[Rq-rules] Re: Heal and xenoheal

[Paul Cardwell]

--- Newton Philis <nphillis at shaw.ca> wrote:

> I really like the idea of Aging to heal (seems very
cool).
> 
> However, from a game balance point of view, doesn't
> this penalize Players?
> 
> (Generally, few monsters, NPCs, townsfolk, bad-guys,
> etc, are encountered more than once or twice, so
> their age is irrelivant.  I.e., an evil monster can
> heal [and age] as much as he likes, because he will
> probably not live to see the end of the encounter.) 
> 
> While good Game Masters may 'play' the monster as if
> he was afraid to get old, this rule is open to abuse
> for Game Masters who are not as vigil.
> 
> (However, this same argument could be made for
> debilitating critical hits...)
> 
> Thoughts?

Trouble getting this sent.  If you get two, my
apologies.

PCs will also get into situations where healing is
necessary to live to see the end of the encounter. 
The aging rule is not just to prevent abuse of Healing
spells, but also to challenge the player to decide
whether the situation requires magic or the character
can let nature take its course.

There is a general skill of First Aid and will be used
in most cases.  However, one point of Healing (or
Xenohealing) will stop bleeding, and six points at
once after three successive successful First Aid roll
(to get everything properly aligned) is needed to
reattach a limb.  Obviously the latter cannot be done
over time by nature, although the loss of the limb is
survivable.

Except for severing, there is essentially no
difference between cumulative injuries, the wear and
tear of battle, and the instant damage of a critical
hit of the same hit-point damage.  Both require the
decision to go with Healing or with nature.

There is an added problem in Mythworld.  A character
has a Pain Resistance Factor (CON + INT + MNA [mana,
much the same as RQ's POW]) which must be rolled if a
hit location drops to +1 (0 if the character has only
one local point normally).  If fails, the character is
completely incapacitated for a round due to the pain,
but can try again on the next round.

This is in contrast to D&D where a character functions
quite normally until the last hit point is lost to a
mosquito bite, whereupon dies suddenly.  There are a
lot of stages between healthy and dead!

Also, remember while Mythworld has a common heritage
with RQ, they are different games, and getting more so
as rules revisions occur.  However, it is a game RQ
fans will enjoy, especially if they want more detail
(too much detail is why Greg rejected it as the basis
for RQ3) at the expense of a detailed setting like
Glorantha.  Mythworld can be played in a Glorantha
setting, but also in Iron Crown's Middle Earth, or one
of your own design.  However, attempts to use D&D
settings could do no more than a complete rewrite
within the same plot line.

And yes, it is susceptible to the same problems of the
quality of the referee - as are all games, including
[ugh] video puzzles where the "referee" is in the
softwear and highly restrictive as to possibilities.

Paul Cardwell


		
__________________________________________ 
Yahoo! DSL – Something to write home about. 
Just $16.99/mo. or less. 
dsl.yahoo.com