jagardner@watmath.UUCP (Jim Gardner) (04/19/85)
[...] Slight correction: In my recent review of the playtest version of Fantasy Hero from Hero Games, I claimed that anyone with magic ability could attempt to cast any magic spell. That was based on a fairly brief glimpse of the rules. Having now had a chance to read the rules more thoroughly, I find I was wrong. Anyone with magic ability can BUY the ability to cast any spell (using the standard "character building points"). You must buy the spell (at the time of character creation or later, with experience points) before you can cast it. Therefore, there is no such thing as a Level 9 spell that you cannot use at all until you reach a certain experience level; however, when you first build a magic-using character, there will be many spells he or she cannot cast, simply because you didn't have enough points to buy these spells. If anyone has more specific questions about this new game, mail to me. The game is scheduled to be unveiled at Origins this year, though Hero Games unfortunately have a terrible record with meeting deadlines (for example, Fantasy Hero was SUPPOSED to have come out at Christmas). On another topic, I'd like to ask for people's opinion on Critical Hits (if you play a role-playing game that makes use of the concept). Do Critical Hit systems speed combat or slow it down? We've only been using a critical hit system for a month or two in a SF campaign, and contrary to expectations, it has speeded our combat. Yes, you have to make an extra roll to find where someone has been hit, but very often it means that the players or their opponents go down a LOT faster and fighting ends much sooner. Have other people found this, or is it just the way we carry out melee? As a matter of fact, how DO other people conduct melee? Tight time limits on how long someone can think before acting? Fairly loose? Any gimmicks that make it faster or more interesting? One of the useful things about the Net is that you can find out about other people's _style_ of gaming. Almost all my role-playing has been with the same half dozen people here in Waterloo, and I'm eager to find out what others are up to. Jim Gardner, University of Waterloo
plutchak@uwmacc.UUCP (Joel Plutchak) (04/23/85)
In article <14018@watmath.UUCP> jagardner@watmath.UUCP (Jim Gardner) writes: > >As a matter of fact, how DO other people conduct melee? Tight time limits >on how long someone can think before acting? Fairly loose? Any gimmicks >that make it faster or more interesting? One of the useful things about >the Net is that you can find out about other people's _style_ of gaming. >Almost all my role-playing has been with the same half dozen people here >in Waterloo, and I'm eager to find out what others are up to. > > Jim Gardner, University of Waterloo I've used a more-or-less by the (TSR) book method, with the following exceptions: on a natural '20' to hit, the hitter rolled a d4, and if it came up a 1 or a 2, the damage was doubled. If the d4 came up a 1, the hitter rolled a d6 to determine if the damage was tripled, and so on. It never, to the best of my knowledge, ever got beyond triple damage (and the player usually rolled low damage anyway (:-). Also, if the players took "too long" to decide what to do in the melee, they were attacked without being allowed to take any action. The exact time of "too long" wasn't set, but it worked without too much player grumbling. It also helped speed up melees in general, because it encouraged quick play by the players. Also, I don't remember (or care, particularly) where the book stands on this, but the players had full knowledge of the hit tables, etc., and they rolled their own damage to the monsters they hit. I started playing with a DM who made a big deal out of secretly rolling his dice, and I had no idea what was going on for many months, which was not particularly enjoyable. That's all I can think of right now... joel plutchak