Author Topic: unpredictability is awesome  (Read 2435 times)

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Offline Giovanni81

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unpredictability is awesome
« on: March 24, 2019, 05:16:24 PM »
Played RMFRP this afternoon: this game is delightful !
5 minor skeletons and almost a tpk: the warrior fumbled and cannot attack for 2 rounds, the bard fumbled and loosed his weapon, the sorcerer fumbled twice trying to cast powerful spells in one round. Lot of laugh and fun at the (virtual) table.
Cannot wait for the next game.

Do you believe that the unpredictable nature of Rolemaster is a good thing?
How can i amplify the fun of crits/fumbles ?
There is something like 'wild magic'?
I mean: regions big like little cities where magic works differently and random effects are frequent.
It should be an easy addition.

Offline Hurin

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Re: unpredictability is awesome
« Reply #1 on: March 24, 2019, 09:31:54 PM »

Do you believe that the unpredictable nature of Rolemaster is a good thing?

Yes! Battles are always more exciting when anything can happen.

Quote
There is something like 'wild magic'?
I mean: regions big like little cities where magic works differently and random effects are frequent.

In the default Rolemaster world (Shadow World), there are 'Essence Flows' and storms of Essence magic that alter the way spells work. I'm not sure if there were even any charts about random essence effects. Rolemaster Companion I (for an earlier edition of the game, RM2, but could probably be used in RMFRP too) did briefly mention 'Earth Nodes' where magical effects were enhanced. I am not sure if any of the later companions gave any more on 'Wild Magic', but I suspect they did. I do remember one of the Companions talking about Chaos when the Chaos Warrior class was introduced.

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Offline jdale

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Re: unpredictability is awesome
« Reply #2 on: March 24, 2019, 10:41:56 PM »
It would be easy to have areas where magic is more powerful and less controllable, e.g. all spells cost 2 PP less (minimum of 1?), penalty of -10 on all casting rolls, +2d10 to all spell failure rolls. Insert whatever metaphysical explanation you want. Tweak the numbers as desired. You could also create a more chaotic spell failure table, not sure if one already exists.

I like the unpredictability but I do prefer to avoid the bad roll leading to instant player death. (Death by sequence of events, especially including bad player choices, is a different matter entirely.) Some kind of fate points are helpful in my opinion. See for example http://www.ironcrown.com/ICEforums/index.php?topic=15723.msg207185#msg207185
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Offline Majyk

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Re: unpredictability is awesome
« Reply #3 on: March 25, 2019, 01:38:22 AM »
Yup, always fun when random chance gets in the way of a previously thought solid battle plan!
It happens IRL, so why not RPGs.

It is funny now, when not attached to characters, but I will tell you this changes when 10-20-50 sessions deep and the character has lots of canon info enmeshing them in your world.
Then the power in those laughs turn into just as deeply felt anguish!

Still, nothing like the renewed excitement of rolling up a new PC with even more random chance attached to its background options and flaws!

If it tells you something about my love for unpredictability:
As a player, I have never once chosen a background option in my life with this game: going on 30yrs!
To me, choosing feels like entering a cheat code into a video game...fun to see what invulnerability mode is like, but boring as all hell after one playthrough!

PS: much success and luck to you and the game in the future!
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Offline Giovanni81

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Re: unpredictability is awesome
« Reply #4 on: March 25, 2019, 06:34:16 PM »
Thanks a lot.

About the wild magic: i do not want to increase the chance of fumble, i want instead to add some random chaotic/bizarre effect to the spells.
Something like this: "When you cast a spell proceed as normal. After the spellcasting manoeuvre is complete swap the dice (for example a spellcasting roll of 67 becomes a 76). If the number you obtain this way is less than X extract a value from the magical mishap table"
X should vary in the range 20-50 and the table should contain only funny, chaotic, humorous stuff....like the magical mishap of the sorcerer in D&D 5e.

About combat: i think i will add a random event table activated every time a player rolls a double.....like this but with RMFRP rules



Anyway thank you very much for the encouragement! The game is cool and I hope me and my friends will enjoy it.

Offline Spectre771

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Re: unpredictability is awesome
« Reply #5 on: March 26, 2019, 05:53:15 AM »
Giovanni81, thank you for sharing that table.  That is an awesome chart to have and I would definitely use it in a simpler gaming system.  RM is already bogged down in combat and adding more to it is counter-productive for me, but I would readily use it in D&D, Pathfinder, even Vampire:tM, and GURPS.  A gaming system with a much faster combat resolution would benefit from that chart.  It's very cool indeed.

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Offline Giovanni81

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Re: unpredictability is awesome
« Reply #6 on: March 26, 2019, 02:01:48 PM »
I'm thinking about having a unified mechanic for all this stuff.
Maybe i can simply change the unusual event rule.
Something like this:
"You obtain an unusual event every time you roll a double (so 00, 11, 22 ecc.)"

That's all.
Then, as a tool for the master, I can create a 'combat unusual event table' and 'magic unusual event table' and for skills some guideline to hep the on the fly creation process of unusual events.