All right, I'll ask again...

[Deleriad]

Gee, I know I'm 2 years too late, but I can't seem to find the final ruling.
Has Deleriad's question ever been answered... officially?

Example: Rurik is 55% in Spear attack and wants to increase it. How many of the things below can he do:
# If he has 1 IR can he spend the IR and make the improvement roll immediately?
# If he has 1 IR does he have to practise for 6 days and then spend the IR to to make an improvement roll?
# If he doesn't have any IRs can he practise for 6 days and then make an Improvement roll?

No it never was explicitly answered. So I use 1 and 3. You get IR's from experience which you can spend straight away. You can also gain IRs from downtime by doing practice and research etc.

 

[Denalor]

Thanks for answering Deleriad.

I think that (i.e. use of #1 and #3) was the way it worked in previous editions of RQ, right ?
The issue I had then (and would have now, too, I guess), is that the chars will practice without end and will quickly be quite powerful... at least in those skills they really focus in.
How much time per day do you allow for practise ? It's clear during downtime, but what of daily travel/work etc., e.g. during adventuring ? After all, the RQ Deluxe states (page 183) that you do pratice literally all the time (basic and weapon skills at least). Or do you use some kind of formula like 2hrs/d, i.e. one training day gained every 4-5 actual game days ?

Wasn't there some example about a cobbler somewhere working every day and thus practicing. Now, wouldn't that cobbler be a master crafter pretty soon (i.e. after one year, supposing he'd pratice his craft skill every day of the year) ?
But on the other hand I saw in the preview of the Game Masters' Handbook the stats of NPCs ("mere" crafters and hunters !) which are IMHO very powerful already (the Hunter has 12 skills above 50% and more than 5 above 75%, i.e. he's Veteran level)! Which makes the typical starter PCs pretty weak, right ?

Which raises another issue, which always caused me severe problems (and which might actually be the cause why we stopped playing RQ those ~20 years ago): the power level of monsters... I never really got the right idea about which kind of monsters can still be handled by the PCs and which will cause a wipe out.

 

[soltakss]

Which raises another issue, which always caused me severe problems (and which might actually be the cause why we stopped playing RQ those ~20 years ago): the power level of monsters... I never really got the right idea about which kind of monsters can still be handled by the PCs and which will cause a wipe out.

It depends on a number of things.

How powerful are the PC party? How well do they work together? Do they have healing? Do they have magic that boosts their damage/armour? Do they have magic that can hurt opponents?

Generally, I work to the following guidelines:

• NPCs are weaker than PC, even if they have the same stats.
  A PC Party can easily defeat a similar NPC party.
  A PC Party will usually beat a similar NPC party with a superior leader.
  A PC Party will defeat a single more powerful foe.
  A PC Party will normally defeat a single more powerful foe with multiple attacks.
  A PC Party may struggle against multiple more powerful foes with multiple attacks.

So, a PC party at around 30%-40% will defeat another party at the same skill, will probably defeat a single opponent at 70-80% but would struggle against a party at 70-80%.

A PC Party at around 70-80% would probably be a match for any normal rune level foe. They could probably take on a group of trolls and perhaps a small dragon or giant.

A PC Party of rune levels can easily take on a single dragon or giant and should defeat a similar party of rune levels.

It is difficult to generalise since so much depends on the party dynamics. A well-organised party with good magic is very gard to defeat.

 

[Deleriad]

Thanks for answering Deleriad.

I think that (i.e. use of #1 and #3) was the way it worked in previous editions of RQ, right ?
The issue I had then (and would have now, too, I guess), is that the chars will practice without end and will quickly be quite powerful... at least in those skills they really focus in.

I think there are two different answers to this.

1. Is that traditional RPG PCs are unusual in that they gain money through looting and therefore don't need a stable income the rest of the time. Thus they are able to dedicate their time to becoming the best there is at what they do.

2. Normal folks, or people who need to work for a living, don't spend their time explicitly learning but pick up skills as they go along.

Now you could micromanage downtime. You could say that PCs need to make persistence rolls to avoid burning out or there is a law of diminishing returns or they simply can't devote the whole amount of time they need for some reason. Some people like that kind of thing and I have run campaigns like that in the past. What I do these days though, is simply say that if there is a period of downtime the PCs get X Improvement rolls between episodes.

I do differentiate between IRs gained through experience which have to be spent then and there, on skills actually used and only allow one IR per skill. Downtime IRs are more flexible.

I've recently been running PCs through 2 years of game time leading up to Blood of Orlanth and they have been getting roughly the same numbers of IRs from experience as downtime.