MRQ & Pirates questions

[AlexH]

Even after a few read through, i'm still puzzled by a few things in those 2 books.

MRQ Deluxe

1- Monsters with stats not listed. Resilience, for example, is a skill often used but not all monsters have it (Centipede, Chonchon, Deer, Halfling just to name a few). Do i have to calculate it myself? What gives?

2- Overcharging progressive spells. Can you do it? I'm assuming that if you can, it only makes it harder to counterspell and resist it?

3- If parrying is successful and the attack hits, i remove from the damage the Ap of the weapon. I'm assuming that if the defender has armor, it's AP also subtracted?

4- When dodging a ranged attack and the defender is forced to give ground, what happens to the attacker? Can he go adjacent to the defender for free? Can he move an equal nomber of spaces in his direction?

5- Is there an optional rule as a 5-foot step or something that replaces that? If not, why not?

Pirates

1- It is said on p.26 that officers give a 10% bonus of their skill to the crew's skill. It is later said that officers give 20% (p.30). I'm assuming 20%.

2- Swivel guns. On p.70 it's written that the swivel gun can me loaded with grape shots, dealing normal firearms damage at -4 penalty. I simply don't the meaning.What's the advantage? What's standard firearm damage?

3- What's the price of rifle ammo? (p.23)

4- There also lots of options covered in the book that are not fully explained. For example, you can have different configuration of sails on a ship, with different bonuses or penalties. How long does it take to do that? I'm assuming 1 combat round.

5- It's also said that if cannons are undermanned, it takes longer to reload them. Well, i would have like to know, for example, how much
longer?

6- The book talks about "helmsman" on p.70 even suggesting that a PC could be the helmsman. It was never mentioned in the book before. What is this? Is it an officer? If so, does he gets reputation bonuses? Does he gives bonuses to the crew's skills?

7- It also mentions "firing arcs" about the cannons mounted on a ship. Neat, but what are they exactly? I'm guessing cannons have a maximum arc from the ship, but what exactly?

edit

8- It is said that some ships have boats on them. Which ones? How many? What's the maximum?

I'm sure there's more, but i'll be back if i think of anything. Now, don't get me wrong, i loved the books! I just wished they'd be less... confusing?

 

[Deleriad]

Even after a few read through, i'm still puzzled by a few things in those 2 books.

1- Monsters with stats not listed. Resilience, for example, is a skill often used but not all monsters have it (Centipede, Chonchon, Deer, Halfling just to name a few). Do i have to calculate it myself? What gives?

Editing mistakes basically. The best thing is just to assume that the score is at its base chance unless otherwise listed. Relatedly, these are "beginning scores" and you can easily bump up the nastiness of a creature by adding percentiles to their skills.

2- Overcharging progressive spells. Can you do it? I'm assuming that if you can, it only makes it harder to counterspell and resist it?

You can. As you say, overcharging does not increase the *effect* of the spell. A Bladesharp 2 overcharged with 3 MPs is NOT a Bladesharp 5, it is still a Bladesharp 2 (+10% to attack, +2 damage). It means that you would need a 5 Mag Dispel Magic to get rid of it or a Countermagic 5 spell to counter it as cast.

3- If parrying is successful and the attack hits, i remove from the damage the Ap of the weapon. I'm assuming that if the defender has armor, it's AP also subtracted?

That is correct.

4- When dodging a ranged attack and the defender is forced to give ground, what happens to the attacker? Can he go adjacent to the defender for free? Can he move an equal nomber of spaces in his direction?

Nothing so no & no.

5- Is there an optional rule as a 5-foot step or something that replaces that? If not, why not?

No. The reason is that RQ has never explicitly modelled combat on a grid. Basically, if two characters are engaged in combat they stay engaged in combat though they may actually drift around a bit. There is some vagueness about moving into combat to attack and whether it triggers a reaction. Most people I know simply state that you can attack someone in reach and reach includes a distance equal to about a good step plus weapon length.

If you want to model RQ combat on 5-foot grid or equivalent then you can translate D&D attacks of opportunity triggers quite easily but remember that in RQ a "free attack" uses a reaction so often times figures won't have a reaction spare to use.

I don't have Pirates so can't help there.

 

[DigitalMage]

3- If parrying is successful and the attack hits, i remove from the damage the Ap of the weapon. I'm assuming that if the defender has armor, it's AP also subtracted?

If the Attack and Parry rolls were both merely Successes (as opposed to Criticals) then the person who rolled lowest has their success level downgraded to a Failure - meaning the attack will either Succeed completely or Fail completely (i.e. AP of the weapon is not taken into account).

The situations therefore where the AP of the parrying weapon is taken into account are:

• Attacker rolls a Critical and the Defender rolls a Critical and the dice results are exactly the same (e.g. both roll 02) = Max damage and double AP of weapon applied.
• Attacker rolls a Critical and the Defender rolls a Critical and Attacker dice result is higher = Max damage and AP of weapon applied.
• Attacker rolls a Critical and the Defender rolls a Critical and Defender dice result is higher = Rolled damage and double AP of weapon applied.
• Attacker rolls a Critical and the Defender rolls a Success = Max damage and AP of weapon applied.
• Attacker rolls a Success and the Defender rolls a Critical = Rolled damage and double AP of weapon applied.
• Attacker rolls a Success and the Defender rolls a Success and the dice results are exactly the same (e.g. both roll 42) = Rolled damage and AP of weapon applied.

That means there are actually very few times when the AP of the weapon would be applied.

Assuming two combatants with equal skills of 50% each the probability of the AP of the parrying weapon to have any effective on the result of a potential attack is only 4.75%, not even a 5% probability. See my workings below, but I believe I am correct.

Personally I would ditch the "downgrade the level of success" bit - it isn't needed as you have a table to give you a meaningful result when both get the same level of success (something you don't have in general opposed skill tests).

Attacker roll / Defender roll = % probability

Both rolls Crits and neither get downgraded
5 combinations x 0.01% = 0.05%
1 / 1 = 0.01%
2 / 2 = 0.01%
3 / 3 = 0.01%
4 / 4 = 0.01%
5 / 5 = 0.01%


Both roll Crits and Defender gets downgraded to Success
10 combinations x 0.01% = 0.1%
2 / 1 = 0.01%
3 / 1 = 0.01%
4 / 1 = 0.01%
5 / 1 = 0.01%
3 / 2 = 0.01%
4 / 2 = 0.01%
5 / 2 = 0.01%
4 / 3 = 0.01%
5 / 3 = 0.01%
5 / 4 = 0.01%

Both roll Crits and Attacker gets downgraded to Success
10 combinations x 0.01% = 0.1%
1 / 2 = 0.01%
1 / 3 = 0.01%
1 / 4 = 0.01%
1 / 5 = 0.01%
2 / 3 = 0.01%
2 / 4 = 0.01%
2 / 5 = 0.01%
3 / 4 = 0.01%
3 / 5 = 0.01%
4 / 5 = 0.01%

Attacker Crits and Defender rolls Success
225 combinations x 0.01% = 2.25%
1 / 6 = 0.01%
1 / 7 = 0.01%
[...]
1 / 50 = 0.01%
2 / 6 = 0.01%
2 / 7 = 0.01%
[...]
2 / 50 = 0.01%
[...][...]
5 / 50 = 0.01%


Attacker rolls Success and Defender Crits
225 combinations x 0.01% = 2.25%
6 / 1 = 0.01%
7 / 1 = 0.01%
[...]
50 / 1 = 0.01%
6 / 2 = 0.01%
7 / 2 = 0.01%
[...]
50 / 2 = 0.01%
[...][...]
50 / 5 = 0.01%

Both roll Successes and neither get downgraded
45 combinations x 0.01% = 0.45%
6 / 6 = 0.01%
7 / 7 = 0.01%
[...]
50 / 50 = 0.01%

 

[Deleriad]

3- If parrying is successful and the attack hits, i remove from the damage the Ap of the weapon. I'm assuming that if the defender has armor, it's AP also subtracted?

If the Attack and Parry rolls were both merely Successes (as opposed to Criticals) then the person who rolled lowest has their success level downgraded to a Failure - meaning the attack will either Succeed completely or Fail completely (i.e. AP of the weapon is not taken into account).

Oh yeah. I tend to forget that the Deluxe rules included the player's update (aka errata). It's not immediately obvious but because combat is an opposed roll then if both people roll a normal success then the loser gets downgraded to a fail as per the normal rules for opposed rolls. This means that it is now pretty rare for parry APs to come into play because if attacker and parrier both succeed then one of the following happens:
Attack wins: parry downgraded to failure so all damage goes through.
Parry wins: attack downgraded to failure so no damage goes through.

Parrying, if you play RAW, is now all or nothing except under certain circumstances. A lot of people use the combat results table and don't treat combat as an opposed roll: e.g. if you both roll normal successes then you apply the appropriate box.

As you've spotted: the RQ rules don't always hang together. It's the side-effect of Mongoose commissioning a bunch of books before they had locked down the rules. When they printed deluxe they included some errata intended to fix some of the most obvious problems which inadvertantly screwed up APs in parrying. There's nothing *wrong* with combat rules as written, they work perfectly well, but it does mean parry APs no longer work most of the time.

 

[AlexH]

Parrying, if you play RAW, is now all or nothing except under certain circumstances. A lot of people use the combat results table and don't treat combat as an opposed roll: e.g. if you both roll normal successes then you apply the appropriate box.

Why is that? In my playtesting, the original tables work really great, without the downgrading. When/why should i use downgrading?

I've read a few topics about it recently, actually, but i never understood why such a rule was needed at first, and why (or not) people use it?

By the way, thanks a lot for the info guys! It's just too bad no one has answers for Pirates, but i guess i'll use my own judgment

 

[Deleriad]

Why is that? In my playtesting, the original tables work really great, without the downgrading. When/why should i use downgrading?

What the rules actually say is:
"if both combatants roll a normal success, then the higher roll remains a success, but the lower roll is downgraded to a failure, or if both roll a critical success the lower roll is downgraded to a normal success."

At least, I *think* that's how it is in Deluxe as I have lost track of when Mongoose made changes. Personally I would do what you already are and just ignore the downgrading issue in combat.

 

[duncan_disorderly]

Pirates

2- Swivel guns. On p.70 it's written that the swivel gun can me loaded with grape shots, dealing normal firearms damage at -4 penalty. I simply don't the meaning.What's the advantage? What's standard firearm damage?

The advantage of Grape Shot is that it is an area effect weapon, as the shot spread out.

4- There also lots of options covered in the book that are not fully explained. For example, you can have different configuration of sails on a ship, with different bonuses or penalties. How long does it take to do that? I'm assuming 1 combat round.

I'd say much longer than that. In most cases I'd say that if you decided to re-rig your ship once an encounter has been initiated then you will effectively lose any bonuses you would have gained due to having to take down all your sails, the re-hang them in a different configuration. While you are not moving, the other ship will either gain sufficient ground that you will not catch it, or will get close enough that you can't get away. (NB this is actually re-rigging the ship, not just infurling sails that are in place bur not in use)

6- The book talks about "helmsman" on p.70 even suggesting that a PC could be the helmsman. It was never mentioned in the book before. What is this? Is it an officer? If so, does he gets reputation bonuses? Does he gives bonuses to the crew's skills?

The helmsman is the person who steers the ship