Strenght minimums?

[Janne Halmetoja]

As GURPS player I'm interested in to know is there strenght minimums for weapons or can child use poleaxe with same effectiness than Conan (excluding damage)? In my opinion this is problem in many game systems. I like the way, that damage is made by strenght not by weapon.

- Janne -

[Lyrax]

No strength minimums are really needed, in tRoS.  A person or character with a less than average strength will stay out of combat anyways.  Bows and crossbows are the only weapons, however, that have strength minimums.  As a GM, I might decree that all people shorter than, say, 4'6" would have to have weapons specially made that are short enough (unless the person is using a dagger or a shortsword, etc) for that person to use.  I have supervised my little brother (he's 9) with a waster (wooden sword), and the main reasons he can't wield it effectively are:

A) He's too short

B) He has no clue how to hold the thing and

C) He doesn't have enough interest in learning B).

[Lance D. Allen]

I think Lance has the right of it. Actual medieval weapons weren't nearly as heavy as we think them to be, and if well-balanced, even a child can use them. Size and skill would have more say in the overall use of the weapon, although strength would definitely play a part in how effective it's use would be.

One thing I've never seen though is a game which has accurate ways to define the attributes of children. The main reason is that, in most cases, children are not considered viable characters to play; which is probably why playing children is as popular as it is. People do like to test the break-points in a game.

[Janne Halmetoja]

I see your points. But you cannot assume that lower than average person will stay out of fight.
I have ran several fights with Combat Simulator and I must that combat system is really nice :). I ordered book today and I hope that I will get it in a couple of weeks. Too bad they didn't even know that book was out :(.

- Janne -

[Brian Leybourne]

I have ran several fights with Combat Simulator and I must that combat system is really nice :)

You know.. I never get sick of hearing that :-)

Err.. not because I'm claiming credit for the cool combat system or anything (that's all Jake), but just because it's nice to see people using the Combat Sim - I put a lot of work into that, good to know it wasn't for nothing.

Brian.

[Janne Halmetoja]

Err.. not because I'm claiming credit for the cool combat system or anything (that's all Jake), but just because it's nice to see people using the Combat Sim - I put a lot of work into that, good to know it wasn't for nothing.

Brian.

Yes, I know how much work programming takes. I'm programmer too :). Combat Simulator is very nice program and I have used it all day :). Gives me more insight for tRoS combat system than words.

There was some problems, though. If attributes are lowered by hits at the end of combat and you begin immediately new (with same characters) they are still lowered. Other thing was that if combat pools are 0 when combat is over and you begin new one (again with same characters), they are still 0 and you can't do nothing. Nothing too important, but still little annoying bugs :).

- Janne -

[Brian Leybourne]

There was some problems, though. If attributes are lowered by hits at the end of combat and you begin immediately new (with same characters) they are still lowered. Other thing was that if combat pools are 0 when combat is over and you begin new one (again with same characters), they are still 0 and you can't do nothing. Nothing too important, but still little annoying bugs :).

It's not a bug at all - it's just not possible. And I'll explain why. There are only two times I can reset the stats:

1) Immediately after a fighter dies.

This is no good, because after the fight, the player is going to want to check out where the stats etc were at the end of the combat, how each fighter fared, how almost dead the survivor was, etc. That just leaves...

2) When you click "fight" again.

This is also no good. What about if I want to use fighter X, but I want to see if he would fight better with a slightly higher strength, or I want to change his weapon, or I want to make any other kind of change just as a "what if". If the stats are reset when I click FIGHT, then that change will be lost and the figher will be reset to his saved stats. This means that every time I want to try a minor variation, I have to change a fighter, and save the changes. That would suck.

So, you tell me when the stats should be reset.. because those are the only two times I can see, and neither of them are satisfactory. It's really not that tricky to reload the fighters before you click FIGHT again...

Brian.

[Janne Halmetoja]

Maybe you should add reset button, which is actived after fight is over. If user wants to take battle with same characters he just clicks reset-button and stats are reseted to original values and battle can begin. If he wants to change stats he can click reset-button again and then edit stats and begin fight again. This reset-button should also refresh combat pools.
I don't know any better way because I don't have source code.

[Mokkurkalfe]

What should I do if there comes up a sign saying:
"Access violation at address 77F526AB in module ntdll.dll. Write of address 00403DB9"?

It comes up when I start the simulator.
Then, when I try to change any value or attribute a sign comes up saying
"Access violation at address XXXXXXXX(depending on what attribute) in module 'RiddleOfSteel.exe'. Read of address 00000000."

What's the problem here?

On the real topic.
Perhaps you can't use some weapons if you have the Little flaw?

[Janne Halmetoja]

I don't have the book yet, so that's why asked about strenght minimums. You can think that minimum strenght represents the size of weapon. If your strenght is lower than minimum strenght needed to that weapon, it is too big for you. That's the way how it's thought in GURPS.

- Janne -

[Lyrax]

I TROS, as a GM, I would rule that all children must take the "Little" flaw, and that all persons with the "Little" flaw would be unable to effectively wield most regular-sized weapons, especially pikes, doppelhanders, greatswords, longswords and warflails.

However, a child could use, say, a regular arming sword as a greatsword... but the stats would be that same as the regular arming sword, and no shield could be used (since it takes both hands to effectively wield the sword).  This would greatly limit the abilities of little people in battle unless they could make weapons specifically for themselves (like dwarves).

[Janne Halmetoja]

There is always many tastes and I like minimum strenghts. That's just me :).

[Mokkurkalfe]

There are some weapons I require ST 5 for, namely longbow, maul and warflail. Wether realistic or not, it reinforces the picture of these things as *massive* weapons.

[Brian Leybourne]

What should I do if there comes up a sign saying:
"Access violation at address 77F526AB in module ntdll.dll. Write of address 00403DB9"?

It comes up when I start the simulator.
Then, when I try to change any value or attribute a sign comes up saying
"Access violation at address XXXXXXXX(depending on what attribute) in module 'RiddleOfSteel.exe'. Read of address 00000000."

What's the problem here?

Hmm.. no idea. What version of windows are you running / service pack / etc? This is the first problem I have come across, so I'm pretty confident it's something odd with your system. If I had to guess, I would say you are using NT4 with a fairly old service pack...? Try updating your OS :-)

If it's not that, well.. could be anything to be honest. ntdll.dll isn't mine, and my combat sim doesn't call it, so it's something screwey in your system, I suspect. Try replacing that .dll file, maybe it's corrupt.

As for the access voilation when you try to edit attributes, sounds like you might have memory issues. To be honest, I'm not sure how much I can help you. As I said, I tested this software on 98,me,xp,nt4(SP6) and W2k(sp2) and it worked fine on all of them.

Brian.

[Janne Halmetoja]

What is the average attribute score in tRoS? Is it 4?

- Janne -