Monday 12 September 2011

Player Character loadouts and dump stats. (and Conquest list)

I saw this today, randomly believe it or not, and I was struck by two things.
One, was that this photo would be quite typical for any usual gang of player characters in nearly any rpg. Adjusted of course for year or tech level or whatever.
The other was, that even for a group of violent bank robbers, Charisma is not a dump stat.
This is Bonnie and Clyde's stash, from their car, when they were killed btw.
(This is perhaps brought on by our Earthdawn campaign decisions...)


Onto more important things, Conquest list.
I'm thinking Dogs and Devils or Cassino, either SSF and Dismounted Cav or the other way.
Like this...
So, infantry(!) HQ. 30
2x Cbt Platoons 410
SSF platoon w 60mm and Bzk 265
Cav 3x M5 Platoon 190
M8 Scotts 155
4 Shermans 360
105's w trucks 190
AOP 25
P-47's 190

is 1815.
Ideas?

Cut SSF 60 and air to limited?







9 comments:

  1. Alt list
    SSF HQ w 1 bzk 40
    2 Cbt 440
    F-V 105's(!) 215
    C-V m4 x4 360
    C-V m10's x4 340
    C-V Cav Recon 140
    P47 190
    AOP 25
    =1750
    Thoughts?

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  2. Charisma is not a dump stat in Earthdawn. A somewhat creative player can go a long way with a good charisma and the right talents.

    Those Cav lists are so much greek to me, sorry. The second one looks like it has arty, air (so two decent templates if you have to hunker down) SPAT and tanks so I at least like it better than the first. Can you get cheaper Air?

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  3. Last year, I ran a campaign of "Runequest 2" (produced by Mongoose Publishing), which is one of the few rpgs I've played where there are no dumpstats. d100-system; the starting value of skills are based on (stat+another stat), or (stat*2); Charisma is tied to "experience point" gain.

    Short-changing any stat in RQ2 just leads to painful consequences. Dumping CHA affects interpersonal skills (which players might not lose any sleep over), but... slowing character advancement compared with other PCs... that'll make any player hesitate. :)

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  4. I think the dismounted cav is stronger. Now, I would switch the M5s would be better as 4 turretless ones.

    Bow to save your points, you could drop your P47s down to limited Kittyhawks, and you would need to drop some trucks.

    Just some quick thoughts.....

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  5. Pooch- I wanted to switch out for the T8's but I can't in the 'Cavalry Light Tank Platoon'.
    I will change out the P47's for P40's limited.
    I am worried about the lack of AT...

    Jamie - copy, charisma is only a dump stat for all of us except Grima (wormtongue);-)

    Keane - The new RQ sounds good, always liked RQ

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  6. Yeah, a case of them playing Earthdawn like its D&D, I think. There are some pretty good charisma based combat talents in there, then you get to the social talents that work outside combat too.

    In one of my campaigns, the best 'fighter' was a Bard (Troubadour). I don't mind getting those abilities all to myself this time, as part of my stock of GM tricks though :P

    I really hope Mongoose did a better job of RQ than they did the last time around - which was a terrible abuse of a fondly remembered label.

    Actually, now I look, it is funnily enough no longer *called* RQ (now Legend) but is the same game that used be called Mongoose RQ II.... and there is now a Runequest 6 (confused by numbering, given the last AH one was 3? Me too.) by the same guys who did Mongoose II, which is similar.

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  7. MRQ1 was a terrible excuse for a system - poorly edited, crappy interior art, with a wonky system, barely patched by supplements. MRQ2 was a 'reboot', where Mongoose brought in some capable designers to fix the mistakes and modify the combat system. It still has some bad art and a few editing errors (that's Mongoose Publishing for you), but there's some quality to be found in the game redesign.

    Within the past few months, Mongoose gave up on the Glorantha license, but held on to the MRQ2 system. "Legend" is their upcoming repackaged version - stripped of Glorantha content.

    RQ6 is basically going to be MRQ3, modified by the original MRQ2 designers and playtesters. They have the Glorantha license, but are also releasing a core book without Glorantha content.

    Quite a tangled web! Both Legend and RQ6 will be similar systems - kind of like having D&D3 and D&D3.5 on the market at the same time.

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  8. @Adam: How was Earthdawn 2nd edition, that you picked up while you were over here? I was at the CapHill Half Price Books last weekend, and again saw their half dozen copies of that core book and the companion book.

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  9. I got it for the campaign that Jamie is running here in CHCH. Frankly I'm still getting my teeth into it, though it is a fun campaign.
    Multiple dice, open ended it's basically Shadowrun's pre-history.

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