Re: Fw: [Fwd: Steel tech and weapons]

[Steve Ames <steve@ns1.cioe.com>]

> though...could just make a meta-rule that the greater magical protection
> overrides instead...i.e. the +1 from shimmer and +2 iron defense don't
> add...you get the +2 to the appropriate DV, and the shimmer affects the two
> otherwise unaffected DV.  Thoughts, anyone?

Sounds good. I've always treated armor as such. If you get extra
sized plate to wear over your chain, you just get plate... and some
extra negatives :) You will run into some implementation problems
(why won't a spell that makes my skin stronger work in conjunction 
with one that deflects blades and be cummulative?) but hey... magic
isn't a very well understood art and I'm sure the geeks at the mages
guild have some explanation involving disruptive magical field
theory.... in other words... PFM.

Hey... topic two: has anyone come up with a good explanation of
what a DV actually is? Can anyone shed any light on why a a
master combat artist cannot defend himself (ie increase his DVs)?

A while back a few "items" got released that allowed the player
to add half their mod to their DV. That actually worked out 
pretty well (from an experimental standpoint) until mods were
bought way up into the 20s. Capping the MODs would bring this
back into the "its working pretty well" range.

Consider. At rate two (with no mods) the average DV is 10. So on
a normal roll I have a 50% chance of hitting you. At rate 10 
(with a MOD of 6) the DV goes up to 13 and I have a +6 to hit. So
my odds of hitting have gone up to 65%. But a with no mod, the
ods of hitting me have gone down to 35%. When people learn to
fight, most are learning for self defense, no to become faceless
killers. I don't want to have to take damage and then hurt the
person. I don't even want to be hit.

Take it to insane levels. I buy my strength up to 20 (hey, I'm
a muscle bound freak, you think people would hesitate to attack
me anyway, but...) so I can buy my mod to 20. This gives me an
average (un-armoured) DV of 20. Since the average stat starts
at 12.. I've spent 26.4 rates to buy up strength and 16.8 rates
buying mod (assuming warrier) so I'm now (at least) rate 45.
A person with no mod needs a natural 20 to hit me. My peers auto
hit me. It'll take me almost 7 rates to go any higher and my
peers will be buying a sword skill so it becomes a game of
diminishing returns.

What have we created? We've created a system where a high rating
warrior who is aware that he is being attacked will _NEVER_ be
beaten by a farmer with a sword (short of the nasty crit and that's
why crits are in the game). With the existing system that farmer
has a 50% chance of hitting you regardless of your rate. Notice
that I use the word "aware" above. All of the skill in the world
won't save you if your caught by suprise.

Given the relative costs of mods and once again certain backgrounds
will, as it should be, never be able to stand toe-toe with a
warrior. Making the class distinction sharper at higher levels.

On the subject of Mods... by using the associated stat we are saying
that someone has to be monstrously strong to be considered a good
swordsman? And have the WIL from hell to be a master wrestler?

						-Steve