New to runequest/legend - few questions

[Asyme]

Hi folks - recently picked up the rules and really liked them - so much so that I'm in the midst of moving my game across to the ruleset.

Few things I was wondering though:

1) I'm used to a system where players aim at a target number - e.g. roll 14 with 2d6 is effectively impossible or 'roll and get 4 successes on the dice against x target number. With Runequest it seems there's slightly less wiggle room. Numbers seem to have to fudge a bit more (e.g. you start getting into weird percentile numbers of 232% skill use).

2) I'm running a system where magic is rare and am a bit worried the non plate wearers are going to get slaughtered without the damage reduction of armour - but without higher damage said platies will be yawning.

3) Magnitude... was a bit confused on this reading the rules. At times it sounded like a spell level - at other times a stat you could throw magic points at? (sorry if I'm being dense and ignoring a good description.

4) Is there a conversion from the d6 system to runequest anywhere that might give me a good idea of stats and skills?

5) lastly - slightly off the wall this one - but was planning on borrowing the social stat from age of treason and wondered if anyone had ever made a simple 'resource' stat with any success? In my game we dispense with exact amounts - and players just roll some dice which loosely indicates how easily they can buy resources (magic is rare so they tend to use it on simpler and easier to control things)

Cheers!

 

[Dan True]

Hi folks - recently picked up the rules and really liked them - so much so that I'm in the midst of moving my game across to the ruleset.

Welcome to the rule set!

1) I'm used to a system where players aim at a target number - e.g. roll 14 with 2d6 is effectively impossible or 'roll and get 4 successes on the dice against x target number. With Runequest it seems there's slightly less wiggle room. Numbers seem to have to fudge a bit more (e.g. you start getting into weird percentile numbers of 232% skill use).

It takes some time before you get a skill past 100%, and when you do it takes forever to get it higher. The truth is that even competent characters will have perhaps 1-2 skills at 100% and the rest well below. You will also find that especially combat skills require a branching of skills - a warrior needs brawn, evade, athletics, unarmed, resilience + 1-2 combat skills. It is better to go up in all than to have one in 110 and the rest below.

I don't exactly get what you mean by wiggle room? To rolls opposed on percentile skill values have as many outcome possibilities as number of successes?

2) I'm running a system where magic is rare and am a bit worried the non plate wearers are going to get slaughtered without the damage reduction of armour - but without higher damage said platies will be yawning.

Only if they stupid enough to stand and take the hits in a stand-up fight. You should find that the combat system in Legend rewards creative thinking and use of real tactics. The non-armoured guys will work great as missile cover, outflankers or the one who sneaks through the forest and lets 12 huge logs rumble down towards the unsuspecting enemy.
But yes, don't expect a peasant in no armour at all to fare as good in a stand up fight as a plate-armed knights. The idea is to not let it be a stand-up fight.. outflank, throw stuff, play dishonourably that's the unarmoured mans way.
But how did your players get the money to start with plate though? Shouldn't you have them in ringmail and then they can work from there? (oh, is it because you're converting existing characters?).

3) Magnitude... was a bit confused on this reading the rules. At times it sounded like a spell level - at other times a stat you could throw magic points at? (sorry if I'm being dense and ignoring a good description.

Magnitude reflects the "power" or "penetration" value of a spell. In common magic or divine magic it is a stale and non-dynamic indicator, depending on either the level power you know the spell at or your tie to your god. In sorcery however, the system of flexibility, it is indeed something you can manipulate with the spell you are currently casting. This way you can choose either to cast a spell with great range, great number of targets, great magnitude, long duration or a combination of any of these.

 

[Asyme]

Thanks! Looking forwards to using it (and the cheap sale on rpg drivethrough has really helped )

1) By wiggle room I simply meant I've found our present system (which is a total hodgepodge of things and with its own set of problems) has made opposing skill tests very easy for me to calculate in my head and adjust on the fly. I could envisage a few 'but we rolled the same amount?' cries and people being confused that two low tests feels the same as two high tests (e.g. a success is a success - in my present system if I succeed with a low skill its not the same as succeeding with a high skill - as I roll more dice and add successes. Minor thing but more wiggle room.)

2) Ah cool - one of the things I found odd was a lot of NPCs in some books seemed to have very very high skill sets (e.g. hunters with bows of 90% or town guards with similar sword skills). In my game the warrior types are definitely 'very good'. We use a rough scale for fighting/marksmanship from 1-6 (with 7-10 being effectively superhuman). Our marksman has a 5. Most humans have 2. In runequest then I'm a little uncertain what he'd be at - I'd classify him as Olympic level but my game brain says 'oh... maybe something like 85%?' while normal folk would have skills of maybe 20% - with possibly trained grunts at about 30-40. This could be very wrong

3) Makes sense! In my game divine and spirit magic are the main two options available (there's only minor hedge magic instead of common magic and know one knows if it really works). Sorcery actually fits neatly into a dead mathematical feeling tradition lost eons ago that only survives in the hands of a few evil people and on odd bronze plates with squares that hints at 4th dimensional speech and comprehension. Also allows me to add it in slowly

4) And last query for now - divine magic - it sounds quite fire and forget. E.g. pray for a spell that you've sacrificed power for - and in return get an ability. Can you get multiple versions of such a spell from a cult/temple? E.g. a few heals or so on? I suspect our group healer will be keen to know this....

(oh and really nice eberron conversion btw - one of the first guides I saw )

Thanks again!

 

[Loz]

1) By wiggle room I simply meant I've found our present system (which is a total hodgepodge of things and with its own set of problems) has made opposing skill tests very easy for me to calculate in my head and adjust on the fly. I could envisage a few 'but we rolled the same amount?' cries and people being confused that two low tests feels the same as two high tests (e.g. a success is a success - in my present system if I succeed with a low skill its not the same as succeeding with a high skill - as I roll more dice and add successes. Minor thing but more wiggle room.)

Your target number is your skill %. A higher skill yields a higher chance of success and a higher chance of a critical. Where opposed skills are concerned, you have to get used to the 'blackjack' method: roll under skill but higher in your range than your opponent (but a critical trumps a standard success). Don't forget too, that various situational modifiers may increase or reduce your success chance.

2) Ah cool - one of the things I found odd was a lot of NPCs in some books seemed to have very very high skill sets (e.g. hunters with bows of 90% or town guards with similar sword skills). In my game the warrior types are definitely 'very good'. We use a rough scale for fighting/marksmanship from 1-6 (with 7-10 being effectively superhuman). Our marksman has a 5. Most humans have 2. In runequest then I'm a little uncertain what he'd be at - I'd classify him as Olympic level but my game brain says 'oh... maybe something like 85%?' while normal folk would have skills of maybe 20% - with possibly trained grunts at about 30-40. This could be very wrong

Remember that all skills begin with two characteristics added together (or one, doubled). This represents your character's starting, basic training. So a character average across the board is looking at a starting skill of about 22%. Someone with a few years training is going to be in the 50-60% range and those with years of competence around 70-80%. You also need to think about scaling skills of NPCs to those of PCs so things remain a challenge.

4) And last query for now - divine magic - it sounds quite fire and forget. E.g. pray for a spell that you've sacrificed power for - and in return get an ability. Can you get multiple versions of such a spell from a cult/temple? E.g. a few heals or so on? I suspect our group healer will be keen to know this....

Yes you can have multiple versions of the same spell. But its a mistake to think of divine spells are simply fire and forget. You're channelling the power of your god and so each spell is a temporary tap into that god's power. The magnitude of the spell's effect is based on your Pact too, and the more pious you are, and the more you've enhanced your relationship with the god, the more potent your divine magic will naturally be.

 

[Mixster]

2) I'm running a system where magic is rare and am a bit worried the non plate wearers are going to get slaughtered without the damage reduction of armour - but without higher damage said platies will be yawning.

Also, to this, while armour is good, even guys in heavy armour can be tripped, impaled and disarmed leaving them virtually helpless if facing multiple opponents.

One guy with 2 CA in Plate Armour is pretty screwed if he's fighting 4 naked guys of about equal skill. If he doesn't parry they will quickly disarm him, trip him, and impale him, and while they may not deal a lot of damage to him, he can only attack back with his fists from a prone position at almost all times.

 

[PhilHibbs]

It takes some time before you get a skill past 100%, and when you do it takes forever to get it higher.

Not entirely. Even with just common magic, you can be rolling skills of 130% as a starting character (e.g. 70% Influence skill, Thunder's Voice 3, and Fate 3). Or, trainee priest of the right cult can cast Blessing for +25% skill, which I think stacks with Fate but not a direct skill boosting spell. A beginning Knight of Volanc (sorcery order in Cults of Glorantha) can get his Bow skill up to 120% with Accurate Missile, and then stack Fate on top of that, and I think Blessing would also work as it's on the character and not the weapon, so that's 145% if you have a mixed sorcery & divine using party. Add an Intensity 2 spirit for another +20%... but that's getting a bit silly (and spirit bonuses bay be incompatible with Blessing).

But, the OP said that magic is rare in his setting, so he won't have to worry about this.

 

[Dan True]

It takes some time before you get a skill past 100%, and when you do it takes forever to get it higher.

Not entirely. Even with just common magic, you can be rolling skills of 130% as a starting character (e.g. 70% Influence skill, Thunder's Voice 3, and Fate 3). Or, trainee priest of the right cult can cast Blessing for +25% skill, which I think stacks with Fate but not a direct skill boosting spell. A beginning Knight of Volanc (sorcery order in Cults of Glorantha) can get his Bow skill up to 120% with Accurate Missile, and then stack Fate on top of that, and I think Blessing would also work as it's on the character and not the weapon, so that's 145% if you have a mixed sorcery & divine using party. Add an Intensity 2 spirit for another +20%... but that's getting a bit silly (and spirit bonuses bay be incompatible with Blessing).

But, the OP said that magic is rare in his setting, so he won't have to worry about this.

Well, I was speaking in non-magic skill values. He seemed concerned that many skill would quickly get well beyond 100% and I assumed he meant in raw skill.

- Dan

 

[Asyme]

Sorry - meant to reply earlier but have been internet-less for a few weeks with a house move (curse them... curse those wacky providers....)

Thanks for the advice all - much appreciated. I've had more of a chance to look at the rules and a few variants (such as the tekumel adaption which is close to what I was going for with my world's religions where most magic is controlled by the temples) and think I'll be able to simply have common magic as something initiates learn, with divine magic being the more powerful temple secrets that get taught as you delve into the church heirarchy and sub cults the players might get involved in. So effectively magic is off limits until the player chooses to become an initiate in the ritual branch of their church, and chooses to specialize in arcane stuff.

Last question - how do folk find spirit magic sits with divine magic? One of my player's is lovely - but tends to struggle with more abstract spells - her magic would tend to be spirit based - but I worry that telling her she has a certain power death spirit will just confuse her and have her going 'er... I get it to.... kill someone? I guess?' as opposed to a spell list.

 

[Mankcam]

I'm not sure if I saw a response to your Wealth mechanic query in all the posts, so I apologise if someone has already touched on this.

BRP rules have an optional Status skill that gives you a percentile range based on social class (eg: Destitute 10%, Poor 30%, Commoner 55% etc etc).

In my BRP fantasy setting my players make a Status % roll for day to day costs (lodgings, food, etc), although any large sums of money/trade items they come across is considered to be 'Additional Funds' and it is with this that they purchase noteworthy items such as weapons and armour. You could easily incorperate something like this with MRQ/LEGEND rules.

I have only just purchased AGE OF TREASON, but I am impressed with many of the rules tweaks in that setting, and I think the SOC attribute looks interesting - personally I think if you have that book then I'ld look at porting over the SOC attribute into your LEGEND game, just for consistency and also because it looks like it'll do the job pretty good.

 

[Asyme]

Cheers again - looked at that earlier today - and it's a pretty good approximation for what I'm trying to achieve with my group (at the minute one of them is a merchant noble who owns the tower they stay in and tends to be lavish with his cash - this goes down via staunch middle class to a barge gypsy who's about as working class and poor as they come). Social is a nice way of showing that, with special items (as you say) being for extra things