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Author Topic: [LoO] Abilities Scale  (Read 2676 times)

Thegrom

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[LoO] Abilities Scale
« on: March 13, 2021, 02:58:00 AM »
Hello everyone,

A question that is bothering me because I just finished reading Lords of Olympus and I don't understand an important aspect that was already an issue to me in ADRPG.

About Abilities, it is said that a character ranks in his generation. For my example, let's say Ted's character has spent the most creation points in Might and so he is First Class in Might. He then beats every other player characters in this particular field in one-on-one contest, cause they're in his generation.

Now what happens if Ted's character enters a contest with one of the elder gods? Let's say Prometheus, who is Olympian Class in Might.

Does Ted's character wins because First Class is better than Olympian Class, no matter who he fights?
Does Ted's character loose because despite the fact he's better in Class, Prometheus is from an older generation?
What if the contest is with a High-Numbered Class god like Bia?

I just don't get it, and the way the player characters fit into the scale of the Elder Amberites was already a problem for me in ADRPG. I was told theRPGPundit did a great work at this in LoO but i just don't get it. It looks like i fall in the same old issue : the rank system is great for PvP, but becomes a real headache for PvE.

Can anyone enlighten me with a simple explanation please?

zircher

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Re: [LoO] Abilities Scale
« Reply #1 on: March 13, 2021, 01:51:40 PM »
In my humble opinion, Olympian is Olympian regardless of generation. When it comes to older generations and ranked Elders in any of the diceless games, it is always situational.  But as a rule, age and wisdom trumps youth. Is  Llewella stronger than your character in a dead lift?  No, does she have a half a dozen boosts and dirty tricks to help level the playing field, you bet!
You can find my solo Tarot based rules for Amber on my home page.
http://www.tangent-zero.com

Khazav

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Re: [LoO] Abilities Scale
« Reply #2 on: March 13, 2021, 10:43:15 PM »
I believe that the best way to compare generations is for the GM to decide before the start of the game how powerful they wish the PCs to be. With a list of the NPC ranks, the GM can then choose for, say, the top-ranked PC to be 2nd compared to NPCs or 3rd or whatever. And then decide to either interleaf the PC and NPC ranks or use some other system for the lower ranks.

This gives the players and GM a fair idea of how they stack up against the NPCs. Not that the GM should tell the players how they plan to sort the ranks they may learn or get a feel for the relative levels as the game progresses.

LarsonGates

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Re: [LoO] Abilities Scale
« Reply #3 on: March 14, 2021, 11:28:13 AM »
It's why I use a set of variant rules base on the original Netbook of Amber. Rank just provides a bonus based on the current sub-attribute score.
As a young Amberite you have 30 points in an Attribute, lets say strength, but you're a dead lift body builder so have 24 points in lift plus part of your rank 1 bonus, 12 points for a total of 36. You meet Gerard, he has 200points in strength. He has 80points in lift plus his rank 1 bonus of 80 points.. you're never going to be able to outlift Gerard.. but a battle of wills might be a completely different result.

Thegrom

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Re: [LoO] Abilities Scale
« Reply #4 on: March 15, 2021, 01:05:22 PM »
Clear explanations and good ideas. Thanks to all of you.