Chronicle (Wood and Stone)? : House Rules
Hi all!
Just thought I would post a couple of the house rules I'm using regarding character creation and combat for my LOTR chronicle (I haven't come up with a real name for it, but since it takes place in lower Mirkwood, Misty Mountains, and Fangorn I thought Wood and Stone would work. :) )
Anyway, here goes:
A) Lore Skills - Lore subskills regarding races and regions are grouped as follows instead of as in the Core Book: Region (Realm, Culture, History), Race (History, Culture)
B) Attack Resulting in Extrordinary Success: If an attack roll exceeds the required to-hit by an amount that results in an extraordinary success, use the following table to determine the advantages:
11 - 15 over to hit: Do maximum weapon damage or utilize a special result option from the core book pg. X?
16 - 20 over to hit: Do maximum weapon damage and gain a special result.
21+ over to hit: Target suffers a mortal wound eliminating any remaining health levels.
C) Additional special effect: Open a gap in armor - Target's Armor Protection value reduced by 3 pts. This does not effect Armour of Heroes or any other type of 'natural' reduction.
I'd appreciate any comments, etc. :)
Tom
Re: Chronicle (Wood and Stone)? : House Rules
Quote:
Originally posted by Arknight
Hi all!
A) Lore Skills - Lore subskills regarding races and regions are grouped as follows instead of as in the Core Book: Region (Realm, Culture, History), Race (History, Culture)
This is an idea that has been floating around on these boards for a while now, and I agree that it has a lot of merit to it. Some contributor here a while ago suggested that a formulation like "Lore: Elves (History)" is more useful than the formulation in the core book. The only problem is just how fine-grained can you possibly get. "Lore: Noldor-elves (Second Age History)"? "Lore: Southern Dunedain (Culture)?" This is the reason why I've not yet tried any new formulations with my group.
Quote:
21+ over to hit: Target suffers a mortal wound eliminating any remaining health levels.
Then be prepared for your very little guys to drop your very big guys. This is the same problem with the "mook" accelerated pacing in the core book: it only favors accuracy, not size or strength. So your big troll with Defence 10 only has Def 6 against a hobbit, giving a hobbit with a shortbow and better chance of an instant kill. (In fact, if your hobbit has 10 Nim, 12 ranks in Ranged Combat, a specialty in shortbow, and the Accurate edge, the hobbit gets an instant kill against a troll by rolling 8+).
But your idea of extra effects for higher levels of successes in combat is pretty popular around here. I know some people have even gone so far as to create "critical hit" tables for the game. I myself prefer a simpler approach: +1d6 damage on a superior success, +2d6 on an extraordinary success.
Quote:
C) Additional special effect: Open a gap in armor - Target's Armor Protection value reduced by 3 pts.
So this is something that a player could choose to do if he gets a superior success on an attack roll? It's a pretty good idea, especially if you're not already granting any kind of bonus damage for a superior success. Another way you could tie this into the game is as a "called shot": the TN needed to hit is increased, but if you do hit you negate the armor damage absorption.
Re: Re: Chronicle (Wood and Stone)? : House Rules
Quote:
Originally posted by Scottomir
This is an idea that has been floating around on these boards for a while now, and I agree that it has a lot of merit to it. Some contributor here a while ago suggested that a formulation like "Lore: Elves (History)" is more useful than the formulation in the core book. The only problem is just how fine-grained can you possibly get. "Lore: Noldor-elves (Second Age History)"? "Lore: Southern Dunedain (Culture)?" This is the reason why I've not yet tried any new formulations with my group.
Yeah, this is something that's run through my head too as to how far and what other types of Lore there might be. I may try to come up with a smapp list and post it for comments, additions, etc. :-)
Quote:
Originally posted by Scottomir
Then be prepared for your very little guys to drop your very big guys. This is the same problem with the "mook" accelerated pacing in the core book: it only favors accuracy, not size or strength. So your big troll with Defence 10 only has Def 6 against a hobbit, giving a hobbit with a shortbow and better chance of an instant kill. (In fact, if your hobbit has 10 Nim, 12 ranks in Ranged Combat, a specialty in shortbow, and the Accurate edge, the hobbit gets an instant kill against a troll by rolling 8+).
Hmmm.. yeah, forgot about that size diff thing. Right now, the PC's are only about halfway to maximum ranks, so it's a visible difference. Might have to change it to 2xMaximum or something like that.
One question: If you roll a 6 on a die for damage, do you get to reroll it and add like when rolling a skill check?
Tom
Re: Re: Re: Chronicle (Wood and Stone)? : House Rules
Quote:
One question: If you roll a 6 on a die for damage, do you get to reroll it and add like when rolling a skill check?
Tom [/B]
Nope.
Damage rolls are not skill tests, hence they are not bound by the same rules. Furthermore, you can have different dice pools for damage (1d6 +3, 2d6 +5, 4d6, etc.). How can you tell which dice to roll for extra damage?
Skill tests are only re-rolled if they come up double sixes. If by some Edge or Order Ability you get extra dice, only the two highest values are used, so the odds of getting double sixes improve. But that doesn't apply to damage at all. ;)
