From: "Kevin Wilson" Subject: Re: [7th Sea RPG GM] (KEVIN) Clash of Swords Date: Wed, 18 Aug 1999 00:57:31 -0700 [Snip/Move] > Some of this has been mentioned before, but for completeness sake I compiled it > all. I think if these issues where addressed officially most of the > funny little things about combat would go away. I find it very undermining to be > GM'ing and turn to the rules for instruction only to find it ambiguous. OK > I expect some small rule problems or things I don't like the "style" of. If > however we can have a dialogue with the game's designers, then I feel that once > these issues are brought to light they will be discussed or fixed as > appropriate. If you like. I've been staying out of the discussion of house rules on purpose, because I noticed a lot of weight being attached to my words - rules that weren't that bad might get a bad rap if I say "There might be some balance issues with this rule." so I've felt it best to stay out of it. But, I'm at your service, since you specifically asked. > My reasons are Ok, one at a time. > Parrying is very hard. During playtesting, I was concerned at first with the expense of Active Defense. However, I've found that if you take a decent Wits, and hold early actions in preparation, the cost-to-reward ratio isn't bad. Of course, you may not like the feel that generates. I've seen two good house rules to address this issue: 1. Allow Drama dice to replace one or both Action dice for Parrying. 2. Allow Active Defense-related Interrupt Actions to cost one Action. If you want to make the give and take of fencing even more ubiquitous, you're on your own. The die-rolling involved in some of my earlier swashbuckling campaigns convinced me that it is often better to imagine the parries taking place than roll for them...but the option to roll against the attack should be there - at a cost, or else players will always do it, bogging the game down. > Riposte is not ubiquitous. It is considered a specialist skill, even among > swordsmen. Make it an Advanced Knack under Fencing, if you like. Given your issues with the Swordsman schools, you might prefer to eliminate them entirely and move all the Knacks into Fencing/Heavy Weapon, etc. You could make the 'style abilities' into smaller Advantages to be bought, say for 5-10 pts. The reasons they exist as they stand include: 1. The desire to create 'roles' within the gaming group. ("Let the Swordsman deal with the monsters while the Explorer picks the lock.") I don't like playing a game in which my character is redundant. If I want to watch someone else play a game, there are plenty of televised sports for me to partake of. 2. To make those Swordsmen, listed above, expensive to take, but leagues better at fighting than someone who didn't take a School. 3. Familiarity to L5R players. While not identical, the Schools bear enough resemblance to Rank abilities for schools in L5R to be easily familiar to them. > Passive defence is good but Active defences is just not working right. [ On > this subject we are now > working on making Active Defence some sort of "contested roll" in which the > defender tries only to equal > the number of raises the opponent gets. I will post my completed work to this > list when finished]. Lower or remove the cost of Active Defense to increase its impact on the game. I would advise caution in making it easier to succeed. If you slant game balance further towards defense, your battles will drag out much longer. > Off hand weapon use is odd, or plays no part, or is simply a special effect > but is not substantial in combat. [ in deed > in order to swing off a rope you need to put away or drop one of your weapons > but you lose....nothing? Assign some minor, but useful, game effect to holding an off-hand weapon. The standard game assumes that if you haven't been trained in two-weapon fighting, you don't get any significant benefit. Change it, by all means. > Many of the special swordsmen Knack's should be generally available, to all > swordsmen. Many of the swords school > advantages, aren't advantages when they should be. Many of them use odd rules > which don't paint the same picture > as the style's description ( see Ambrogia and Laegestra [which is the only style > to have lunge, it should be in Aldana too IMHO]). Feel free to change any school ability you don't feel is worthwhile. I personally feel that the Leegstra mechanics give exactly the feel I wanted: slow, tough, and deadly when they connect. As for Ambrogia, I feel that there is a lot of potential there that players are overlooking because they are quantifying it as being worth 1 HP. Statistically, many of the other Apprentice abilities are even weaker (the apprentice abilities are very small benefits) but they don't have a quantifiable point cost breakdown that folks can look at. > Feint and Beat do not work. They are broken rules and need to be remedied or > explained. I have my own rule > which we use [ the target number of the Feint or Beat is the defenders > appropriate Trait (Brawn or Wits) x 5. The swordsman uses his attack > Trait+Knack. I have answered this question several times now. It will be added to the FAQ. Use the Feint or Beat Knack instead of the Attack Knack when rolling for them. Or, if you just hate the concept of them entirely, here's an alternate mechanic (since I note you don't like Active Defense, I'll base its effectiveness off Passive Defense as well): You receive a Free Raise to your Attack Roll when your target's (Wits/Brawn) is less than your Rank in your (Feint/Beat) Knack. > The 10 phase round seems arbitrary A five phase round works just as well, if > not better then the current 10 round phase. Simply > have Die No./Phase No. > 1& 2= phase 1 > 3&4 = phase 2 > 5&6= phase 3 > 7&8= phase 4 > 9&10= phase 5 It's based on the fact that we use d10s, really. If you like 5 phases, go for it. > Their is no rule to encourage "Daring Do" what Feng Shui calls a stunt AFAIK. > We use a simple rule to encourage this. Any feat of "Daring Do" > incurs a penalty of only _one_ rolled die (6k3 would go down to 5k3). Don't > holler and yell, try it first. It will have your PC's swinging from ropes and > duelling atop balustrades quick smart. I'm not sure what you mean here. The game encourages Derring Do through Drama Die rewards, forgiving Falling Damage, laughable Wounds, Arcana, Backgrounds, and flat-out statements to the players to act over the top. But if that's not enough, then yes, again, making the die rolls easier (though that's the intended purpose of Drama Dice) could work for you. So, hopefully these rules tweaks will satisfy your need for more back-and-forth in your games. If not, well, I'll try again. In the meantime, I'm getting ready to start the Montaigne book tomorrow, so I'd better get some sleep. After all, I want to be fresh when I write the Court Intrigue and Musket Volley rules. PS - Anyone who wants to throw in their two bits about what sort of things you want to be doing in court, and what you'd want on a Court Intrigue character sheet, now's the time to do so. -- Contents Copyright (C) 1997,98,99 by ALDERAC ENTERTAINMENT GROUP, INC.