Possible S&P Article?

J

JohnLokiBeard

Mongoose
Or of course could just be answered here.

I'd be interested to read something by the designers and playtesters explaining why certain decisions about the system were made [ :) I hasten to add that I'm just being inquisitive, not saying " :x JUSTIFY THE STUFF I DON'T LIKE, YOU FOOL! :x " :) ].

Specific questions I've got: Why...

...nerf damage from criticals, so that a single dagger critical to the head isn't even life-threatening?

...lower APs for weapons, so that parrying is such a poorer option than dodging [which seems to contradict what's been said about combat being inspired by lightsaber duels...]?

...have Average Human stats [the rating which all other creature values are presumably figured relative to] still a mixture of 10s and 13s rather than benchmarking them all at the same number [whether that be 10, 13 or 15]?

...use Opposed Rolls and the Halving Rule, rather than Opposed Results [like combat]?
 
I feel a "Designers Notes" page at the end of a book is always an interesting read :)

MGP have put such things into S&P in the past, so lets hope they do so again.
 
I'll answer what I can :)

JohnLokiBeard said:
...nerf damage from criticals, so that a single dagger critical to the head isn't even life-threatening?

...lower APs for weapons, so that parrying is such a poorer option than dodging [which seems to contradict what's been said about combat being inspired by lightsaber duels...]?
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This was all basically done to slightly increase the survival rate of players, thus encouraging long-term play. YMMV, of course. However, it is very, very easy to change this balance, as we will prove in the next S&P with OGL weapons tables, that you can just slot into your game. Want limbs and heads bouncing around the place in combat? Simply use the Gritty Realism tables. . .

The point of the article, of course, is that via Open Content, you can scale RQ to whatever style of play you wish.

JohnLokiBeard said:
...have Average Human stats [the rating which all other creature values are presumably figured relative to] still a mixture of 10s and 13s rather than benchmarking them all at the same number [whether that be 10, 13 or 15]?

...use Opposed Rolls and the Halving Rule, rather than Opposed Results [like combat]?
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Because stats are absolute, not relative within certain perspectives. In other words, you cannot have a Size 3 human, because people are just not built that small. Thus, you need a fixed range.

As for the halving business, we wanted to keep things easy without any powerful maths being brought to the fore (a philosophy that runs throughout the game). Yes, we know everyone who plays can do basic maths and above - but they don't _want_ to, even while playing.

So, it was done for simplicity.

That said, enough noise has been made that we have looked at other mechanics, and we will be presenting another option in Legendary Heroes - your choice as to which you use or, indeed, whether you want to use one of the variants that will be presented by another publisher as Open Content, from what I have been hearing. . .
 
msprange said:
one of the variants that will be presented by another publisher as Open Content, from what I have been hearing. . .
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Wow, yer all up in that developers list, eh? :)
 
That said, enough noise has been made that we have looked at other mechanics, and we will be presenting another option in Legendary Heroes - your choice as to which you use or, indeed, whether you want to use one of the variants that will be presented by another publisher as Open Content, from what I have been hearing. . .
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A fine place for it.I posted when the whole halving thing got started that I was thinking there would be another option in the high level book. Not a bad idea. It's good to see that the opinions here matter as well!
 
Thanks Matt, curiosity satisfied! :D

As you've said many times, Official Rules are really just the starting point: homebrewing is actually a really fun part of the hobby! I don't think it's likely I'll ever buy a set of rules and not tinker with them.
Maybe it's an age thing, maybe it's just a control issue - I don't like the bloke in the chipshop to put the salt & vinegar on for me either. :D
 
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