Author Topic: Racial Heat/Cold Resistance  (Read 1005 times)

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Offline Elrich Maltah

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Racial Heat/Cold Resistance
« on: December 28, 2021, 03:33:52 PM »
In Arms Companion section 3.2 there is a table of optional racial modifications for encumbrance, exhaustion, and enduring heat/cold. The first two columns are clearly described as "percentages added to the base figures," but it's not entirely clear how the heat/cold values are to be applied. The clues given are as follows:

-- "... racial maximums for enduring Heat/Cold (i.e., Hostile Environments)."

-- "The Arctic Man ... [have] an innate ability to resist the cold."

-- "Endure Heat/Cold racial maximums are listed as bonuses."

I can see three possible ways of how to use the values: negating the temperature mods for exhaustion points, as a direct skill bonus (say, as applied to specific versions of the Hostile Environments skill), or as resistance roll modifiers. The first option seems unviable as you'd be trying to apply +/- modifications to multiplication factors. The second option also seems unviable for gatekeeping a feature that should be innate behind a skill that you'd have to purchase and train in order to use. This leaves the third option of resistance roll modifiers as the only option that seems entirely viable.

Does this logic square with anyone else? If so, why not just come out and say "these are resistance roll modifiers?" What's the point of calling them racial "maximums?" Have I missed some other mention of how to deal with extreme heat and cold?

Offline EltonJ

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Re: Racial Heat/Cold Resistance
« Reply #1 on: December 28, 2021, 05:52:00 PM »
I see it as a world building tool.  Although I don't have the Arms Companion, it would make sense for some races (like furries or scalies, for example) to have resistance to heat or cold.

Offline Hurin

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Re: Racial Heat/Cold Resistance
« Reply #2 on: December 28, 2021, 11:33:47 PM »
The second option also seems unviable for gatekeeping a feature that should be innate behind a skill that you'd have to purchase and train in order to use.

It doesn't seem very useful but yes, I think this is the option intended. Rolemaster used to have a lot of skills that were very niche, and the other two mods already deal with exhaustion points and encumbrance, so I do not think the third column applies to them.


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This leaves the third option of resistance roll modifiers as the only option that seems entirely viable.

Does this logic square with anyone else? If so, why not just come out and say "these are resistance roll modifiers?" What's the point of calling them racial "maximums?" Have I missed some other mention of how to deal with extreme heat and cold?

I think they just meant maximums in the sense of a maximum racial bonus. But yes, they should have just said bonuses (unless they intended to specify by 'maximums' that the racial and stat bonus did not stack).

I don't think any races got bonuses to heat/cold RRs in the core Rolemaster Character Law book (was that more of a MERP thing?), and there is no column for that on any racial chart I can remember, which is why I think these are not intended as RR bonuses.

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Offline MisterK

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Re: Racial Heat/Cold Resistance
« Reply #3 on: December 29, 2021, 01:47:23 AM »
The second option also seems unviable for gatekeeping a feature that should be innate behind a skill that you'd have to purchase and train in order to use.

It doesn't seem very useful but yes, I think this is the option intended. Rolemaster used to have a lot of skills that were very niche, and the other two mods already deal with exhaustion points and encumbrance, so I do not think the third column applies to them.
Yeah, the idea that any exceptional situation called for a new dedicated skill to handle it was certainly a Rolemaster trait. At one point, you would have thought that actual lawmakers were writing the game rules :D

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I don't think any races got bonuses to heat/cold RRs in the core Rolemaster Character Law book (was that more of a MERP thing?), and there is no column for that on any racial chart I can remember, which is why I think these are not intended as RR bonuses.
I would say so for playable races at least, but yes. There were a number of mentions for some races that were resistant or immune to *natural* heat or cold, which I always interpreted as their tolerance range being extended. However, this would certainly affect the impact of spells that change the ambient temperature - but not those that rely on extreme heat or cold to deal direct damage.

Offline OLF, i.e. Olf Le Fol

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Re: Racial Heat/Cold Resistance
« Reply #4 on: December 29, 2021, 06:51:30 AM »
Yeah, the idea that any exceptional situation called for a new dedicated skill to handle it was certainly a Rolemaster trait. At one point, you would have thought that actual lawmakers were writing the game rules :D
For the fun, I've always wonder about making a poll to see whether people used some skills at all and, if they do or ever did, how often it happens or happened, with concern to skills such as juggling, pole vaulting, stilt walking, tightrope walking, meditation — death, or midwifery. Other skills for which one wonders why a skill even exists are drafting, sanity healing lore, star-gazing, diving, rappelling, surfing, advertising, horticulture, jesting, taunting, scrounge, begging, dentistry, honing, hygiene, or looting.
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Offline Hurin

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Re: Racial Heat/Cold Resistance
« Reply #5 on: December 29, 2021, 09:42:18 AM »
For the fun, I've always wonder about making a poll to see whether people used some skills at all and, if they do or ever did, how often it happens or happened...

Of all the skills you listed, I don't think I or any of the members of my group ever used any of them, except perhaps pole-vaulting, which I mulled for a bit when thinking about making a Rogue specializing in spears who could use it to leap over walls and that sort of thing.

The point being: yes, skill bloat was a big problem.
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Offline Elrich Maltah

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Re: Racial Heat/Cold Resistance
« Reply #6 on: December 29, 2021, 08:56:03 PM »
The second option also seems unviable for gatekeeping a feature that should be innate behind a skill that you'd have to purchase and train in order to use.

It doesn't seem very useful but yes, I think this is the option intended. Rolemaster used to have a lot of skills that were very niche, and the other two mods already deal with exhaustion points and encumbrance, so I do not think the third column applies to them.

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This leaves the third option of resistance roll modifiers as the only option that seems entirely viable.

Does this logic square with anyone else? If so, why not just come out and say "these are resistance roll modifiers?" What's the point of calling them racial "maximums?" Have I missed some other mention of how to deal with extreme heat and cold?

I think they just meant maximums in the sense of a maximum racial bonus. But yes, they should have just said bonuses (unless they intended to specify by 'maximums' that the racial and stat bonus did not stack).

I don't think any races got bonuses to heat/cold RRs in the core Rolemaster Character Law book (was that more of a MERP thing?), and there is no column for that on any racial chart I can remember, which is why I think these are not intended as RR bonuses.

Yeah, there were very few mentions of temperature tolerance in the backgrounds of the playable races. Arctic Men are "hardened greatly by the unfriendly climate of the north." Dark Tribes are "toughened by their invariably difficult environments. They are the men of the deserts." Half Dwarves "have remarkable resistance to cold." And Elves are "apparently highly resistant to extremes of natural heat and cold." The ArmsCo table was the first I'd seen anything be codified for it.

Maybe they could be used toward resistance rolls as long as they're specified as "Natural" Heat/Cold?  Otherwise, the Hostile Environments skill bonus is resolved as a percentage of OB, DB, or MM under those conditions, so applying these modifications there could simply reduce the number of ranks needed to get to 100%.

Offline jdale

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Re: Racial Heat/Cold Resistance
« Reply #7 on: December 29, 2021, 09:36:43 PM »
In Arms Companion section 3.2 there is a table of optional racial modifications for encumbrance, exhaustion, and enduring heat/cold. The first two columns are clearly described as "percentages added to the base figures," but it's not entirely clear how the heat/cold values are to be applied.

Section 3.1, immediately above 3.2 on the same page, refers to activity penalties in very hot or very cold environments, which can be mitigated with a roll against 1d100(OE?) + SD bonus. The modifiers might directly offset those penalties, e.g. it gives an example of -30 activity at 150 degrees F, so if you have a racial +10 against heat, it would reduce the penalty to -20.

I don't know where those penalties actually come from, they seem generous though. https://www.healthline.com/health/extreme-temperature-safety
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Offline Elrich Maltah

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Re: Racial Heat/Cold Resistance
« Reply #8 on: December 29, 2021, 10:33:54 PM »
In Arms Companion section 3.2 there is a table of optional racial modifications for encumbrance, exhaustion, and enduring heat/cold. The first two columns are clearly described as "percentages added to the base figures," but it's not entirely clear how the heat/cold values are to be applied.

Section 3.1, immediately above 3.2 on the same page, refers to activity penalties in very hot or very cold environments, which can be mitigated with a roll against 1d100(OE?) + SD bonus. The modifiers might directly offset those penalties, e.g. it gives an example of -30 activity at 150 degrees F, so if you have a racial +10 against heat, it would reduce the penalty to -20.

I don't know where those penalties actually come from, they seem generous though. https://www.healthline.com/health/extreme-temperature-safety

I did see that section, but I didn't consider it terribly helpful for the same reason you noted of not knowing how to determine the penalties for extreme temperatures. As far as I can tell, a list of +/- modifications for temperature was never codified, not even in ArmsCo. That's why I was trying to figure out how to make these numbers relevant in spite of that omission. *shakes head at original editors*