Wednesday 14 December 2016

Archery - a physical or a mental sport?

What Stats for Archery?

While finalising the details of the next section of the rules of Explore I had to grapple with a simple but fundamental question for the game - is Archery primarily a physical or a mental sport?

The English Longbow from the Middle Ages required great Strength to use and reputedly archers trained from childhood, so undoubtedly Strength is an important factor. In Explore I model that as adding your Strength bonus to your damage as Strength allows you to shoot a heavier bow.

In D&D bonuses to hit for bows came from Dexterity, and most games since have followed this example. Although loosing an arrow requires finesse, with a Medieval Bow there are few aids to the archer and their judgement becomes far more important - choosing the angle to aim at to account for wind, range, and a possibly moving target - so for the single stat to provide a bonus I instead chose Intuition. One added advantage of this is that it differentiates Archers from other Warriors as they gain their to hit bonus in Melee from Agility.

So Strength gives a damage bonus, Agility gives a to-hit bonus - which prompted the question that's been facing me this last week - should Archers put their highest stat in Strength or Agility?

System Mastery

People talk of "system mastery", and while I'm not keen on the concept of being at a disadvantage for not mastering the rules of an RPG, I do think that it's incumbent upon me to understand the implications of the rules; if one choice is "better" then I need to understand that.

So what's the benefit of a bonus in Intuition for an Archer? It gives you a bonus on to hit, and nothing more. What's the benefit of a bonus in Strength for an Archer? It gives you a bonus on damage, but also it counts in Melee - which is likely to be of some use. Since I know a bonus on to hit or on to damage is equivalently effective in Explore, it is thus clear that the "better" choice is to put your best bonus in Strength.

Quotes like this one from Fitness for Archery:
archery is not usually seen as a sport requiring high levels of fitness
made me reluctant to have Strength the prime stat, but this conflicted with the view of the super-strong Medieval Archer.

I decided to go back to reality to find the answer - which might be more important to a Dungeoneering Archer?

The Life Of a Dungeoneering Archer

Strength is clearly important to a Medieval archer because they need to shoot a heavy arrow a long way, and when shooting at an opposing army accuracy is not that much of an issue.

For an Olympic Archer, Strength is not that important - modern bows are light to pull - and accuracy is everything.

For the Dungeoneering, Monster Hunting, Ambushing, Shooting-into-combat Archer both are important. But if you don't hit - what does it matter how much damage you could have done?

It doesn't matter how hard you shoot if you miss

Archery has one big advantage over Melee attacks - you can attack from a distance - but in Explore this gives fairly hefty penalties. In fact you are quite often going to be shooting with less than a 50% chance of hitting. In this situation an oddity occurs in the statistics for Explore - the rule that all bonuses in combat are equivalent does not hold if  you have less than a 50% chance of hitting or of doing damage. In this case the bonus is much more effective placed in what you're worst at.

This observation made me realise that Explore is by happy accident modelling real life:

If an Archer is planning on frequently being involved in Melee combat they need their biggest bonus in Strength.

BUT... if instead they plan on keeping out of Melee combat and want to excel in an Ambush, then they need their biggest bonus in Intuition.

Wednesday 30 November 2016

FAQs

I've added two FAQ pages to accompany the two rules sections published so far, linked in the right hand panel, plus a main index page linking to all the rules and the FAQs.

The FAQs contain explanations and supporting information of interest but not generally relevant when playing the game.

Saturday 19 November 2016

Character Generation #2 - Height, Weight & Race

Your character's height and weight is derived from their Stats and their Race (plus a possible weight gain from athletics skill). Most of the effect of Height and Weight is therefore already included in the Stat and Race bonuses, but they often provide more than just flavour - they root your character in the alternate physical reality of the game. Are you tall enough to look over the top of that 6' wall?

Height
Find your height from you STR and CON in the table below:



CON


3
2
1
0
-1
-2
-3
STR
3
6’3’’
6’4’’
6’5’’




2
6’0’’
6’1’’
6’2’’
6’3’’



1
5’9’’
5’10’’
5’11’’
6’0’’
6’1’’


0

5’7’’
5’8’’
5’9’’
5’10’’
5’11’’

-1


5’5’’
5’6’’
5’7’’
5’8’’
5’9’’
-2



5’3’’
5’4’’
5’5’’
5’6’’
-3




5’1’’
5’2’’
5’3’’


Weight
Find your weight from you STR, CON and AG in the table below:


AG

3
2
1
0
-1
-2
-3
STR + CON
6
196
204
212
220
228
5

188
196
204
212
220
4
172
180
188
196
204
212
3
164
172
180
188
196
204
2
148
156
164
172
180
188
196
1
140
148
156
164
172
180
188
0
132
140
148
156
164
172
180
-1
124
132
140
148
156
164
172
-2
116
124
132
140
148
156
164
-3
108
116
124
132
140
148
-4
100
108
116
124
132
140
-5
92
100
108
116
124

-6
84
92
100
108
116

This is the minimum weight for your character - if they are overweight they would weigh more than this.

Athletics Weight Bonus
Your levels in Athletics are split between Power and Speed. For each level you have in Power you move your weight up one category.

For example if you have Power 2, Speed 4 then you move up two weight categories - say from 180lb to 196lb.

Other Races
For non-humans you look up the adjusted height and weight on the tables below:

Human

Elf
(+1)
Dwarf
(-2)
Halfling
(-5)

Human
 / Elf
Dwarf
(-1)
Halfling
(-3)





84
56
28
5' 1''
6' 1''
4'
2' 8''

92
62
31
5' 2''
6' 2''
4'1''
2' 8''

100
68
34
5' 3''
6' 3''
4'1''
2' 9''

108
74
37
5' 4''
6' 4''
4'2''
2' 9''

116
80
40
5' 5''
6' 5''
4'2''
2' 9''

124
86
43
5' 6''
6' 6''
4'3''
2' 10''

132
92
46
5' 7''
6' 7''
4'3''
2' 10''

140
98
49
5' 8''
6' 8''
4'4''
2' 10''

148
104
52
5' 9''
6' 9''
4'4''
2' 11''

156
110
55
5' 10''
6' 10''
4'5''
2' 11''

164
116
58
5' 11''
6' 11''
4'5''
2' 11''

172
122
61
6' 0''
7' 0''
4'6''
3'

180
128
64
6' 1''
7' 1''
4'6''
3'

188
134
67
6' 2''
7' 2''
4'7''
3'

196
140
70
6' 3''
7' 3''
4'7''
3' 1''

204
146
73
6' 4''
7' 4''
4'8''
3' 1''

212
152
76
6' 5''
7' 5''
4'8''
3' 1''

220
158
79





228
164
82

Race
You can choose a race from Human, Dwarf, Elf, or Halfling. They are rooted firmly in traditional fantasy. Here are some intentionally brief summaries of the races; they should be fleshed out for your particular campaign.

Elves are slightly taller than humans but are slender and thus are the same average weight. Their slim build helps them run faster and jump higher. Unfortunately many monsters hate Elves and always target an Elf in combat given the choice.

Dwarves are quite a lot shorter than humans but are quite stout. Their stoutness makes them run slower and they are poor at jumping, but their natural strong build means they can lift nearly as much as a human and suffer no penalty on damage. Dwarves can see in the dark.

Halflings are (true to their name) only half the height of humans and are very stout. They are ill suited to running or jumping, nor are they good at lifting heavy weights, but their natural instincts for their attacks to hit the mark make up for the relative weakness of their blows. They can sneak and hide well. Due to their size they generally stick together.


Kill (WT)
Lift (WT)
Run
(HT-WT)
Jump
(HT-WT)
Other
Elf


+1
+1

Dwarf

-1
-1
-2

Halfling
-3
-3
-2
-2
Attack +3
Scout +3

Typically the Kill and Lift bonus is the weight modifier, thus -3 for Halflings. Usually the Run and Jump bonus is the height modifier minus the weight modifier, thus -2 for Halflings. You'd expect Dwarves to get -1 for all four, but this has been modified for other characteristics of Dwarves.