[Rq-rules] Re: Wonky animal SIZ

[Simon Phipp]

Leon Kirshtein:

> Dullblade only requires a resistence roll if the
> target weapon contains a spirit.

Does it? I can't remember. We always played that any spell cast on an
opponent, whether his weapons, armour or himself, had to overcome POW, MPs or
whatever. If there was a spirit in the weapon, the roll had to overcome the
spirit, otherwise the person.

> I believe unattuned iron still does double damage to
> elves and trolls. At least we always played it that
> way. BTW, we have always played that unattuned gold
> would also double Light spells.

Fair enough, then, that makes sense.

> I would rule that unattuned lead scimitar would do 1d6
> damage and be a crushing weapon. It would also take
> damage if used as such. Lead and silver weapons and
> armor should have at most 1/3 the armor points of
> bronze. These metals are just too soft to offer any
> meaningfull protection while unattuned.

Which, if you use the RQ2 crushing rules, is a distinct advantage for big
creatures. Do they get +2 for being lead crushing weapons?

I can't really see who, in their right mind, would use a lead scimitar,
anyway. Lunars would use silver ones, fair enough, Lunar trolls might want a
lead one but would prefer a silver one, non-Lunar trolls have big, heavy
smashing things and don;t need scimitars.

Nikk Effingham:

> Simon is right that your aluminium shield will get bashed in, but I'm
> tempted to
> say 'tough' : ) That's just an upside of the spell, we can mangle your
> nicely
> enchanted ceremonial armour and weapons. This is no problem for iron, and
> whilst you lose the extra armour points and get the penalty to magic this
> is
> not a big problem in my eyes - iron is so amazing normally that the fact
> that
> Distempered iron would be a bugger to deal with is no problem just as long
> as
> Distemper is a rare spell (which is fine). So only every now and again
> would
> Distempered get cast on your PCs. As for your PCs casting it on the enemy,
> make
> sure getting that spell is tricky (and it'd also take a while to affect the
> iron plate, say, that'd be a pretty high intensity to knock off). So it's
> not a
> big deal if you take the pain after the sorceror has spent two or three
> full
> rounds casting a spell that affects all my armour so I take the iron
> penalty to
> magic and lose the armour points bonus. Again, I'm tempted to say 'ditto'
> for
> cults which use other metals, although I must admit IMG all cults use iron
> whenever they can so an enchanted tin shield getting the crap beaten out of
> it
> would be rare anyhow.

Or even Leon, as it was his idea in the first place. I would agree that it is
tough, that't what magic does.

Also, the spell has a duration, so the powers come back eventually, anyway.

In RQ2, Iron had half the ENC of bronze, something that is missing in RQ3.
That would be funny - armour that reduces in APs and gets heavier. 

> The problem would be lead, at least for me. Lead is commonly used (by
> trolls at
> least) and is mushy and pliable when unenchanted. Given that I'd be
> tempeted to
> say that Distemper only eliminates 'special features' and not the
> strengthening
> that makes it as strong as lead. At worst, this is a bit ad hoc. But it's
> magic. Magic can be ad hoc if you want it to.

Maybe, but I would say that for the duration it negates the Enchant (Metal)
effects, all of them. If it makes your lead maul all soft and droopy then
tough, it's a problem that happens now and again.

Ken Murphy:

>     Still working, off-n-on, on my version of the RQ 
> Bestiary. Anyhow, I'm working on stats for a particular 
> creature, and I need it to have a SIZ ranging from 30-45, 
> with 42 being the average.

30-45 with an average of 42? That means that most of them will have a higher
SIZ than 42 and only a few will have lower SIZ than 42. This is very unusual.

What is the creature in question and why does it have such an unusual SIZ
distribution?

If you want some of them to be big and some of them to be small, then why not
have two breeds, one with a larger SIZ and one with a smaller SIZ? 

Thomas:
> You can't unless you do some very odd dice combos.
> 
> 2d6+35?  37-47 average 42 sharp distribution
> 3d6+31?  34-49 average 42 bell curve we all know and .. know
> 2d8+33?  35-49 average 42 sharp distribution

I have never used any other dice than D6s to generate stats since I used some
Stormbringer critters back in ther mid-80s. I even use D6s for RQ2 creatures
that use D4s. It makes things a lot easier.

> I realise that you probably know all this and I am teaching grandmother 
> to suck eggs, but what the hell, it's this or work!

Funny that, I arrived late, will finish at 3pm and am replying to RQ emails.
Just don't put it on my CV :-)

See Ya

Simon