Topic: Moving Racial Bonuses

[markc]

 I am in the process of doing some major work on my RM/SM game and had this thought, what if you move the racial bonuses from auto gains to adjusting the stat table instead? This would allow for any stat value and not just added automatically to the PC/NPC's stat bonus. Yes this would require a table of stat values that map to stat bonuses but IMHO it will make my game better. (I have also restricted Human racial stat bonuses to +5 with almost all in the +1 to +3 range so that helps also, IMHO).
MDC

[GrumpyOldFart]

...what if you move the racial bonuses from auto gains to adjusting the stat table instead?

For clarity's sake, let me see if I get what you're suggesting. What it sounds like is if, say a character has a stat of 75 that has a racial bonus of +3, instead of looking up the stat bonus on the 75 and adding 3 to it, you'd add the +3 to the 75?

Assuming that's so, keep in mind stats in RPGs are often generated on a bell curve, either by adding multiple dice, eg 3d6, or building it into a stat values table, eg 40-59=+0, a spread of 20 all with the same stat bonus, but at the end of the table only 98 and 99 have a +23 and only a 100 has a +25.... and they're jumping by 2s at the ends, but only by 1s in the middle of the progression.

That means that adding the +3 to a stat between 40 and 56 doesn't change anything, but adding it to a stat of 97 changes the stat bonus by 4. The same kind of things happens in 3d6. Add +3 to an 8, that's very little change in stat bonuses (if any), but add it to a 15 and that's a major shift. The bottom line is that bell curve progressions and linear progressions don't run in harness together very well.

Of course, if I have misunderstood what you're proposing, ignore all of the above and please elaborate/clarify.

[markc]

  Actually I was trying to say, if you normally have a stat range of 70-80 for +1; I was going to reduce the stat range for the +1 to 65-75...or something close to that.
  So a race would say Ag look at column +2 of the stat chart which would have a lower raw stat score to receive a bonus.
Thoughts?
MDC

[arakish]

Don't know if it applies, but here is a thought.  For my upcoming Onaviu campaign, Stat Bonuses are derived from the below equation.

(TempScore - 50) / 2, round down.

This gives a more smoothed bonus system, but is not applicable to the RMSS/FRP.  More suited for the RM2/C system.

Just a thought.

rmfr

[GrumpyOldFart]

  Actually I was trying to say, if you normally have a stat range of 70-80 for +1; I was going to reduce the stat range for the +1 to 65-75...or something close to that.
  So a race would say Ag look at column +2 of the stat chart which would have a lower raw stat score to receive a bonus.
Thoughts?
MDC

Well, for example...

          Race 0  Race +1  Race +2

40-59     0          +1         +2
60-64    +1         +2         +3
65-69    +2         +3         +4
70-74    +3         +4         +5
75-79    +4         +5         +6

If you do it that way the result would be exactly the same as it already is by adding the race bonus to the stat bonus.

Maybe I'm still not understanding you. I don't see what you're gaining by changing it.

[providence13]

Different stat bonuses for the same #'s based on different races..??
If that is what you mean, then IMHO, the race bonuses/penalties make up the difference quite nicely as they are.

So my Human and Bob's Wood Elf could have 90 for Ag but because he is of the 'Woodrow' his bonus is higher? So it takes the place of Racial mods..

[markc]

Different stat bonuses for the same #'s based on different races..??
If that is what you mean, then IMHO, the race bonuses/penalties make up the difference quite nicely as they are.

So my Human and Bob's Wood Elf could have 90 for Ag but because he is of the 'Woodrow' his bonus is higher? So it takes the place of Racial mods..

 Yes that is it.


GOF;
 The range values change to get specific stat values. So for example on the +0 column a +1 would be 70-80 on the +1 column it might be 65-75 +1 and 76-XX +2, on the +2 column 55-65 would be +1, 65-74 +2, 75-XX +3. That is just and example I cooked up off the top of my head as I have not created my test chart yet except for the +0 column, which I need to redo anyway based on some other changes.
  So in essence yes two people with the same Temp Stat would have different bonuses and those might be different from others based on their Stat Column. The Stat Column does not simply move the bonuses around but moves the ranges around as well to get those bonuses.


 IMHO this would impact on PC gen in the fact that you may not always want to have 65 in a stat but may in fact need/want some other number to get the most out of your points.
MDC