Setting Help

[Dr. Halflight]

I know the rules are not widely available yet, but what I've seen of the previews has inspired me to work on a setting. And I need some general feedback on an idea for a Swashbuckling Science Fantasy environment.

I want guns (& possibly ray guns) to be available. I know I can simply scale these weapons within the range of the other weapons available. But I've had a shadow of an idea for awhile. I was thinking of letting any PC that wanted it to easily take the Rune of Melee. This rune grants its bearer protection from personal ranged weapons (the bearer only takes the minimum damage from the weapon if they are hit), as long as they never use a weapon at range. If they brake this, the rune dissapears forever and they always take max damage from any personal ranged weapons.

This might be a silly or goofy idea. The Rune would be set aside for PC's & prominent NPC's. It basically says, no matter how good of a marksman you are, you better use a melee weapon some. Which does limit concept.

BTW, my inspiration for the type of feel I want to capture is John Carter of Mars (ok, ok, and Thundarr the Barbarian & Masters of the Universe).

I don't mind alternative ideas.

Thanks,

Doc.

PS-I don't want alternative systems to run this in, I'm sure someone thinks another game would work better, but I like what I've seen of MRQ & this is their forum after all. No offense meant.

 

[atgxtg]

I think you might want to wait for the other magic systems to come out. From what I've seen so far, you concept sounds less like MRQ RUne Magic, and more like some sort of enchanment. Something like an RQ3 Damage Resistance or Protection or Shield Spell, but limited to ranged attacks, and one that is destroyed if the prohibtion is broken.

I suggest getting rid of the "always takes max damage from ranged weapons" part of the ability. In D&D that's a penalty. In RQ, you might as well cut through the red tape and just have the character drop dead on the spot, as the penalty is a death senstence.

I think the loss of the ability and having ranged weapons do normal damage is probably sufficient enough. Especially as the ability is most likely going to be lost in the middle of a firefight anyway. Chances are out hero is going to get shot up pretty bad with a round or two of losing this power. I'd even leave the door open for restoring the ability by some means. It would be good for dramtic purposes, and does make the player just throw away his character if he is forced to break the rule (to save the Beatiful Space Princess).