RuneQuest/Mythras General /rqg/

>ut they typically have earned that level of play through years of a campaign and by that time your character shouldn’t be fighting humans.

Why not? We're taking this system as a general fantasy system, and my question for those is always quiet simple: can it run Conan? Which I think is a fair question. Conan is a highly skilled fighter who is never completely untouchable when it comes to groups of human combatants.

Nobody is completely untouchable in Mythras because of the action point economy. The high-skill character will be able to flawlessly parry any attack coming at him, but can only parry so many attacks in a round. If there are more incoming attacks than he has parries he will die quickly regardless of skill.

Not to mention he's totally boned if he misses his parry (5% chance) or one of those enemies gets a critical hit on him. The system works great for Conan.

I'm starting up a mythras game, user.

Really should get some more attention.

The game actually elegantly solves this problem.

First, the way it works is that when someone has a skill value of over 100, they subtract the difference of their skill (or some rounded value, to simply it) from both skills. That way it's still possible to mess up.

Someone with a skill in excess of 100% should be considered a relative paragon of their craft. It takes a similarly skilled person, serious misfortune, or some clever use of external variables (multiple combatants, a change in tactics, imposing difficulty on the person somehow, etc).

Furthering on what user said, there is an economy of action that makes fighting combatants an extremely dangerous proposition. Also, combat is quite gritty and ruthless, it's perfect for conan.

A conan character might have a fighting skill well above 100, and, consequently frequently whoop the ass of the various mooks, facing real challenge against beasts, skilled antagonists, and sorcerers.

It's PERFECT for low fantasy.

Did you just not read the rest of the post?

Anyways it does Conan perfectly, you can even make players have to make offerings to recharge magical energy if you want. The game is not only an excellent game, but curves to any level of fantasy well (high fantasy/magic would mean more luck points).

Can I use this thread to ask a few questions about the system?

1) Regarding charge.

How would a charge action work? So, the player charging is using his entire turn to move and the next turn would resolve as a charge, right?

So basically you really only would start the charge if you had enough distance, right? How much distance do you abstract for it to be possible.

Let's say two players are far enough away that they have time to charge toward one another, how would that action resolve. Would you let both players roll an attack and give them the opportunity to parry with their shield or what? I'd probably let whoever has won initiative roll their attack first, obviously. But then would the opponent (who also charged) also get a chance to roll an attack with the same stipulations of a charge attack?

2) Shields

How do you handle passive blocking. So if a shield blocks 4 locations, I'm guessing one location should be the arm that's carrying the shield, should the other locations make sense (e.g. be attached?) So, for instance, the person might choose to keep the shield low, blocking his legs, but leaving his abdomen and chest exposed (hopefully he's wearing armor)?

3) Press advantage seems incredibly powerful as a combat effect. So, say each fighter has 3 action points. The first fighter attacks and rolls a success, the second fighter rolls to parry and fails. The fighter chooses "press advantage". Does this mean that for the remaining 2 action points the defending fighter can spend, he must spend them acting only acting defensively? The ability reads "for the next turn the opponent can only defend". Does that mean in addition to the remaining 2 action points, the entire next turn (of 3 action points) the opponent can do nothing but defend?

Last couple:

4) Action points are awesome and undeniably what makes this system so interesting (and combat, for that matter). The only issue I have with them is that they are so incredibly important. Arguably the most important secondary characteristic. A character with 3 action points, regardless of combat skill, strength, weapon, etc. has a MASSIVE advantage in the form of what is likely a free hit (with no consequences, because a protagonist fumble vs antagonist failure is no effect).

Any thought to letting people react but at a huge disadvantage? Like, they can parry but it's formidable or herculean? I'm guessing this is where luck points (which ought to be named Hero Points lol come in, I guess).

5) You round up, correct? I'm pretty sure you round up when calculating your critical range. It's true of other things right? (Such as when calculating initiative bonus)

Charge/Movement

Movement begins at the start of the action and ends at the beginning of the next turn - so is you move 6m as an action you are considered anywhere on that path until your next turn (really only effects ranged attacks). This is an answer I got on the forums.

A charge is not a well defined, but you dump your points and cover the distance in the amount of rounds it takes to cover the distance running (I forget how fast that is). So at the end of the distance you stop and make your attack which can be parried but the attack is considered one size larger making parry very difficult. It does, however, mean there is a chance an opponent and see and brace for the attack on their initiative if you don’t reach them by then.

If it’s two creatures charging at each other, the first to start charging is the first to attack and the other can parry/dodge. Then the second creature attacks if the attack is still valid (i.e. they are alive and didn’t dodge).

Make sense?

Shields

As I understand the areas protected should make sense and be attached to each other, so arm + chest + head + torso or arms + chest + torso or arm + chest + torso + leg. This is only important for PASSIVE parties, an active parry can shield anything and that decision gets made after seeing the attack roll.

Press advantage only works until the start of the creature using the action’s next turn.

Yeah that makes sense. I'm guessing if the creature chooses to parry the charge with the weapon, he wouldn't get the benefit of the charge on his attack (so he'd have to parry with his shield at the same time as his weapon crashes down on his foe.

Actually makes total sense and is how we playtested it.

Cool. This makes sense. And, yes, i get that this only applies to passive blocking/warding with the shield (Which highlights how incredibly useful large shields can be).

Got it, the way I'd rule it is that it would force the next action point spent by the defender to be used in a defensive manner (attempting to change range, preparing a counter, or perhaps readying a parry).

These are all really helpful, user. The system is really intuitive, I mostly wanted to make sure I was doing it right.

Actions Points

This is the most important attribute in combat, but isn’t important for most spellcasters. Most spells are cast after all actions are used in a turn, so you would be just wasting that much more.

Other than that, luck points and a huge shield can cover the lost points in melee and you could just avoid melee as another option. A character with a huge weapon needs the three action points for survival.

Always round up.

Sorry for responding individually, but my phone makes this really hard.

Again, thanks user! This all makes perfect sense.

Intuitive is the best rule of thumb.