All right, I'm a believer.

[Bob Richter]

At first I didn't think I was going to like tRoS. The biggest issue was that it uses d10s. Now, normally, I hate d10s and the feeling is mutual, but it turns out that when I use LARGE NUMBERS of d10s, that's not so much of a problem.

So with that obstacle out of the way, I was instantly captivated by the combat system. It was more or less exactly what I'd been looking for from an FRPG: It had a lot in common with Shadowrun (which I adore,) while having more advanced rules for melee combat, and reflected injury in a very realistic manner.

And then the setting and Spiritual Attributes got me. I've had character concepts swimming in my head all week, and I'm just starting to get them out on to paper. The really sad thing is that it's diverting me from something really important I'm supposed to be doing.

So I'm addicted to character creation.

So what?

:)

Actually, I'm not too keen on Weyth. In many ways it really bothers me -- the astronomical nonsense of Weyrth's moons and its two now-gone extra suns, the excessive parallels (right down to using the actual names of real-world peoples) with Earth, and my inability to locate some of my characters within Weyrth's prevailing philosophical frameworks.

But, then again, it's not a BAD world, and I've finally found a game system where I can do things like use a Rapier in combat without the general sense of weapon-envy that usually inspires and play a man who will never drown because he was born to hang. (Destiny: To die by Hanging.)

We've already played once, and it was fun. I hope to do it again soon. I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with this.

But I have a question: It mentions I can double up on skill packets, but it doesn't say how to deal with overlapping skills. How DO I deal with it when both of my skill packets have Hunting -1 and Sneak +1?

Eh. Let me show you what I'm talking about. This is Mallory, she's a naked Pictish Archer, but I wasn't able to figure out what some of her skill TNs were. I put question marks wherever there was something I wasn't sure of, but feel free to wreck my character however you like...:) I also noticed that Wrestling doesn't have a default section...

Mallory (5-28-2002)

Race: Human
Region: Picti (+1 AG, +1 WT, +1 Soc, -1 TO, -1 ST, -1d6 ht.)
Social Class: Low Freeman
Sex: Female
Sexual Preference: Male
Height: 59" (4'11")
Weight: 80 lb.
Hair: Dark
Eyes: Bright Blue
Skin: (Pale) White

Attributes:

 Physical:
   ST: 5
   AG: 8
   TO: 4
   EN: 3
   HT: 3

 Mental:
   WP: 3
   WT: 7
   MA: 4
   Soc: 5
   Per: 6

 Plot:
   Passion (love for her brother) 1
   Passion (love for her father) 1
   Drive (to defend her homeland) 2
   Conscience (do the right thing) 1
   Luck: 2

 Derived:
   Reflex: 7
   Aim: 7
   Knockdown: 6
   Knockout: 5
   Move: 8

Skills: 9/9

 Warrior
   Battle 9
   Hunting 8?
   First Aid 8
   Etiquette (Clan?) 8
   Sneak 10?
   Leadership 10
   Intimidate 9
   Gambling 10
   Boating 8

 Woodsman
   Hunting 8?
   Tracking 10
   Survival 9
   Scrounging 9
   Animal Guise 9
   Herbalist 10
   Orienteering 8
   Sneak 10?
   Camoflage 9
   Climbing 10
   Swimming 8
 
 purchased:
   Acrobatics 8
   Dancing 8

Proficiencies:
 Longbow 9
 Wrestling 2
 Dagger (Default) 1

Gift: Beauty of Legends (Major)
Flaw: Rage (Minor)

Possessions:
 Weapons
   Longbow
   48 Arrows
   Shortsword
 
 Coinage
   Stahlnish (Heavy)
     2 Marks
     20 Funts
     28 Pfennings
   Farrenshire (Imperial)
     2 Crowns
     20 Shillings
     54 Pennies
 Other:
   9 sets of avg. freeman clothing
   Boots
   Cloak
   Silver arm-bands
   Elaborate broach
   Elaborate earrings
 
Commentary:
As beautiful as she is deadly -- and no slouch at either mark -- Mallory is a devoted defender of her homeland. Her weapon of choice is the Pictish Longbow -- though her stature requires that she hold it at an angle when she uses it. She wears traditional pictish battle dress -- war paint -- when in battle (and is therefore not shy concerning her body,) with predictable results. She carries a Short Sword for close defense and is somewhat proficient in its use. She has a father and brother whom she loves dearly, but her mother died giving birth to her.


Eh. I'm rambling. Did I mention I had something really important I was supposed to be doing? I think I'll go do that now.

[Lance D. Allen]

For your skills, I'm pretty sure that if you take away the question marks, you've got it right. Sneak at +1 on both packets will result in you having 1 sneak skill at +1. On the other hand, if you had skill packets where it was sneak +1/sneak -1, It would cancel out to simply being the base level of skill. Also, the larger of two bonuses/penalties would prevail, methinks. A -1 and a -2 on the same skill would end up as a simply -2.

[Jake Norwood]

I can help here. Take the best of the two and drop it by one anytime skills overlap.

And yes, that's from the new printing. Sorry.

Jake

ps. Bob--you said you didn't think you'd like TROS. What caused you to buy it and where did you buy it? Oh, and of course I'm glad you like it.

[Bob Richter]

I can help here. Take the best of the two and drop it by one anytime skills overlap.

And yes, that's from the new printing. Sorry.

Jake

ps. Bob--you said you didn't think you'd like TROS. What caused you to buy it and where did you buy it? Oh, and of course I'm glad you like it.

Well, I didn't, actually. My buddy and occasional GM (that is Seneschal in the local jargon -- whatever) picked up a copy (or two) and talked me into playing a game.

Thanks. I thought it might be something like that, though I find it somewhat disappointing that a Hunting -1 and a Hunting -1 stack the same way as a Hunting -1 and a Hunting +137 (just to be extreme.)

Hm. That's almost as disturbing as weapons being unable to cause  wounds below a certain level in certain circumstances. Oh well. No such thing as a perfect system. No big deal.

[Jake Norwood]

Hm. That's almost as disturbing as weapons being unable to cause wounds below a certain level in certain circumstances. Oh well. No such thing as a perfect system. No big deal.

Sorry, but what are you referring to here?

Jake

[Bob Richter]

Hm. That's almost as disturbing as weapons being unable to cause wounds below a certain level in certain circumstances. Oh well. No such thing as a perfect system. No big deal.

Sorry, but what are you referring to here?

Jake

Eh. As I understand the system, If I have a strength of 6 and hit a guy with a two handed longsword (+2) and he has a TO of 6, it's actually impossible to deliver a 0, 1, or 2 level injury...we go straight to 3. That strikes me as unrealistic.

I dunno. Maybe I'm misreading it.

[Jake Norwood]

Ah, now I get it now. Yeah, it's true that occasionally that crops up (but wait! What if he's wearing armor!), but it isn't too common. To add to that, it would pretty difficult to actually only wound someone with a longsword at a lvl1 or lvl2 wound IRL if you were really going for them. That's the intention behind the weapons with higher damage codes (as opposed to weapons with lower ATNs). Sure, a weapon with a lower TN will get more success (meaning more damage), but a weapon with a higher damage rating is guaranteed to really wreak havoc if it hits. I realize that in real combat there were "little" wounds, but very rarely would you experience anything like a level 1 (or maybe) 2 wound when attacked with a serious weapon and a serious opponent. That's one of the main reasons that weapons have both an ATN and a DR, instead of just one or the other.

Jake

[Bob Richter]

Ah, now I get it now. Yeah, it's true that occasionally that crops up (but wait! What if he's wearing armor!), but it isn't too common. To add to that, it would pretty difficult to actually only wound someone with a longsword at a lvl1 or lvl2 wound IRL if you were really going for them. That's the intention behind the weapons with higher damage codes (as opposed to weapons with lower ATNs). Sure, a weapon with a lower TN will get more success (meaning more damage), but a weapon with a higher damage rating is guaranteed to really wreak havoc if it hits. I realize that in real combat there were "little" wounds, but very rarely would you experience anything like a level 1 (or maybe) 2 wound when attacked with a serious weapon and a serious opponent. That's one of the main reasons that weapons have both an ATN and a DR, instead of just one or the other.

Jake

It's actually not all that terribly difficult, IMO. It's mostly a matter of dodging. Maybe we need something to allow an agile opponent to
"roll with the blow" or something? I'll try to cook up a satisfying mechanic.

Just so you know -- I'm the most critical guy in the world. I doubt ifI will ever be truly satisfied with anything. That being as it is, I'm very impressed by the system. It's good -- if a litte rough.

I'll try to mix in sufficient quantities of praise with my inevitable clambourings for change, just so you don't forget that I'm enamoured with the system. :)

[Brian Leybourne]

Thanks. I thought it might be something like that, though I find it somewhat disappointing that a Hunting -1 and a Hunting -1 stack the same way as a Hunting -1 and a Hunting +137 (just to be extreme.)

Couldn't disagree with you more.

The two skill packets represent two areas of training. If I spend half my life getting superior training in programming a PC (lets say computer -1) and the other half getting inferior training (computer +1 or even +137) shouldn't my overall skill be based on the superior training because I'll be all but ignoring the inferior training anyway, maybe picking up just a tidbit here and there.

Brian.

[Bob Richter]

Thanks. I thought it might be something like that, though I find it somewhat disappointing that a Hunting -1 and a Hunting -1 stack the same way as a Hunting -1 and a Hunting +137 (just to be extreme.)

Couldn't disagree with you more.

The two skill packets represent two areas of training. If I spend half my life getting superior training in programming a PC (lets say computer -1) and the other half getting inferior training (computer +1 or even +137) shouldn't my overall skill be based on the superior training because I'll be all but ignoring the inferior training anyway, maybe picking up just a tidbit here and there.

Brian.

Okay. But why wouldn't twice getting superior training be better than getting superior training once and inferior training once?

[Brian Leybourne]

The two skill packets represent two areas of training. If I spend half my life getting superior training in programming a PC (lets say computer -1) and the other half getting inferior training (computer +1 or even +137) shouldn't my overall skill be based on the superior training because I'll be all but ignoring the inferior training anyway, maybe picking up just a tidbit here and there.

Brian.

Okay. But why wouldn't twice getting superior training be better than getting superior training once and inferior training once?

Depends on how much the areas of training overlap, really. In Programming, both courses would probably cover much the same stuff. In hunting or tracking or whatever? Well, I don't know, but they;re very likely to teach much the same basic skills anyway.

I guess my answer is that you should have all the benefit of your best area of training (computer -1 in this case), plus a little bit extra that you probably picked up from the other course that the first might not have covered (thus one better). That could happen regardless of how good the other course was.

Brian.

[Bob Richter]

The two skill packets represent two areas of training. If I spend half my life getting superior training in programming a PC (lets say computer -1) and the other half getting inferior training (computer +1 or even +137) shouldn't my overall skill be based on the superior training because I'll be all but ignoring the inferior training anyway, maybe picking up just a tidbit here and there.

Brian.

Okay. But why wouldn't twice getting superior training be better than getting superior training once and inferior training once?

Depends on how much the areas of training overlap, really. In Programming, both courses would probably cover much the same stuff. In hunting or tracking or whatever? Well, I don't know, but they;re very likely to teach much the same basic skills anyway.

I guess my answer is that you should have all the benefit of your best area of training (computer -1 in this case), plus a little bit extra that you probably picked up from the other course that the first might not have covered (thus one better). That could happen regardless of how good the other course was.

Brian.

You've got a point. I might counter it by saying that a superior course has more tidbits TO glean the second time through,  but I get what you're saying. The mechanic works well enough.

[Bankuei]

Hey, I got to agree with Jake on the damage issue.  Although it's possible to drop a sledgehammer on your foot, and only be bruised, it's unlikely to happen if you get hit with one by someone trying to take you out.  Of course, if you do happen to only get bruised, I suppose that's where someone was spending Luck, right?

On note of the skills, we just play take the best of the two.  If you go for the same skill packet twice, just subtract 1 from every skill.  We don't do that if it just happens to be that two different packages support the same skill, tho.

Chris

[Atomic Requiem]

Although it's possible to drop a sledgehammer on your foot, and only be bruised, it's unlikely to happen if you get hit with one by someone trying to take you out

In other words, this represents the minimum raw damage a weapon can do. Getting stabbed will never result in a nick or a flesh wound in the given situation , you'll always get cut for at least a level 3 wound, or whatever.

*AT*

[Bob Richter]

Although it's possible to drop a sledgehammer on your foot, and only be bruised, it's unlikely to happen if you get hit with one by someone trying to take you out

In other words, this represents the minimum raw damage a weapon can do. Getting stabbed will never result in a nick or a flesh wound in the given situation , you'll always get cut for at least a level 3 wound, or whatever.

*AT*

But there is NEVER a minimum raw damage a weapon can do. Getting stabbed CAN result in a nick or a flesh wound, depending on the depth of the stab, and whether it penetrates or slides off. And depending on where it is, a stab isn't a stab. A stab that goes far enough left of center (without missing) is a shallow cut.

A Sledgehammer to the foot can fail to crush it, even if someone is TRYING to crush your foot with it. You move your foot, and it nicks it, or strikes it at a weird angle, and does less than really impressive damage (though it still hurts like a ...)