Criticals/Fumbles...

[kwinland]

Howdy!

Are criticals/fumbles in the game now? How about specials? Did they just do a 10% sepc/crit chance ala Stormbringer, or do they use a 5% and 20% threshhold? ARE there still criticals/fumbles in the game?

....Because this -40% penalty to avoid armour protection has me a bit worried...

Ken

 

[andakitty]

I don't know about MRQ yet, but I can assure you the -40% aimed shot modifier works. There is another game I have experience running with percentile skills and the 5/20% critical/special ranges and it works just fine. What might be a problem are open ended skills. We just have to wait and see how things balance out. Honestly, after the last preview I don't know whether to be optimistic and hope for the best or just buy Epic and forget about it...

 

[Gaheir]

Unless things change in the next month there is a 10% critical range, causing the attack to do maximum weapon damage, plus rolled damage bonus if any is available. There will be impales, but no other "specials" (ie.slashes, crushes). This will make the certain creatures a little less overwhelming. A troll with a 3d6 damage bonus will not be bashing through both shield and armour with a crushing blow 1/5 of the time he hits.

 

[homerjsinnott]

Unless things change in the next month there is a 10% critical range, causing the attack to do maximum weapon damage, plus rolled damage bonus if any is available. There will be impales, but no other "specials" (ie.slashes, crushes). This will make the certain creatures a little less overwhelming. A troll with a 3d6 damage bonus will not be bashing through both shield and armour with a crushing blow 1/5 of the time he hits.

No. Just 1 in 10 times.

 

[Adept]

Unless things change in the next month there is a 10% critical range, causing the attack to do maximum weapon damage, plus rolled damage bonus if any is available. There will be impales, but no other "specials" (ie.slashes, crushes). This will make the certain creatures a little less overwhelming. A troll with a 3d6 damage bonus will not be bashing through both shield and armour with a crushing blow 1/5 of the time he hits.

No. Just 1 in 10 times.

I think what he meant is that there is no "critical hit bypasses armour" thing in the game. Good thing that.

Uh, but a troll with a damage bonus of +3d6?? No solid +1, +2 and so on bonus then. Too bad. Also even +2d6 was huge as I recall. What sort of a monster troll is this +3d6 thing then? A Great Troll gone berserk?

Huge damage bonuses made some things really silly in RQ. It was pretty much the same whether a +2d6 troll hit you with a fist d3+2d6, or with a hachet d6+1+2d6.

 

[Adept]

Unless things change in the next month there is a 10% critical range, causing the attack to do maximum weapon damage, plus rolled damage bonus if any is available. There will be impales, but no other "specials" (ie.slashes, crushes). This will make the certain creatures a little less overwhelming. A troll with a 3d6 damage bonus will not be bashing through both shield and armour with a crushing blow 1/5 of the time he hits.

No. Just 1 in 10 times.

I think what he meant is that there is no "critical hit bypasses armour" thing in the game. Good thing that.

Uh, but a troll with a damage bonus of +3d6?? No solid +1, +2 and so on bonus then. Too bad. Also even +2d6 was huge as I recall. What sort of a monster troll is this +3d6 thing then? A Great Troll gone berserk?

Huge damage bonuses made some things really silly in RQ. It was pretty much the same whether a +2d6 troll hit you with a fist d3+2d6, or with a hachet d6+1+2d6.

 

[SteveMND]

Huge damage bonuses made some things really silly in RQ.

I hardly see it as silly. A theoretical +3d6 damage bonus is indeed huge (at least in RQIII). But to put that into perspective, we're talking about things like polar bears, griffons, wyrms and wyverns thta have that sort of damage bonus. All things that are far stronger and more massive than even the buffest human, and by a large margin.

In comparison, the average dark troll had a +1d6 DM, and even a cave troll typically only had a +2d6 DM. Of course, a cave troll had on average over twice the STR and SIZ scores of a human. I would certainly expect them to be able to hit like a brick wall when they struck something.

 

[andakitty]

Wasn't it Adept who was saying last week that there is no real signicance between a dagger and a shortsword damage-wise? :roll:

 

[Adept]

Wasn't it Adept who was saying last week that there is no real signicance between a dagger and a shortsword damage-wise? :roll:

That's no problem (yes, I know you were being sarcastic). I stand by what I said.

I was just remembering the old RQ-3 where a kick did 1d6 points of damage. So basically it was more dangerous getting kicked than it was getting knifed. Even the difference between a kick and a whack with a broadsword was fairly small, especially from a big guy with a damage modifier.

 

[TRose]

Although I love the old runequest system for most things. I do hope the crits have been toned down somewhat. Under the old system a GM rolling a crit, even from a trolkin throwing a rock often meant he auto killed a character. And as far as big monster go, I always felt there should be a chance for some of the big ones, like Rhinos and Bears to strike just a glanceing blow so to speak, instead of all hits removing a limb or worse.

 

[SteveMND]

Although I love the old runequest system for most things. I do hope the crits have been toned down somewhat. Under the old system a GM rolling a crit, even from a trolkin throwing a rock often meant he auto killed a character.

Oddly enough, it was exactly that sort of gritty lethality that made me love RQ so much.

Although I certainly wouldn't say a trollkin criticalling a thrown rock would "often" kill a character. That would have to be a bizarre situation indeed to even incapacitate a average person all by itself (although I get your point)!

 

[andakitty]

I loved those damage bonuses. One time I was running a game and had someone get brained by a gargoyle dropping rocks from high up. The PC stood out in the open and shot arrows at the gargoyles, and one of them dropped a rock on her head for about 20 points of damage (it was a critical, she was a D&D player) . I think it was Balastor's Barracks. Fun times. Does anyone remember for sure which scenario had the bombadier gargoyles?

Anyway, with the d6 damage bonuses at least you had a chance the minimum would be rolled. Better +1D6 than +4.( I am assuming +1 per 5 points over 25.)

 

[Adept]

Anyway, with the d6 damage bonuses at least you had a chance the minimum would be rolled. Better +1D6 than +4.( I am assuming +1 per 5 points over 25.)

The version I've seen & used was more like +2 in place of the +1d6

 

[Gaheir]

Yes, my earlier point was that the critical/specials will no longer ignore armour. In addition, the damage bonuses have been reduced, cutting down the lethality a bit. A dark troll, strength and size of 21, would have a 2d6 damage bonus in RQII. With the MRQ rules this troll will have a d8 damage bonus, generating an average of 2.5 points fewer damage.
The lethality will still be there, compared to most other RPGs, but seems to be less so. Until actual game experience with the system I am unsure how the new parry/dodge rules will impact.

 

[andakitty]

Stormbringer. Bonus level 25 and 41, for +2d6. If Mongoose goes with an earlier playtest version(very similar to one I have used in play), which I heard was +1 per 5 points (STR+SIZ), starting at 25. Look at it as a hypothetical rule, for comparison.

 

[Adept]

Yes, my earlier point was that the critical/specials will no longer ignore armour. In addition, the damage bonuses have been reduced, cutting down the lethality a bit. A dark troll, strength and size of 21, would have a 2d6 damage bonus in RQII. With the MRQ rules this troll will have a d8 damage bonus, generating an average of 2.5 points fewer damage.
The lethality will still be there, compared to most other RPGs, but seems to be less so. Until actual game experience with the system I am unsure how the new parry/dodge rules will impact.

That's great! I mean the lessened damage bonuses. Where do you get this info, by the way?