Troll Lord Games

I'd like to run a game similar to the style of Fantasy Imperium (historical rpg) with C&C. But I'm finding it hard to combine the detail of FI's combat with C&C.

The skills part is easy 5% = +1.

But every step you throw in, inevitably slows the game down.

Anyone tried to make a historical C&C game before?
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"Historic RPG" is the area I like the most. As I only reciently picked up the PHB (untill then I'd been using the PDF from RPG Now) so am a little behind on some of the conversians. I was using all the old 2e D&D historic books & the tons of Osprey books to cobble things together. The problem areas for me is magic (just because it is historic doesn't mean I don't want magic, elves etc) & combat.

I want combat to be bloody but can't find a way to make it more real & not kill off every 1 & 2nd level player with in 5 min. The closest thing to a fix is just limiting the armor allowed. I also like the DR look on armor but haven't been smart enough to make a working rule or have time to put into use ideas from here.

The middle earth string had a good magic system on it (a good mix between the flavor of Tolkien & cutting back on the fire ball flinging MU)
http://www.freeyabb.com/phpbb/viewtopic ... llordgames

Plus the midnight RPG has some ideas that sound good ( I haven't yet got a copy so can't say for sure.

DangerDwarf & Nifelhein are the most spun up on the setting as far as I know.

I don't have hard conversians & just got handed PSC orders followed by a deployment so it looks like I'll be busy for the next year. ( I guess all my books make the house to cluttered to sell quickly!)
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I tried DR for a bit in C&C and the problem that I found is:

If you use the usual HP convention, either weapons dont do enough damage and battles take forever or if you up damage, people tend to die very quickly.
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angelius wrote:
I tried DR for a bit in C&C and the problem that I found is:

If you use the usual HP convention, either weapons dont do enough damage and battles take forever or if you up damage, people tend to die very quickly.

Yes, in fact this was the largest problem when we were playtesting the Conan RPG game. In the end, we had to put a cap on total hit points, raise the damage of weapons, and keep the DR about at the same value of AC. Plus, each weapon has penetration factor.

If you ask me, it is not worth the trouble.

You could try a rule like the one in Call of Cthulhu, that is put a damage threshold, beyond which a character dies even if he has a large sum of hit points. I tested this approach, and found that a threshold of Con hit points works fine enough in most cases.

To make combat more dangerous, you could drop everyone's HD by one "rank", i.e. fighters get d8, clerics d6, rogues d4, wizards d3.

Thing I hate most is that at some point somebody is going to be a walking tank. And inflicting encumbrance penalties, attack penalties and whatever else a CK can think of, someone will still do it and try to win battles by attrition. A very boring prospect for sure.
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Did Conan use a flat value for damage reduction, or a range (i.e. a die roll). Damage reduction 4 will stop a dagger everytime (provided there's no strength bonus behind it), but damage reduction 1d8 may let one slip through. Of course, it means more dice rolling - something I try to avoid, but other people enjoy.

johns wrote:
Did Conan use a flat value for damage reduction, or a range (i.e. a die roll). Damage reduction 4 will stop a dagger everytime (provided there's no strength bonus behind it), but damage reduction 1d8 may let one slip through. Of course, it means more dice rolling - something I try to avoid, but other people enjoy.

Flat. There are already tooo much die rolls involved. My ideas for simplifying things went (almost all) unheard

rabindranath72 wrote:
You could try a rule like the one in Call of Cthulhu, that is put a damage threshold, beyond which a character dies even if he has a large sum of hit points. I tested this approach, and found that a threshold of Con hit points works fine enough in most cases.

In Stormbringer (another BRP incarnation), anyone sustaining damage equal to 1/2 their HP suffered a Major Wound. I find that a satisfying way of introducing some pain, without just automatically killing them. Of course, in BRP, HP don't increase after chargen, but I think the idea works in either case.

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In Stormbringer (another BRP incarnation), anyone sustaining damage equal to 1/2 their HP suffered a Major Wound. I find that a satisfying way of introducing some pain, without just automatically killing them.

Yeah, I think that whatever you do, you don't want to introduce a completely new mechanic or additional dice rolls.