Topics for February Rules Symposium

[flemingb]

With the November event fresh in mind, I thought I'd start a post to create a list of topics that players would like to see addressed at the rules symposium in three months.

Alchemy vs. Herbalism. Jay (Ba'tarus), who is an alchemist, and I (an herbalist) have had a few discussions on this topic. Many of the ideas I've saged have been granted with the clause "lasts until the end of the next encounter." I'd like to aruge in favor of legthening the duration to "until the next reset." I understand that as a producer, I earn productive every month-regardless if we have an event and the mage only gets Gni at events. However, I have the token 10 gni, and I get almost as much gni per event as I do productive for the month. Gni can also be earned back during events, just as I can earn productive during events.

Example:
I've saged a Willpower 2 potion (which should be named Magic Resistance by next year). For an alchemist, it is a Journeyman elixir. It takes Order1, Creation2, and Defense3. Only the Defense3 has to be a component. The other two can be herbs. To make the elixir it costs 6 gni and 2 mauri. This elixir lasts "until the next reset."

For the herbalist, it is a Master level potion. I need a Power4, Vision3, and Willpower5. They can all be herbs. To make the potion it costs me 8 productive and 24 mauri. This potion lasts "until the end of the encounter."

I'm not asking for them to be cheaper, just the duration to be the same. With what I have to put into a potion, it is comparable to the elixirs.

Alchemy is already more powerful than herbalism. Example-an alchemist's lowest heal elixir is 4. An herbalist's highest healing is 3. Personally, I feel they should be more equal. One is gni based the other is productive based. The same amount of time and resources are put into them.

Another topic I'd like to see addressed is glyphs. I realize what is required to create one, but I think the 1 inch by 1 inch glyph is too small for how powerful they are. Maybe a 3X5 card size like scrolls would be better.

That's all I've got for now. I'm sure I'll find some others before February.

[Jennifer]

Not that this is the symposium, but isn't it cheaper to become an Herbalist than an Alchemist (CP wise) and isn't that why herbalism potions that do the same type of things as alchemist ones are more expensive?

Here's a topic that came up at the event: now that we have a character that is using the Bow, we need to get the rules around that down. Such as enchantments like Sharpen. Do I sharpen the bow and it passes that on to each arrow? Or do I Sharpen the arrows... which would suck if the spell only works on one at a time! Also, are arrows retrievable? And if there's a "unless they break" rule on that, how is it determined if they break since we don't want to physically be breaking the expensive physreps?

[JStalks]

I would think the threshold rules apply, which depends entirely on what the arrows are made from. If that's the case, though, that creates an easy "safety net" for a player to crouch under. No one wants to break their precious weapon, but even the best warrior/archer has that "whoopsie" every once in awhile. Sometimes its even necessary. I digress, as that brings in irrelevant topics. Another suggestion would be to allow a warrior's "Parry" to, say, "auto-shatter" an arrow.

Besides, being an archer has its obvious inherent advantages, with its own natural drawbacks. It takes time to draw an arrow. Sure, the player is "limited" by the one second swing timer. Unfortunately, I've never seen someone or even a video that depicts an archer firing an arrow every second. No one's that fast or kinesthetically aware. With that in mind, it takes longer for an archer to pull back an arrow, then he/she has to aim. On top of that, should the archer ever get caught in melee, its too dangerous to fire at that close of range (both mechanically and metaphorically), so they're forced to drop the bow and go for their sword.

Archery rules, though not thought of yet, are probably going to be pretty easy to come up with.

Onto my questions ::

In the rulebook the refining list mentions certain materials required to make other metals. Tin appears multiple times in the "reagents", but never as a metal itself. Does tin count as something else, or is this simply an error?

Looking at the tinkering profession again, I've noticed that it by itself practically steps on All of the other professions' toes. I would really like to know where "the line" is for tinkering. I seriously see no limit to the profession. Though all of Juniper's ideas will be at the mercy of the Doug and the Kurt.

Not really "rules" questions, but, I hope they're relevant??

[Rorik]

I am going to only answer the things we already have down (but maybe were not in the rulebook).

Arrows/Bows: The damage of the arrow is decided by the damage of the bow. If you sharpen the bow it is added to the damage of the arrows. The threshold of the arrows are the important part of them, also the material the tips are made out off will decide the damage type (i.e.- normal/silver/iron). Other than that the rules for hybrid weapons apply to the arrows.

These are our current guidelines for each category:
Enchanter: Duration spells (90% of the time)
Incanter: instant spells
Alchemy: duplicate of Enchanter and Incanter Spells (lasts until sunup/sundown)
Herbalism: duplicate of Enchanter and Incanter Spells (lasts for one encounter)
Talismans: one shot uses
Tinkerer: duplication of all other skills with limitations on uses and recharging.

This list does not discount Becky's arguments but I just wanted to make sure we had our list out in the open. We haven't posted it previously because we wanted people to not be limited with their sageries.

[Rorik]

... and please keep on posting ides for the symposium, they will help everyone get an idea about what will be discussed.

[jwconvery]

The 'weapon strike' calls being called post-swing, even post-contact, seemed to be an exploitable loophole you might want to address. Especially with different attack needed to hit different targets.

If I'm a master shatter-er and Maimer, I can swing at you. If i hit a limb then "Weapon Strike Maim" if you block "Weapon strike Shatter", If i hit body, "5 normal", If I miss, no call, but then I can re-swing in under a second.

I didn't see anyone really exploting that when I played, but if definately could be. I like how on the defensive, you can block a Maim, but just move your weapon to avoid the shatter. It's a nice effect, removing the perma-turtle that you can get into. but the call needs to be finished before the swing, or you can get into the above issues.

My two cents.

-Joe