[Rq-rules] Thanks!

[Paul Cardwell]

--- steve <steve at perrinworlds.com> wrote:
As the inventor of Strike Ranks, my suggestion is to
ignore them entirely. Second best would be to revert
to RQ2 style strike ranks, where they are only used to
determine initiative between two fighters once they
have engaged. I invented them originally to try to
lend some authenticity to D&D combat. Once you
actually think about them long enough, you realize
there are so many special cases (what happens to long
weapons when the fighters close? Does the weight of
the weapon influence how fast it moves? etc.) that it
becomes far more trouble than it is worth. 

The RQ3 attempt to incorporate movement (NOT my idea,
though I didn't particularly fight it) took Strike
Ranks away from any real use except to encumber
combat, as Wayne points out.

Throw them out and either use straight DEX or some
DEX+die roll for initiative, or use RQ2's system.

Steve Perrin


People in this discussion keep coming up with problems
which either should not be problems at all or are
easily remedied.

Action ranks (Mythworld's term for this) do not
involve movement; that is a separate matter.  However,
the other "problems" Steve mentions can and should be
covered in the stats for the weapons.  

Long weapons (pikes, for instance) have minimum as
well as maximum ranges.  Get inside that minimum and
you are relatively safe - at least from that weapon -
shortswords and daggers are another matter.

Weapons have their own AR.  Heavy weapons are slower,
despite a generally heavier damage when they hit. 
Therefore they have a higher AR than a light (and less
damaging) weapon of the same range.

If all this is built into the rules and stats, it is
quite easy to handle.  It is just when these details
are left out in the interest of "simplicity" (Greg
Stafford's argument for rejecting my rules for RQ3)
that things get complicated.

Yeah, it is closer to RQ2, but then I have never
denied Mythworld's origin in my attempt to suggest
rules for the then in progress RQ3.  I lost that
attempt and thus Mythworld was published.

Someone once said that as long as only one person can
fit in a door at a time, then there must be some rule
of etiquite to determine who goes first.  It is the
same with SR/AR.

Paul Cardwell

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