How lethal are things like arrows and daggers?

Quote from: Thanos;752449How lethal are things like arrows and daggers?

What does that have to do with anything? Serious question.

Quote from: Thanos;752449How lethal are things like arrows and daggers?

They can be extremely lethal depending on circumstances, I don't know how comprehensible this is for example, (this is from "101 Days of MRQ II!")
An average character would have 4hp in arms, 5hp in legs & head, 7 in chest, 6 in abdomen...

QuoteThe pair followed the tracks for a while, then found the creatures responsible for them. A pair of strange, filthy Goat-Man creatures were stalking a small herd of Tusked Deer. They were unarmored, but the leering beasts had spears on their hairy backs, and lassos clutched in their dirty hands.

(At this point, being suspicious of their motives, Drystan the Witch rolled versus his Insight Skill to determine the Broo's motives. He was successful, and noticed...evidence that the male Broos were stalking the small deer for sport other than food.)

The suspicious witch then cast Detect Enemies, one of his Common Spells, and determined that the Broo were indeed a threat to themselves and other pople they might come across. That was enough for the civic-minded trio. The Hunter armed himself with his bow, and crept closer for a clean shot. This time, his Stealth Roll was successful, and the otherwise occupied Broo failed their Perception roll. Declann then took careful Aim (three rounds) then made his shot. His first arrow hit a Broo in the arm, impaling it for 5 points of damage. Now alerted, the Broo dove for cover, causing the hunters next shot to miss.

The next round began with the Broo getting Initative (24), versus 21 for Declann, 19 for Nashoba, and 17 for Drystan. The angered Broo sprinted towards the party. Declann's next arrow missed, but the one after that struck the injured Broo. Declann chose the Impale Maneuver, and hit the Broo in the Chest for 5 points of damage. Meanwhile, Nashoba attempted two Befuddle Spells in that round..and failed them both. Drystan cast two protection spells on himself. As the running Broo drew their weapons, the hunter responded by dropping bow, and spending two Combat Actions to draw a weapon and shield. Meanwhile, Drystan also spent two Combat Actions to draw his shortsword and buckler, while Nashoba tried another Befuddle..and failed.

The second round began with the Broo charging. The injured one, with a -20% to his roll due to the pair of arrows sticking out of his body, missed his attack at the hunter, while the uninjured Broo attacked the shaman, and missed. In return, Declann thrust his spear into the injured Broo, who missed his parry. The hunter then chose the Impale Combat Maneuver, rolled on the location table for "Left Leg", then did a whopping 9 points of damage! This dealt a Serious Wound to the Broo, who failed his Resiliance Roll, and fell, his leg useless. Unfortunately, as it fell it yanked Declann's spear from his hands. Declann tried to pull his weapon out, but failed his Brawn Roll.

Incensed at his lack of Befuddle Ability, Nashoba then tried to cast Disrupt on the uninjured Broo..and failed...twice on each of his next two Combat Actions. Drystan chose to wait..to see where the battle was going.

Next, seeing an unarmed opponent, the uninjured Broo then whirled and charged the spearless hunter. Unfortunatey for Our Hero, the Broo rolled a Critical Hit, while Declann Fumbled his Shield Parry! Things looked grim for the hunter, until Nick reminded Russ of his Hero Points. Russ decided to spend a point to reroll his parry, and succeeded. So instead of a dangerous hit, the Broo selected the Damage Weapon Combat Maneuver and dealt serious Damage to Declann's shield.

(I suggested to Russ that he should instead have had the Broo reroll his "To Hit" instead. But in retrospect, Russ did the correct thing. By successfuly Blocking the Medium Weapon with his size Huge kite shield, the best the Broo could have done with a crit is to choose the Bypass Parry Combat Maneuver twice...which would still be 100% blocked by the shield. Good Call Russ!)

Quote from: Loz;752414However, we will be releasing, next year, 'RQ; Classic Fantasy' which will be a full rulebook tackling traditional dungeon crawling but using the RQ6 mechanics.

Is that an update to the BRP Classic Fantasy monograph?
That is a good book, it helped me out when I was running TOEE with BRP.

I don't know RQ6 specifically but one of my favorite things about BRP/Magic World is that human characters don't develop to the point where they can't be taken down by lesser skilled/equipped beings. A pack of wild dogs is going to remain a potential threat. The power creep is a lot more shallow.

Quote from: Thanos;752449How lethal are things like arrows and daggers?

Piercing weapons can be very lethal due to the rules for Impaling.  Also, a sneaky type who has a combat style with the assassination trait has access to the silent kill special effect.  Combined with the advantages of ambush, a character who specializes in stealth can one shot kill someone very easily.

Quote from: Simlasa;752459Is that an update to the BRP Classic Fantasy monograph?

Yeah, same author.

Quote from: YourSwordisMine;752451What does that have to do with anything? Serious question.

There a number of things I dislike about 3.5. I also want something that's a little more low magic friendly. One of the things I don't like about 3.5 is the fact that daggers and arrows are laughably underpowered especially at higher levels, unless they are magic. So since this will be a low magic setting and historically  daggers and arrows will kill you just a quick as a sword in many cases I wanna know if with this rules set they are a little more historically modeled.

Quote from: Thanos;752508There a number of things I dislike about 3.5. I also want something that's a little more low magic friendly. One of the things I don't like about 3.5 is the fact that daggers and arrows are laughably underpowered especially at higher levels, unless they are magic. So since this will be a low magic setting and historically  daggers and arrows will kill you just a quick as a sword in many cases I wanna know if with this rules set they are a little more historically modeled.

RQ6 (as with all BRP) doesn't have escalating hit points. A single solid strike with a dagger against an unarmoured foe will probably cause a serious wound (which is to say reduce a location to 0 Hit Points or less) 1 time in 3 regardless of just how skilled that foe is. So the risk from a dagger blow never decreases.

On the other hand, attacking a foe armoured in plate with a dagger will get you nowhere except...

... the key to RQ6 is the effects other than simple Hit Point loss. A dagger may impale meaning that you suddenly find all your actions are a lot harder. It may also cause bleeding. In RQ6, to an extent, the additional effects are as important, maybe more important, than the damage output of a weapon.

On the gripping hand, small weapons such as daggers will rarely insta-kill an aware foe. However if you can get up close and personal and start stabbing away your opponent won't last long.

So basically they are dangerous, in some ways as dangerous as swords and they always remain dangerous.

As Deleriad says, lethality is more than simply the damage a weapon does and the hit points where that weapon strikes (RQ has Hit Locations with each location having a certain number of Hit Points). A knife or arrow may not be an instant kill; but when coupled with an effect such as Bleed or Impale, it can be devastating (Bleed, for example, is a round-by-round debilitation of a whole-host of important attributes, leading to rapid incapacitation). Even the humble rock, which can Stun a location, can be devastating.

The bottom line is that RQ6 models realism as far as it can, while trying to retain some cinematic qualities. Characters have Luck Points which can be used in a variety of ways to ensure survival and, depending on how you structure your campaign, magic can be a real boon.

Even the most skilled swordsman can easily go down to a lesser-skilled foe in the right circumstances and with clever tactics. You don't find too much 3.5 Feat/Power bloat in RQ6 - yet characters have access to many tactics and effects that 3.5 replicates through using the Feat system, so, with a little familiarity, they should enjoy what RQ6 provides. It's certainly a very different play experience from the class/level/alignment/feat model of d20 games.

I discovered RuneQuest III after a couple of years of playing D&D in the 90s... Seemed like an answer to my prayers at the time, as I loved the fantasy gaming concept but found D&D limiting. Wasn't too hot on alignments and levels, didn't like the fact that heroes became immune to daggers and arrows, somewhat like you. I also loved the fact that RuneQuest characters started off as members of a culture, often also a religion, that a hunter from the highlands could end up going on vision quests to become an animal-totem shaman (Cormac the Pict, anyone?)...
Then I got over roleplaying and went off to pursue girls and "serious literature" instead... Now, many years later, I'm over that too, but the major factor in my getting back into RPGs, looking for a gaming group again and not just having a pick-up game when I can get the old gang together once a year, has been RuneQuest 6. It's so damn good. One of the best presented and most inspiring RPGs I've ever seen, especially for anyone into historical and swords & sorcery based games, and those who like world-building and designing their own cults, brotherhoods, sorcery schools and cultures... The rules truly allow for everything from High Fantasy Epic play to low-magic gritty swords and sorcery, and are inspiring and thoughtful for both. The dials and tweaks in the rules are well explained so you can figure out what kind of a game to play, and complexity can be added as you go.
As well as all of this, Pete and Loz are great writers and really care about gaming, and communicate with the fans regularly, as well as putting out a so-far stellar series of supplements. Monster Island, which I'm playing at the moment, is a fantastic Lost World sandbox, Book of Quests, which I've started running and hope to continue soon, is a great set of adventures that can be linked to form a campaign guaranteed to stir even jaded roleplayers, and Shores of Korantia, which I've just picked up, is a whole ancient-world inflected setting, complete with a full set of ready to go adventures and NPCs. Coming up, which I can't wait for, is Mythic Britain. To be honest, one of the biggest problems I have is choosing which of their campaigns to run, and still get the benefits of using my homebrew world (the answer of course is "all of them!")...

There are also free firearms and adventures supplements, and One Which Shall Not Be Named, enabling you to run RQ6 in everything from prehistory to Ancient Greece to Victorian Britain, to modern day, to Galaxies Far Far Away.....

Nicely stated, markfitz!
:hatsoff:

Thanks Akrasia:D

If you or anyone is interested, here's a run-down of my latest RQ 6 game, first in a Monster Island anthology, on the Design Mechanism boards....

http://designmechanism.freeforums.org/monster-island-the-black-god-s-fane-t634.html

If you are still interested, now you can try out RQ6 for 0$ (or anything you want to donate) in its Essential Edition.

Go here:

http://www.thedesignmechanism.com/downloads.php

Here's the blurb from the above page:

QuoteThis special version of RuneQuest 6th Edition is designed to introduce players and Games Masters to the essentials of the game. In this book you will find the core of the RuneQuest engine, in a stripped-down format, but still complete enough to create characters and begin adventuring with one of roleplaying’s most enduring and respected systems.

The intention is that this book will give you a taste of the mechanics and encourage you to move onto the full edition of the rules. The full rulebook contains much, much more: more game options, more magic, more monsters more cults.

I'm still holing out for an official Meeros Setting book...

Quote from: YourSwordisMine;757205I'm still holding out for an official Meeros Setting book...

I'd like one as well

Quote from: Molotov;757261I'd like one as well

If we keep asking for it... maybe one day we'll get one...

If only dreams came true... /sigh