Talk:Mano a Mano
Contents
- 1 Always on Top
- 2 Discussion
- 2.1 No Hit Point System
- 2.2 Seperate Optional Rules Section
- 2.3 Mounted Combat
- 2.4 Template CP for unbalanced bonuses
- 2.5 Special Armor Bonuses
- 2.6 Disabilities & Using Abilities During Combat
- 2.7 Team CP
- 2.8 Fix Cross-References
- 2.9 New Structure for Linear Reading
- 2.10 Things BFGalbraith noticed
- 2.11 Boiler Plate for MaM "Design"
Always on Top
These important notes should stay at the top of the page
Titles on Mano a Mano pages
DON'T put chapter titles (== Chapter Title ==) on chapter pages (Introduction, Rolling Dice,Characters, Abilities, Equipment or Action Rules.) If you visit a chapter from the ToC the extra title is redundant. The chapter titles are built into the Complete System page (which is printing-oriented and does not need edit links.)
DO put section titles (=== Section Title ===) on pages that contain sections of a chapter. They are redundant if you visit the individual page, but you will usually see these pages as part of a chapter page, and being able to click on the title allows you to edit the section.
Discussion
No Hit Point System
Proposed Replacement for the Hit Point System
A character can move and attack only on their turn unless they are interfering with another character's actions (with a counterattack for example) or actively coordinating with team members ("fighting in formation" for example.) A character can move and attack on any turn to interfere with any character's actions. Characters coordinating with team members can attack and move on one team member's turn. Characters can only attack and move on one turn per round, so after interfering or a coordinated maneuver (except on their own turn) the character can do nothing on their next turn and cannot interfere or fight in formation until after that turn.
Instead of a single action (such as an attack), a character can do multiple actions (such as multiple attacks) in a single turn. This is called a combo.
Combo penalty is the order of the action in the combo: -2 for the 2nd action, -3 for the 3rd, -4 for the 4th and so on. The first action does not have a combo penalty. If the action is a hand to hand attack, subtract the combo penalty from the attack's damage. If the action is a missile weapon attack, subtract the combo penalty from the attack roll.
- Ironically we don't need a combo penalty if we have a strict combo limit. -BFGalbraith
- We may need it even if the system is technically playable without it. The combo penalty gives characters fighting large and heavily armored opponents a reason not to use a flurry of jabs. The combo penalty and passive defense action are the only reasons not to use all of your attacks every turn, and I think thats narratively sound: "I'm going to stop wasting my effort planning these long combos and focus on the one or two moves that will have an effect" and "He's attacking less often because he's catching his breath." -TheSerpentLord
- This has me wondering if allowing characters to combine moves (spin + attack, leap + attack, charge + attack, wind-up + attack) for a greater power modifiers would be easier to use then accumulating negetive combat bonuses. -BFGalbraith
Speed is the maximum number of times an action can be used in a combo. The total number of actions in a combo may not exceed the lowest speed of any action used in the combo. The speed of most actions is based on the character's agility (often added to an ability modifier) or 1, whichever is greater. The speed of an attack is the the weapon's combat modifier or 1, whichever is greater, plus 1 if the character attacks with more than one weapon in the same combo.
Encumbrance decreases your movement and the speed of ALL your actions, but never decreases speed to less than 1.
Strength makes you more powerful and maneuverable relative to your size. Your strength modifier can be added to the damage of each hand to hand attack, or divided between the attack's damage and success roll.
- Calling maneuverability-bonus "strength" was quaint back when Strength was used for movement (through hit points.) Now I wonder if something like "energy" would be more appropriate (though that would easily be confused with "stamina.") -BFGalbraith
- Another problem: "Strength" and "Stamina" are both abilities and combat statistics. That's not inherently wrong, (ability modifiers can be used in combat) but combat statistics can have horrible names like "maximum damage penalty" if we can't think of anything better. Abilities are supposed to have better names. So for the combat statistic, we could consider all kinds of names: "combat points", "action points" or "hand to hand points", "maneuverability", "maneuvering points" or "hand to hand maneuvering points". This would also allow us to use a more complicated formula to find these points. -TheSerpentLord
- IMHO "energy" and "toughness" would be far easier to understand than "Strength" and "Stamina" - especially since in this context those St words are bringing in a lot of baggage with them from other RPG systems - and hence may need to be distinct abilities of their own separate from the context we are currently using them in this no-HP system so far. -BFGalbraith
- Energy and toughness are good. (No ambiguity, but I don't see much ambiguity between Strength and Stamina either.) Energy is a better combat stat than an ability name. Toughness would require a review of the weapon breaking system (which doesn't get used anyway.) In physics, energy is "the ability to do work" which is a similar idea, although movement and speed can be seen as other kinds of energy. -TheSerpentLord
- Now that you mention it, toughness is one of those things that takes up space on the character sheet, complicates the weapons creating/breaking rules, and never gets used - a walking-talking bad example of complexity. -BFGalbraith
Passive defense is an action that increases your defense roll when you are attacked but do not counterattack. In a combo, passive defense is always the first action. Passive defense remains in effect until the next time you act (or are incapacitated or choose to do nothing on your turn.) When you are attacked but do not counterattack, if passive defense is in effect, add your strength to your defense roll.
- Passive defense is a bonus for when you don't actively counter attack. I would call the act that adds to passive defense "maintaining a defense." This helps explain why it has to be done on the first action of your turn, because in order to have the bonus it must be "maintained" through out the entire round, including at the beginning of this turn. The character doesn't have to move per say in order to "maintain a defense" (but it's better role-playing if he does,) for using energy to keep the character's guard up is one way of "maintaining a defense." We may find it easier to assume that characters "maintain a defense" by default, and that instead we could give them a bonus for doing an "all out attack" that sacrifices their passive defense in favor of more offensive bonuses. -BFGalbraith
Damage penalty = (lasting damage + stun damage) / stamina unless the character has no stamina. A character with no stamina is incapacitated by any lasting damage or stun damage. Damage penalty is subtracted from movement and the damage of your hand to hand attacks.
Maximum damage penalty = 4 + health (ability modifier) - sickly (disability modifier). If a character's damage penalty is greater than their maximum damage penalty, they are incapacitated. (Notice that stamina is more valuable than health in combat, but health also determines things like whether you get sick or tired outside of combat.)
- I would call "sickly" instead "frail." Also, as with Intelligence (ie "Ignorance") it's not necessary to have two player-adjustable attributes on the character. It's highly redundant to control a bonus with two different abilities. What we want is some static default (more than +4 if that's not enough) minus "sickly" (what I would call "frail.") (I suppose this implies that we shouldn't have Running + Lame, but remember Lame effects more than Running.) - BFGalbraith
- I think we should move in the opposite direction: get rid of the (ackwardly named) disability and just say maximum damage penalty is health ability modifier. Teaching players how to generate good characters is better than rigging the system ackwardly to manipulate players into generating good characters on accident. A good character will need health and strength/energy. -TheSerpentLord
- There is an important reason to have this based on a constant rather than an ability: we have no real feel for how much damage it is going to take to stop a character. We could get into the thick of this and realize that most/all characters need to die at a -2 or -3 damage modifier level, in which case an ability isn't appropriate. (Remember, toughness/stamina already influences longevity.)
Movement is the number of meters a character can move during a round, (Multiply by 30 to get meters per minute and by 1.8 to get kilometers per hour.) You can sprint twice as fast, but you take 1 point of stun damage each turn you sprint. You have a -2 modifier against hand to hand attacks for letting your guard down while sprinting. A character can move before and after each attack or counterattack, but they must be in a position where they can attack their opponent to begin the attack.
- On the ground, 'movement = 1 + running (ability modifier) - lame (disability modifier) - damage penalty. If your movement is 0 or less, look up the distance you can move on the following table:
| Movement | Distance you can move per round | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 50 cm or a full one meter space every other round | ||
| -1 | 25 cm or a full one meter space every four rounds | ||
| -2 | 10 cm or a full one meter space every ten rounds | ||
| -3 or less | you cannot move (i.e 1 + 0 Running - 4 Lame) |
- In water, movement = swimming (ability modifier) - damage penalty. If movement is 0 or less, you can't move horizontally.
- In the air, movement = flying (ability modifier) - damage penalty. If movement is 0 or less you can't fly.
- While climbing, movement = (climbing (ability modifier) - damage penalty) / 2. If movement is 0 or less you can't climb.
No HP Character Sheet
| | | Damage | | | Lasting Damage | Stun Damage | Penalty | Movement | |__________________________|___________________________|__________|__________| Name _________________________ Age ______ Sex ______Template _________________ Occupation(s) ____________________________________________ Template CP (_____) Length/Height ________ Reach _____ Max Damage Penalty ____ Ability CP (_____) Mass _______ Agility ___ Power ___ Absorption ___ Other CP (_____) Total Equipment Mass ______ Encumbrance ____ Total CP (_____) ABILITIES/disabilities Mod Lvl (CP) Mod Lvl (CP) _______________________ ___ ___ (____) _______________________ ___ ___ (____) _______________________ ___ ___ (____) _______________________ ___ ___ (____) _______________________ ___ ___ (____) _______________________ ___ ___ (____) _______________________ ___ ___ (____) _______________________ ___ ___ (____) _______________________ ___ ___ (____) _______________________ ___ ___ (____) _______________________ ___ ___ (____) _______________________ ___ ___ (____) _______________________ ___ ___ (____) _______________________ ___ ___ (____) _______________________ ___ ___ (____) _______________________ ___ ___ (____) EQUIPMENT (name / special modifiers) Qty Mass Tgh Abs Cvr Cmb Spd Pwr Shp Rch _____________________________________ ___ ____ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ _____________________________________ ___ ____ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ _____________________________________ ___ ____ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ _____________________________________ ___ ____ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ _____________________________________ ___ ____ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ _____________________________________ ___ ____ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ _____________________________________ ___ ____ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ _____________________________________ ___ ____ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ _____________________________________ ___ ____ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ _____________________________________ ___ ____ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
Complexity
Any new version of Mano a Mano has to be simpler and easier to use than the last (ease of use being the aim of simplicity,) or there isn't much point in doing a new version. (Even if there are massive feature enhancements, if the system actually gets harder to use, that's a big step backwards as far as MaM actually getting used is concerned.)
For example, right now it's very tempting to divide the "damage penalty" box on the character sheet below into two sections: damage & combo. Damage would be for lasting + stun / stamina, and Combo would be the number of moves you have done since the beginning of your last turn. However, notice that our old/current hit point system would actually be simpler than this, especially when you consider the other no-hit point rules above. Another examples are adding additional pools for tracking current movement limit and/or passive defense.
(There are still alternative variations of the old/current hit point to be tried, like a version that does not have size influence combat rolls for example. Many of the ideas here could be used for another variation of the current system, such as maximum-combo-lengths based on combat bonus for example.)
The "Level Theory"
Every character could be reduced to one stat: Level. Any combat advantage the character had - armor, weapons, training, experience, advanced personal attributes, etc. could simply add to Level. When characters fight each other, they do a level vs. level roll, and the loser takes the success of the roll in damage. Damage temporary lowers the Dameged Character's Level until the damage character is healed. This is the simplest possible RPG system that resembles Mano a Mano.
Every new version of Mano a Mano is either getting closer to the "bull's eye of ultimate simplicity" that is this "Level" system, OR it is moving side-ways in it's complexity (or going backwards into greater complexity) instead of actually becoming simpler. It is my guess that Mano a Mano is close to as simple as it can be, and it will not be trivial to even maintain our current level of simplicity as we change the way the system works.
- I have removed some details from the no HP system in the hope that simplicity will make it more useable. The "level system" only resembles MaM if you put aside the elements Mano a Mano has in common with traditional RPGs, like abilities. In a similar sense the simplest possible white person is a freckle with a red hair sticking out of it :-) The purpose of simplicity is to ease development, the learning curve and useability to make the game more fun. The HP system detracts from fun by emphasizing game mechanics over narrative. Removing the influence of size on combat rolls (agility) would not make the HP system more useable, but reducing the difference in Agility (-4 to +4 instead of -7 to +7 for example) would make our system closer to the balance of d20, which might affect the fun factor. -TheSerpentLord
Optional Rules for the No HP System
- You may perform your combo actions in any order. For example you can apply the -3 combo penalty to your first attack and the -1 combo penalty to your third attack.
- Actions consume movement. Your total distance moved plus the number of actions in your combo (so far) may not exceed your movement. This means moving can prevent you from doing a combo and a combo can limit your movement.
Hack and Slash Real-Time Role-Playing System (Hack and Slash RPS)
This set of variations is intended for "button-mashing" computer and video games where each individual action is affected by input. The normal Mano a Mano rules may be more suited for a real-time strategy or role-playing game.
There are no turns or rounds, except when the words "turn" and "round" refer to a 2 second time period. Characters act at the exact moment when they decide to act (or as soon as it is physically possible.) Things that take place "on the same turn" become simultaneous or sequential but within a two second period or overlap in time.
Each action has a time until it takes effect (effect time) and time until the next action can begin (duration). The minimum duration of an action is two divided by the action's speed. Duration is not always the same as the length of the animation representing the action. You may be able to jump into another action before the follow-through part of the animation is finished, or you may return to standing or moving animation for a moment before you can do the next action.
There are no combos. Instead of a combo penalty, actions with a shorter duration have a penalty equal to 2 divided by the duration of the action (i.e. the minimum speed required for that duration.) The numbers should still be in the same ballpark as the turn-based system.
Actions that overlap in time can interfere with each other in spite of not being exactly simultaneous. Actions can only interfere with each other from the time they begin until their effect time. For two opposing actions, the window begins with whichever action begins second and ends with whichever effect time comes first (which may be either of them because the later action may have a quicker effect time.)
Should actions interfere with each other when the second action begins, when the first effect time comes up, or some time in-between? The first effect time seems best. At this time one action is at the most "interactive" part of it's animation, and the other is halfway there. So the success roll between two opposing actions happens when an action's effect time comes up after an opposing action begins but before the opposing action's effect time.
- maybe each character has one chance to interfere with each action of every other character. Interfering can happen when you start an interfering action before the action being interrupted takes effect, or when you complete an interfering action before the action being interrupted takes effect. (in other words actions interrupt each other mutually.)
- instead maybe each action has one chance to interrupt each action, so if you do faster actions you may get two chances to interrupt an opponents slower action. This would be more different from the turn-based system and we would need to pay attention to balance.
Seperate Optional Rules Section
I am thinking that "optional rules" should have their/its own section at the end of MaM. This way it will be easy to grasp the basic system without having to consider possible optional rules. Also, advanced players interested in optional rules will be able to find them without having to sift through the entire system.
- Keeping optional rules close to default rules makes it easy to update optional rules when default rules change. It reduces the amount of cross-referencing needed. It encourages a selective approach to optional rules. It also makes optional rules easier to use so we can have a range of options from simple to advanced rather than hiding them away for advanced users only. This also means our default rules can be very basic, because popular but not essential rules are right where they need to be.
- But we do want the basic system to be easy to grasp without having to consider possible optional rules, and less importantly, it is nice if advanced players can find optional rules quickly. Visually seperating optional rules from default rules without removing them from the context allows the reader to decide how much attention they want to give to optional rules. It also makes them easy for advanced readers to spot. Also if the optional rules are seperate wiki pages, we can easily create an appendix summarizing the optional rules if we want. Here is just one example of how they could be visually separated:
|
Optional Rule Mounted Combat
|
- I must admit I'm much more concerned that the extra rules will add to the learning curve, than I am about some need of an advanced player. (Of course specific pritings can include and exclude whatever rules they like under the liscense.) For the purposes of this site, this suggested option might be best.--BFGalbraith 2005.12.07
Template CP for unbalanced bonuses
We could use a formula something like this:
Agility + Absorption + Power + bonus based on the level of (Agility + Power) + bonus based on the level of (Agility + Absorption) ---------------------------------------------------- Agi + Abs + Pow + f1(Agi+Pow) + f2(Agi+Abs)
The first three lines give us our current CP scale (+1 per size level). The next two lines add points if power or absorption are higher than agility, or if agility is higher than Power or Absorption, based on formulas f1 and f2.
If f1 and f2 are the 2 and 3 times the geometric CP scale (f2 is higher because absorption is almost always helpful and power only helps certain types of attack), then each point of power or absorption greater than -1 times agility adds 2,6,12,20,42... or 3,9,18,30,63... CP. On the other hand, if power and absorption are the same, each point of agility greater than -1 times power or absorption adds 5,15,30,50,105... CP. (In other words Agility is like 5 abilities)
--SerpLord 02:27, 1 April 2006 (CEST)
Special Armor Bonuses
Weapons have special bonuses based on their design. Some help you parry, others are used for grappling, and some help you hit by reaching around defenses. Armor can also be designed to have special advantages and we can reflect this with similar special bonuses:
- Padded and ablative armor (bicycle helmet) absorb more blunt trauma, explosions, etc.
- Tough, flexible armor (leather, chainmail) resists cutting (including some stabbing weapons)
- Hard/smooth/angled/springy/stretchy armor deflects peircing attacks
The ideal armor would combine kevlar (springy/stretchy/smooth with ablative padding) and chainmail (tough against cutting.) This would be reflected as a very high absorption bonus. This composite of clay and metal would be ultra-heavy, so in practise some types of armor are more specialized:
- ("Blu") extra absorption against Blunt/Bludgeoning weapons - padding, clay, foam
- ("Cut") extra absorption against Cutting (not impaling) weapons - chainmail, leather
- ("Imp") extra absorption against Impaling weapons - lamellar? kevlar (no clay backing)
- ("B/C") extra absorption against Blunt and Cutting weapons
- ("B/I") extra absorption against Blunt and Impaling weapons - kevlar (with backing)
- ("C/I") extra absorption against Cutting and Impaling weapons
Weapons with low sharpness are usually blunt/bludgeoning weapons. Weapons with high sharpness are usually cutting weapons - even if they are mainly used for stabbing. To qualify as an impaling weapon, the weapon must be specially designed with a long narrow tip. Natural weapons are often impaling weapons so they can penetrate vital organs even through bone.
(Note: if you use kevlar without the backing it still gives you an absorption bonus against impaling weapons - including bullets - but you don't get the regular absorption bonus, so it's only going to deflect the lightest grazing hits.)
Disabilities & Using Abilities During Combat
Seriously guys. Don't allow players to take disabilities for negative CP. In fact make them pay double CP for disabilities if they want to be crippled and lame and blind and deaf and missing pretty much all their limbs and sensory organs because thats pretty much what they want anyway. Players who take disabilities can bite me.
Its pretty much an established fact that lawyers can just like see waves of sound bouncing off of your face. But at what cost? What cost indeed. If you use an ability to compensate for a disability it should require the minimum effort of 1 hitpoint per round. For example -- a blind person may use a cane to collect sensory data.
At times a GM might ask players to perform an ability check during a round of combat. My opinion is that players should not add their ability bonus to the check unless they specifically have established that they are using the ability. If the check is called before the player's turn and the player stated the use of the ability before the beginning of combat. The player would be allowed to add their ability bonus. If the check is called after the player's turn then the player would not be allowed to add their ability bonus the unless they specifically spent at least 1 hit point to use the ability.
--ulrich 11:00, 2005 Jul 2 (CEST)
- LOL! - A blind person might also use a cane to fight evil - which will take more than 1 hit point per round :-). Seriously, placing limits on disabilities is essential to good gaming. A good rule would be that a character should not have more than one disability unless (A) she has a sucking character template (and then those should be her only disabilities) or (B) GM's permission (or allowed by the specific game.) Another good rule (especially if you have lots of small quirky disadvantages in the game) is to allow no more than 10 (or fewer) points of disadvantages. (This is one of those optional rules so important it should not just be in an appendix.)
- I'm not sure I understand everything you are trying to say about ability checks, but we do need a rule for arbitrary actions during combat, to avoid the whole "while I fight these guys, I'm searching for traps, and burying bodies" problem.--SerpLord 15:17, 8 December 2005 (CET)
Team CP
Several characters with negative CP could beat a single character with positive CP. We may need to distinguish between an individual's CP total and the CP he adds to a team.
Individual CP Team CP -20 or less 1 -19 to -13 2 -12 to -7 3 -6 to -2 4 -1 to 2 5 3 to 5 6 6 to 7 7 8 or more same
- Q: We can do individual character CP without including weapon CP, but can we do team CP without including weapon CP? --BFGalbraith 2005.03.28.12
Fix Cross-References
Cross references like "(See Abilities/Skills.)" need to be hyperlinked to appropriate sections. Other text can also be hyperlinked. The only cross references that should be in (See ...) format are ones that are more helpful than distracting when you read the printed rules.
New Structure for Linear Reading
Areas that (probably) need attention:
- front and back covers, title page.
- how to create a book version
- floating tables (messy when opened in OpenOffice.org)
- (See Chapter/Section.) references
- Complete System
- Game Design
- Adventures (basic definition of an Adventure/Scenario/Campaign/Sourcebook and what goes in it.)
- Supplies (paper, pencil, hex mats, blank forms for templates, occupations, ability and equipment lists)
- Templates
- (emphasize designing templates)
- Make a Template (follow the template structure and order more closely: dimensions, abilities, armor, limbs, weapons, CP)
- Occupations
- Requirements (abilities, training, social class, etc.)
- Perquisites (equipment, income, social status, etc.)
- other limitations (minimum/maximum number of occupations, starting occupations) part of Requirements?
- Abilities
- Availability (some abilities are limited to certain templates)
- Equipment (explain how to design equipment - this is not about CP!)
- Character Creation
- placement of missing limbs information and CP
- placement of build information and CP
- Occupations?
- Character Equipment
- Make a Character - Character Generation Example (review for consistency)
- Character Development
- Developing Abilities through Training and Experience
- Changing Occupations
- Inventory Management or Acquiring and Losing Equipment (see Character Equipment)
- Making Equipment
- Equipment CP (see Armor and Weapon CP in the Template CP rules)
- Make an Item - Equipment Generation Example
Things BFGalbraith noticed
When I was working on the How-To-Play adventure for www.SquawkRPG.net , I found that following things probably need to be included in Mano a Mano IMHO:
Rules for varying Height and Reach for individual characters (perhaps something as simple as +1 or -1 CP for an extra 1/2 meter, with no such option for zero-reach characters?)
- Character templates have minimum and maximum heights, if you are outside that range, the template does not describe you. A full 50cm reach difference seems like it would also mean you are mutated beyond your template. We should consider (at least for future editions of MaM) templates that don't allow build variation (mecha) and and templates that allow extraordinary variation (mutants.)
- If we look at a sufficiently large template (an 18 meter giant for example) a 0.5 meter reach difference is only like a 5 cm difference for a human. 1 CP per 0.5 m might work. We can set the minimum for all templates at 0 (could reflect disability or damage) but how do we set maximums? The easiest solution is to only allow it if the GM approves and/or assume that templates reflect the upper limit of the race's reach. The complicated solution is to add a new number to the template (especially complicated because now templates present options with multiple CP values instead of a fixed package of features.) --SerpLord 14:38, 11 September 2006 (PDT)
An explaination of "Kick" (from what I understand it's supposed to be like "pull" but you spend the hit points after firing the weapon instead of before...)
- your guess is as good as mine :-) --SerpLord 14:38, 11 September 2006 (PDT)
An example of how to calculate the CP of the max range of a weapon (so a decent archery example... the correct answer is "you DON'T caculate CP of the max range of a weapon," but an example of how to caculate max range is needed.) In other words, we need a clear example of pull.
- The reach of a ranged weapon is it's effective range. The CP of reach is 1 CP for each 0.5 m, or 2 CP/m According to Wikipedia, an AK-47 has an effective range of 300-450 m. Depending on whether you take the high or low estimate, that's 600-900 CP. (Imagine that we are fighting on an open plain and you have an AK-47 and I have a knife. I can move a few meters every time you get a shot off, so you'll get a dozen chances to shoot me before I reach you. It's potentially like a guy with a knife fighting 20 guys with spears.)
- One nice thing about MaM is that it has been created by people who have really shot bows bows and firearms, have had their arms twisted into submission, been choked out, knocked out, slowly beaten down, been cut by knives, have done full-contact stick fighting, etc. :) I think you are forgetting "kick" in the above CP formula. Kick is Pull for fire arms, and the difference is that you spend the hit points as you pull the trigger, instead of before you pull the trigger. Body-power subtracts from kick before you spend the HP (parrelled to how it effects pull.) So for a 400 meter range weapon, with a kick of 4, the actual "reach" listed on the character sheet would be 100, and the total range would be 400m (4HPx100m.) In that case the reach of the AK would be worth 50 CP, and that would be about right IMHO. (And THAT's why we need an example of Kick in the rules.) -BFGalbraith, Sept. 12, 2006
- The relationship between pull and range is complex, but here's a rough formula: 120 m + (20 m for each +1 pull), but no less than 20m. --SerpLord 14:38, 11 September 2006 (PDT)
I couldn't find any equipment mass calculation rules (they were probably removed when we were attempting "fuzzy size",) which is pretty important in the case of generating Armor.
Armor is way more important (players expect characters to be slowed down by heavy armor.) There are 3 main factors involved in Armor: Cover, Absorption, and Toughness. I would think that for primitive technologies, the mass of this would be something like "(Cover + Absorption + Toughness) times 20% of Carying Capacity = armor mass," and that for advanced technologies it might be something like "(Cover + Absorption + Toughness) times 10% of Carying Capacity = armor mass."
- Here's an empirical approach: For midieval armor divide the mass by the cover bonus and get a "mass per Cvr" value. Then we can divide that by the weight of a large man (100 kg) and get an estimate of the weight per cover for any species (based on that species' upper weight limit.) Modern high-tech armor may be 1% better, and some vital areas of the body require less material to cover and still give a +1 bonus. (For example a titanium chest plate that covers my heart could have +1 cover and +5 absorption, but only weigh 2 or 3 kg.)
Armor Type mass/Cvr Abs Tgh Padded 1% /Cvr 1 2 Leather 2% /Cvr 2 3 Scale 4% /Cvr 3 3 Chainmail 3% /Cvr 3 3 Brigandine 5% /Cvr 4 3 Lamellar 4% /Cvr 4 4 Plate 5% /Cvr 5 4
- The "ideal" formula for the armor's mass is the wearer's mass times the cover and absorption of the armor, divided by 100. Padded, Leather, Chainmail, Lamellar and Plate approach this ideal. Scale and Brigandine are a little less efficient, but they are inexpensive and just as useful in many situations. Toughness is more an economics issue (how much do I want to invest in this much armor?) --SerpLord 14:38, 11 September 2006 (PDT)
We might not want hard and fast rules for weapons, but we might give a "general guidline" of five levels less than it's power bonus.
- If the weapon is mace-like (maximum power, minimum mass) then it could be a whole size level lighter. If the weapon is fist-like (minimum power, maximum mass) it could be a size level heavier. In other words a 1 kg mace has at least as much impact as a 3 kg sword. There is also variation within families of weapons. A sword with a +3 power bonus is not balanced the same as a sword with a +2 power bonus. --SerpLord 14:38, 11 September 2006 (PDT)
Boiler Plate for MaM "Design"
Some adventures are a sequence of challenges like an obstacle course. However, players often want to be able to try anything they want with their characters, so an engaging environment for the characters to freely adventure in - letting the story develop naturally - is usually better than forcing players to follow a story line.
For example, if the PCs are likely to end up fighting in a village market, the GM should have a village market combat map prepared. (Instead, the GM may choose to have a blank sheet of Hex Paper, and use "pieces" to show where various Village Market obstacles are on the hex paper.) The more specific the location, the more important it is for the GM to have a specific map prepared. The GM may also have a selection of general terrain maps, for conflicts that take place in general types of areas, instead of taking place in very specific locations.
You will need one piece for every important character in the game. You will also need a piece for every significant object in the game, which is not already part of a combat map. (By significant object, I mean any visible object that the players are likely to interact with. For example, if there is a discarded spear the players are supposed to find out in the open, it would be best to have a piece for that spear, if it is not part of a map.)
After studying this tutorial, these should be all the reference materials the GM and players need to play the game. Some of the pages can help players create their PCs, others are designed only for the GM's use.
