edsan
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
MUTANT LORD
Posts: 309
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Post by edsan on Mar 1, 2009 21:59:21 GMT -6
This is where I shall be posting the house rules we will be using on the game. Besides this everything will be by-the-book 1975 EPT.
I'm writing this in no particular order so expect it to be edited to oblivion as time goes on.
SHIELDS There are 3 kinds of shields available:
Normal - Improve AC by 1.
Buckler - Improve AC by 1 against one attack per round only. Small and light enough to allow something else to be carried in the off-hand.
Large - Improve AC by 2. This is a military-grade piece of armor comparable to those big-ass shields used by the Roman legions or the ancient Irish. Heavy, cumbersome (don't try climbing with it) and tends grab others attention as you are effectively carrying a legless coffee table around.
Shields Shall be Broken We will be using the rule from Fight On! #2 that allows a shield to fully absorb the damage from a blow if it gets destroyed. This will happen automatically when a PC suffers enough damage to be put out of a fight, either dead or unconscious, unless the character is unaware of the attack.
This rule only works when facing human-sized enemies in personal combat and to negate certain magical attacks, so don't expect to be able to sacrifice your shield to withstand being hit by a battering ram. ;D
WEAPON SKILLS Fighters and Adventurers get Weapon Skills. Any character with a weapon skill is at +1 to hit when using that weapon.
Every weapon skill also has a percentage chance associated with it. This is rolled to see if a PC can pull off any weapon stunts (i.e. cutting someone's belt off with harming them) and also represent the character's familiarity with the weapon.
So a fighter could use his [Sword] skill to appraise the quality of the blades at the local shop or determine the weapon of the assassin he just slew is of foreign make.
SORCERY SKILL Every magic-using character has this skill with the value determined by his level and modified by Psychic Ability.
This skill represents the character's ability to let loose a spell in stressful conditions such as combat. Failing a Sorcery roll means the PC needs more time to cast the spell and can try again next round, the spell-slot is never lost.
Outside combat and not subject to pressure the Sorcery skill need not be used to cast spells and these are assumed to work automatically.
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edsan
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
MUTANT LORD
Posts: 309
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Post by edsan on Mar 1, 2009 23:17:53 GMT -6
LANGUAGES AND LITERACY
All characters begin the game illiterate, speaking their native language and with a smattering of Tsolyani that will vary according to their INT.
Priests are automatically literate in their native language and every language they select with their Professional Skills.
Adventurers are automatically literate in every language they obtain with their Professional Skills.
Several Original Skills (Groups I-III) also grant literacy, like Scribe-Accountant, Author or Interpreter.
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edsan
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
MUTANT LORD
Posts: 309
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Post by edsan on Mar 2, 2009 0:39:28 GMT -6
HIT POINTS, INJURY AND HEALING
Starting Hit Points PCs (and only PCs) begin with a number of HPs equal to a roll of their Hit Dice plus eight.
Unconsciousness Any character down to 2 or less HP automatically goes down unconscious.
Zero Hit Points At exactly 0 Hit Points the PC is in a stable coma and will heal naturally over time if left unhurt. Bellow this (-1 and less) but before dying a character will not begin to heal naturally until receiving some form of medical aid, magical or otherwise.
Death Death comes at negative 3 HP minus one per character level (so -4 for first level PCs).
Depending on the type of injury, total negative hit points and Referee's fiat a character who was killed very recently might be brought back to life with the spedious application of magical healing.
Characters "brought back" this way will loose Basic Talents points.
Natural Healing One point per cycle of rest (one night or equivalent). Having someone with medicine skills automatically increases the rate of healing.
Binding Wounds Any character, even without a healing skill can bind the wounds of another outside of combat as long as this is done before an hour has elapsed since dmagaed was taken. The "binded" PC recovers 1d4 Hit Points.
If a character is alone or otherwise has no one avaiable to bind his wounds he may attempt this proceadure as self-healing with a 50% chance of sucess.
Binding wounds cannot be used to recover HP lost outside of combat or to poison, falls, acids, burning, etc.
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edsan
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
MUTANT LORD
Posts: 309
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Post by edsan on Mar 2, 2009 1:51:37 GMT -6
IDEA, KNOWLEDGE and LUCKDo you like Call of Cthulhu? So do I! These 3 derived percentiles were adapted from that game and here's what they do. LuckJust what it says. Used in situations where pure dumb luck out-weights all other factors to see if fate favors you. Based of Comeliness because as we all know beautiful people tend to be lucky bastards in life. KnowledgeCalculated from a character's Age and INT it represents the chance of a PC knowing some fact does does not fall under any skills he possesses. The 3 different values are Easy/Normal/Hard knowledge rolls. The more exotic the fact (from the character's perspective) the harder the roll. IdeaBased on INT. Used to see if the character thinks, remembers or deduces something that the player didn't when there is very good reason for it. A method of helping lessen the gap that might exist between the setting-knowledge of the Referee and the players.
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edsan
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
MUTANT LORD
Posts: 309
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Post by edsan on Mar 2, 2009 2:18:57 GMT -6
PERCEPTION and SEX APPEAL
Two more percentiles similar those above.
Sex Appeal The chance someone of the appropriate sexual inclination finds the PC pleasing to the eye. Does not mean the NPC is attracted by character, just that the possibility is there.
The base value represents the chance of that for someone adhering to the cultural standards of beauty of the character. When dealing with foreigners this roll may vary.
Why have such a roll? Because in every game I have run someone eventually tries to "be nice" to a NPC to get their way. Enough said.
Perception Obvious enough. This roll does not substitute what a player says his character his doing in terms of investigation and searching, but it may reveal something "glinting in the corner" or reveal someone is creeping on the PC with a naked dagger ready to strike.
In general, the more broad the description of the character's perceptive action, i.e. "I search the room" as opposed to "I look under the bed and check all the drawers in the cabinet being on the lookout for secret compartments", the greater the chance the referee will decide if something hidden will be found only with a successful Perception check.
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edsan
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
MUTANT LORD
Posts: 309
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Post by edsan on Mar 3, 2009 19:02:02 GMT -6
COMBAT MANEUVERSAdapted from my memories of several games of different editions of D&D during the years, here's the list of typical combat maneuvers and their modifiers. Defensive CombatMelee only. Increases AC by 2 while penalizing the attack roll by -4. Full DefenseNo offensive action during entire combat round. AC increases by 4 against all attacks suffered. ChargingMelee only. Only possible if there is sufficient space to run and gain momentum on a straight line rush. +2 to attack roll but decreases the PC's AC by 2 against attacks from that enemy. Berserk Attack / Full AttackMelee only. Ignore self-protection and just ram it in! +2 to attack roll, AC worsens by 4 against all attacks suffered by the character that round. Can be combined with a charge. Called ShotsMissile only. Targets a specific area of the target. Does not do any more damage than the normal attack but might have secondary effects. Typical modifier is -4 on the attack roll. Attacking from the backMelee only. This dishonorable but effective tactic provides a +4 bonus on the attack roll.
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edsan
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
MUTANT LORD
Posts: 309
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Post by edsan on Mar 4, 2009 12:51:48 GMT -6
EXPERIENCE
Killing Stuff... - 50 xp per Hit Die of a defeated/slain foe plus more depending on its special abilities (poison, etc). Awarded individually to the PC that delivers the killing blow.
...and taking their shinnies - 1 Gold Kaitar = 1 XP. However the PCs will only gain XP from money they "waste" away and do not spend in equipment or to maintain themselves. This represents funds spent carousing, training, donating to your temple, paying "inducements" to important and influential people, etc.
Adventure resolution - Successful completion of an adventure nets the party an XP bonus based on the difficulty of the challenges faced.
Ideas & Roleplaying - Last but no least, on an individual basis the PCs are awarded XP for things such as good and entertaining roleplaying, bright ideas, saving the rest of the party, heroism, etc. This bonus is set at 1/20th of the experience required to reach the next level.
There is no limit to the number of times you can get this bonus during adventures. If you roleplay the seducing of the governor's daughter to prevent your friends from behind executed you would get it twice (for roleplay and saving everyone's bacon)
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edsan
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
MUTANT LORD
Posts: 309
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Post by edsan on Mar 5, 2009 16:15:24 GMT -6
HELMETS & HELMS
The standard suits of armor do not come with helmets, they should be bought separately. If a character wears armor, but no head cover, his AC worsens by one.
Great helms Unlike a normal helmet a great helm covers the entire head including the face and provides greater protection at the expense of comfort, visibility and audition. More expensive varieties with hinged face-plates are also available. By their very nature great helms must be made-to-order or custom-fitted to the individual.
In game terms a Great Helm improves armor class by one (-1 AC). Like large shield, great helms are considered military-grade equipment.
Effect of Helms in Unarmored Characters A character wearing only head gear still benefits from some protection, namely -1 AC for an helmet and -2 AC for a great helm. This can be combined with the bonus from a shield, so that a character in loincloth wearing a great helm and a shield would benefit from a total AC improvement of 3 points.
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edsan
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
MUTANT LORD
Posts: 309
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Post by edsan on Mar 7, 2009 8:03:03 GMT -6
METAL
All metal weapons are at +1 to hit.
All metal armor grants -1 to AC
None of these bonuses are magical, they represent the superiority of metal when compared to chlen-hide. Any enchantments a metal weapon or armor might have add to this.
Tekumel folk lore tells of several creatures and monsters that can only be hurt by metal weapons, the same way a D&D peasant might know the legends about silver and werewolves or garlic and vampires.
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edsan
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
MUTANT LORD
Posts: 309
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Post by edsan on Mar 9, 2009 17:29:42 GMT -6
NEW CLASS: SHOOTER
Ok, I should probably have mentioned this before the game began but I forgot I had created this optional character class for my old tabletop game.
Shooter is the title given for a warrior who specializes in missile weapons rather than melee ones. It works in all aspects a the Fighter class with two exceptions:
- The Professional Skill list is altered so that the shooter gets access to all missile weapons before melee ones.
- The shooter adds his Damage Bonus to attacks done with missile weapons but not those of melee weapons. (No other class adds DB to missile attacks).
- A shooter can always begin the game with the Group II Original Skill: Fletcher, even if his skill determination roll would not allow him to have it. He must spend one of his Group I skill slots to obtain it however.
- The Basic Talent that grants Experience Bonuses to shooters is DEX.
Professionally, shooters could be legion archers, hunter or some variation thereof.
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edsan
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
MUTANT LORD
Posts: 309
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Post by edsan on Mar 9, 2009 17:34:19 GMT -6
Fighting from the 2nd Rank
Taking a hint from OD&D here, certain weapons allow a character to fight enemies from the second rank of a formation. These incudes Pikes, Poleaxes and Halberds.
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Post by spudcld on Mar 11, 2009 11:10:18 GMT -6
I'd like to propose a house rule. I have never liked the killing shot gets the XP motherload rule. Can we do a whoever hit the beast shares in the XP kind of thing? What do the rest of you folks think?
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Post by trineshhissanmarin on Mar 11, 2009 11:20:21 GMT -6
I agree with spudcld. There are some large /very large creatures and/or beings that we will encounter and have to kill at some point that will require several of us beating on them to kill. Proportional xp for proportional damage works for me. That way the fighter who does 95% of the damage get xp when the sorceror daggers the silly beast and kills it instead of it all going to the sorceror and the sorceror who dinks it gets some xp when the fighter dismembers it. Up to the Omnipotent GM of course , but that is my 2 qirgals.
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Post by makofan on Mar 11, 2009 11:48:39 GMT -6
I have no beef with current system. I figure we should run it by edsan's rules for at least an adventure and see where it leads us before we change it.
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Post by spudcld on Mar 11, 2009 11:54:14 GMT -6
Well, my proposal was mostly to Edsan, since he is the GM. But we're all in it. I like proportional, but I'm a math nut and some just aren't. ;D I just felt that Teregash did his bit and got injured to boot, and didn't gain any XP from it. That just doesn't sit right by me as a player. I just wanted to discuss it. Edsan has the deciding vote.
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edsan
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
MUTANT LORD
Posts: 309
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Post by edsan on Mar 11, 2009 11:57:02 GMT -6
Up to the Omnipotent GM of course , but that is my 2 qirgals. His Supreme Omnipotence shifts in the the magnificent Jade-encrusted throne so he can get a better look at the supplicants bellow him. "We are gladdened to see plebes pay proper homage to their betters and are confident an agreement might be met...providing the necessary inducements are paid...of course" If everyone agrees or doesn't care either way on this issue I will glad to chance the XP gained from defeating foes and begin dividing it among the characters that actually did damage / aided effectively in the defeat.
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Post by spudcld on Mar 11, 2009 12:01:12 GMT -6
I'm glad you included "aided effectively". Sometimes you don't even cause a point of damage but provide something that gives the win. That should always be recognized. I hope the others agree. Where'd you get the great picture of a Salarvyani NobleWoman? ? (Sorry, couldn't help meself...)
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Post by trineshhissanmarin on Mar 11, 2009 12:40:43 GMT -6
I agree with spudcld about the "aided effectively" part; not the insult to the Great, Mighty, All-Wise, Compassionate, Omnipotent GM, who graced we lowly ones with a visual representation of His Magnificence that we of slight understanding might appreciate. ;D
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suushih
Level 3 Conjurer
Do?olnar Pretast?ta
Posts: 51
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Post by suushih on Mar 11, 2009 13:01:04 GMT -6
Recent research in self determination theory suggests that there are four characteristics that need to be present to maximize motivation for any activity.
1) Choice to engage 2) Connects you to others 3) Can see progress - You get better 4) Expectation fulfillment - What you work hard to make happen actually does.
Where any of these do not hit the mark, motivation is reduced.
This is my way of saying "Yes" I agree. In this medium in particular, attending to these four characteristics is critical. However that is done, I'm kewl with. Having a situation where the fighters zoom forward while priests and mages are left behind misses that though. I trust our GM to make this work.
FWIW ... the last time I played EPT, I used a spell Hands of Kra to crush the beast. There are spells that I believe our GM will introduce that will level the playing field between the different character classes.
*snapping of fingers*
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Post by spudcld on Mar 11, 2009 13:39:32 GMT -6
I agree with spudcld about the "aided effectively" part; not the insult to the Great, Mighty, All-Wise, Compassionate, Omnipotent GM, who graced we lowly ones with a visual representation of His Magnificence that we of slight understanding might appreciate. ;D Of course I wasn't drawing any comparisons!!!
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edsan
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
MUTANT LORD
Posts: 309
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Post by edsan on Mar 11, 2009 16:19:28 GMT -6
FWIW ... the last time I played EPT, I used a spell Hands of Kra to crush the beast. There are spells that I believe our GM will introduce that will level the playing field between the different character classes. *snapping of fingers* Boy! You had Hands of Kra the Mighty at 1st level in EPT?!
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suushih
Level 3 Conjurer
Do?olnar Pretast?ta
Posts: 51
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Post by suushih on Mar 11, 2009 16:27:41 GMT -6
In S&G, you could get the initial Kra at the beginning. It got more powerful as you went up level.
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Post by spudcld on Mar 11, 2009 16:39:36 GMT -6
I thought it was a Group Spell in S&G..... But my memory is going.... quickly.
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edsan
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
MUTANT LORD
Posts: 309
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Post by edsan on Mar 11, 2009 16:45:45 GMT -6
I've just checked S&G and it says its a Generic spell; so know to several temples.
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Post by spudcld on Mar 11, 2009 17:02:31 GMT -6
Woops. That's what I meant. Generic. See, I told you my memory was going! Sheesh.. Group? Where did I get that
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Post by trineshhissanmarin on Mar 11, 2009 18:02:49 GMT -6
IIRC, you could get the G1 Hands of Kra the Mighty at 2nd or 3rd level, but it would only do mansized beings.
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suushih
Level 3 Conjurer
Do?olnar Pretast?ta
Posts: 51
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Post by suushih on Mar 11, 2009 18:29:07 GMT -6
I honestly can't remember if we started as first level. It was almost 30 years ago. The GM allowed the Kra to work. Perhaps it was only a portion of the dlaqo. With the damage it had already sustained, it killed it spectacularly.
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edsan
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
MUTANT LORD
Posts: 309
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Post by edsan on Mar 11, 2009 19:50:46 GMT -6
The GM allowed the Kra to work. Ahh...the joys of old-school gaming! ;D Speaking of spells by the way, if I want to adapt Generic/Temple ones to EPT should I use the ones from Swords & Glory or Gardasiyal? Is there any considerable difference between the two systems, spell-wise?
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suushih
Level 3 Conjurer
Do?olnar Pretast?ta
Posts: 51
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Post by suushih on Mar 11, 2009 20:43:30 GMT -6
IMO, S&G has the greatest depth and provides the best Tekumel "feel". As I understand it, it's what MARB uses. I have the others packed away. Actually, moving as I am, everything is now packed away. Life is becoming strange!
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Post by trineshhissanmarin on Mar 11, 2009 21:10:12 GMT -6
S&G has more spell sub levels than Gardasiyal. , i.e., Healing is a Temple spell for Thumis and in S&G has, IIRC, 8 sublevels while in Gardaisayl it only has 5-6. Gardaisayal is easier on the eye (larger font, better paper). Either is better than Tekumel:EPT which is limited in spell selection and is harder to work with.
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