into it) Effect of Potions Acid--A full dose causes its POT in damage to whatever it contacts. Adjust damage for contact with less than a full dose. (Keep in mind that if acid is splattered on someone, he's likely not to be hit by all of it.) Effects on objects will vary according to construction, POT, and length of contact. Armor and weapons will be damaged or even rendered completely useless by powerful acids--one way to handle this would be to roll on the resistance table for each round of contact, having the POT of the acid attack the armor points of the weapon or armor. Each success results in the loss of one armor point. Poison--This works exactly as described in the Player's Book, page 83. Note that the 'typical' man-made poison is ingested and takes effect very quickly. Blade venoms (for application to weapons), contact poison, slow-acting poison, poison gas, and other special types will cost more to manufacture--twice as much or higher. Drugs--Most drugs will need to overcome the CON of their target to take effect. If they do not successfully overcome the CON, partial effects may still apply. Typical effects of drugs include sleep, paralysis while retaining consciousness, hallucinations, and loss of willpower. Partial effects might include temporary loss of STR, DEX, INT, or maximum fatigue points. The effects of a drug typically last 2*POT hours. Antidote--According to GM discretion (and possibly only after research by characters), each drug or poison may be counteracted by an antidote. Antidotes may be taken in advance of contact with a harmful agent, in which case the substance has its POT reduced by the POT of the antidote before being applied. Antidotes last for 1/2 hour after being taken. Alternatively, an antidote may be administered after the harmful substance has been introduced into the system of its victim. Poison antidotes will counter an amount of poison damage already received equal to 1/2 POT. The POT of a drug antidote must attack the POT of the drug on the resistance table; success indicates that the drug has been successfully counteracted. Note that multiple doses of an antidote of a given POT will *not* have a greater effect than a single dose, but a greater POT antidote will supersede a previously-administered antidote of lower POT. (Note also that the GM should devise prices for the antidotes of natural poisons such as snake venom, since they have no price of their own.) Healing--If it is desired to include non-magical healing potions and healing salves in your campaign, you may allow them to heal their POT in hit points of damage. Since these rules would make it possible to create potions which heal 20 or more points of damage, you might want to increase the ratio of skill percentage:POT for healing potions (say, 1:10). On the other hand, such potions really don't make a whole lot of sense, and non-magical healing is already handled by the First Aid skill. Magic Potions Only Sorcery and Spirit Magic spells may be put into potions.[4] The effect of a magic potion is exactly as if the spell had been cast on the person who drank the potion; it does not give the person the ability to cast the spell. Thus a potion of disruption disrupts the drinker, a befuddle potion befuddles him, and a heal potion heals him. On the other hand, an extinguish potion is meaningless, as is a wish potion, because extinguish cast on a human has no effect, and a wish is not cast on anyone at all. In general, making a magic potion involves storing a spell and magic points in liquid form. Of course, special (costly) substances are needed to brew the liquid which stores the magic. Since a potion is good for only one use, the magician does not lose permanent power. Instead, he expends the normal MP cost of the spell. The spell may be manipulated by sorcery skills and/or boosted, as long as the cost is paid and the potion has the requisite POT. Manufacture of the magic potion is treated exactly as for other potions: roll versus Alchemy skill and assume success unless a fumble occurs, etc. However, if the spell is being manipulated, use the lowest skill involved (out of Alchemy and the relevent Sorcery skills). When the potion is drunk, it automatically takes effect unless it is resisted. ------------------------------------------------ Notes 1]Or higher, given the standard rules on training. However, since the highest skill level attainable (for a Knowledge skill) through research is 111%, then if one assumes that teachers cannot teach people of higher skill than they, and that all knowledge of Alchemy was originally gained through research, then the highest possible POT is 23. Alternatively, the maximum could simply be set at 100%. 2]Though it may be appropriate to apply a similar system to Craft and some other skills. 3]Usually. See note 1. 4]The main reason I said this is because I had a hard time fitting in Divine Magic. In general, I'm much less certain about these magic potion rules than about the others. -Elliot The RuneQuest(tm) mailing list is a courtesy of Andrew Bell. All opinions and material above is the responsibility of the originator, and copyrights are held by them. RuneQuest is a trademark of either Chaosium or Avalon Hill. *********************************************************** *** RQ Digest, Volume 1, Number 3 From: John Redden Subject: PC Dragon variant S T R O H L D R A G O N S Dragon 1-5 5-10 10-20 20-50 50-100 100+ Age yrs. yrs. yrs. yrs. yrs. yrs. very young adolescent young adult adult old ancient Power 3-6 7-10 11-14 15-18 19-22 23-26 Scale Arm pts 1-2 2-3 3-4 5-6 6-7 7-8 (note: armor pts = POW / 3) INT = 10+D10 DEX = 3D6 APP = 10 + D8 (to dragon of its own culture) old D&D size SIZ and SIZ and CON CON tail bash/ bite breath breath description STR STR max max claw base base diameter damage halfling/ducksize D6+6 12 2D6 12 D3 D4 1m D2 human/orc/elf size 2D6+6 18 3D6 18 D4 D6 1.5m D3 ogre/troll size 3D6+6 24 3D6 18 D6 2D4 2m D4 hill giant size 3D6+12 30 (3D6/2)+8 18 D6 2D4 2.5m D6 stone giant size 4D6+12 36 (4D6/2)+8 20 D6 2D6 3m D6+1 frost giant size 5D6+12 42 (5D6/2)+8 23 D6 2D6 3.5m D8+1 fire giant size 5D6+18 48 (5D6/2)+11 26 D6 3D4 4m 2D6 cloud giant size 6D6+18 54 (6D6/2)+11 29 D6 3D6 4.5m 2D8 storm giant size 7D6+18 60 (7D6/2)+11 32 D6 3D6 5m 3D6 titan size 7D6+24 66 (7D6/2)+14 35 D6 4D4+2 5.5m 3D8 (elemental dragons) .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. Add damage mod to bash, claw or bite. Breath weapon range is meters in POW. D6 fatigue pts are lost per breath as per RQ III Creatures Book. The dragon can have a breath or bite and a claw or bash per melee round. If the dragon gains 100%+ in an attack skill then it may split it for multiple attacks. Draconic skills vary with local culture, but almost all healthy dragons have fly at 80% by the time they are adolescent. Common draconic spell: (spirit magic version) STIFFWING 1 Pt Duration: 25min * dragons current POW. Stackable. Reusable. This spell enables the dragon to magically enhance its aerodynamic shape. The wings assume a soaring position and the dragon is able to double the flying move base in calm weather. Typically the dragon will fly above bad weather and travel intercontinental distances. No fatigue pts are lost during stiffwing flying. Divine and sourcerous versions of stiffwing exist. A dragons breath depends on its color (yes, I get to dig out all those old D&D dragon types and use them). Physical breaths conform to belching damage. For magical breaths a POW vrs. POW must be made for all those in the area of effect (these breaths would be befuddle breath, illusion breath). For STROHL dragons POW increases are difficult. They are limited by age. They have a common reincarnation cycle so their religions tend to be similar. The common reincarnation cycle does not translate into a common draconic culture. There are three distinct draconic cultures known by the characters in the STROHL game. Toranian Dragons The first group has a central population in a land about the summed size of England, Scotland and Ireland. The dragons associate closely with city dwelling humanoids. This culture is like a "Pernese" type. People ride them (a separate skill) and they become the "airforce" for this land. They do their hatching near the main site of a city state. Humanoids are attached to the young dragons and will care for them once they leave th nest. Humanoids are not allowed into the inner parts of the draconic caves where the eggs are laid. Older dragons always present the young to the humanoids during certain rituals. The humanoid then helps care and train the young dragon in the ways of the Toranians. The color of Toranian dragons varies from neutral colors (gray, brown, off-white) to metalic (iron, mercury, gold, tin). Exotican Dragons Exotica is a land about the size of Australia. A somewhat obscure but well organized group of dragons dwell here. They are oldest group. The humans that have met them say they know the most about the early history of STROHL. Much of the culture is shrouded in prophecies and the effect their draconic culture will have on pivitol events. Other humans who have contacts with Exotican cultures tell stories a fourth group in in draconic lore. These stories speak of elemental dragons from the dim time. Most dismiss these tales a delusions. The Exotican dragons have dealings with centaur clans and griffon prides. The dragons often will mitigate between the two constantly fighting groups for favors. Much of what is known about draconic culture in Exotica comes from the centaurs, so some say that it is tainted with their viewpoint. The Toranian dragons say their Exotican relatives have been through so many reincarnations that they suffer from pointless mysticism. The Exotican dragons are crystalline in color (topaz, quartz, ruby). Scarletian Dragons This group of dragons is dangerous. They have discovered some of the ancient technology on STROHL to complement their sorcery and magic. Their draconic leader commmands them from a large aircraft in the shape of a flying wing. Somehow the Scarletians learned how to make things like guns (better than the mostali), energy weapons, attack craft and then the wing. They base themselves on the edge of the known world in the Lands of Night. The scarletians have a large army at their command consisting of humans, orcs, renegade mostali, and others. They are at war with the Twilonian Empire and have successfully defeated their western army. The scarletians are chromatic dragons. //A RQIII houserule in our game. Strike rank has always been bothersome to me. However timed actions do add a sense of strategy to th game. What I use instead is "Melee Round DEX". Each characters MRD starts at current natural DEX but then is reduced by SIZ and weapon length to give a new MRD for that weapon. Actions reduce the MRD further. So do variable pt spells. MRD can go negative but the character still gets to their basic actions (they may go off last). Multiple spells and missiles can be done as long as MRD isn't negative (again the character gets a least one missile action). The effect is identical to strike rank and I find it more comfortable. The RuneQuest(tm) mailing list is a courtesy of Andrew Bell. All opinions and material above is the responsibility of the originator, and copyrights are held by them. RuneQuest is a trademark of either Chaosium or Avalon Hill. ************************************************************************