House Rules

Character Generation

I use a version of Jane Williams' Character Generation system:

The PC gets experience from his/her parents from the age of five up to initiation/adulthood (in my game, these are one and the same).
The PC's age is rolled on a D10
They then get Initiate experience plus experience from the PC's chosen occupation up to two years less than the age that they have rolled
The PC then gets two year's worth of development at the Player's decretion
I then take into consideration the PC's background, where he/she comes from etc., and make adjustments. This avoids creating carbon copy PCs.

Skills

First of all, the skill modifiers (Agility, Knowledge, Communication, etc) are kept separate from the skill totals (base + experience + training). This is because these two figures change at different rates, and it makes book-keeping easier. When a skill roll is required, the player simply adds the two figures together.

I have introduced a new skill. It comes under Knowledge and is called 'Cult Lore'. This starts at a base of 20. Initiates of a cult recieve 2 points/year (from initiation), laymen 1point/year. It is a measure of how well versed the PC is with his/her cult's doctrine. This may effect encounters with NPC's, reactions to the actions of other PCs, superstition and so on. It can also be an aid in giving clues (who would do such a thing) to PC's.

Fatigue

Not happy with the fatigue rules provided for Runequest, I have made this attempt at devising my own. They are still under development and playtesting, but please feel free to take a copy and use them yourself. I only ask that you give me some feedback in return.

The rules for Runequest III state that fatigue points are the total of the PC's STR + CON. A PC loses 1FP per round of combat or normal movement, and 2FP/round for more vigourous activity. Once FP's fall below zero, the PC loses 1% from all of his/her/its skills and resistance rolls for every further point lost, until he/she/it reaches a maximum negative of STR + CON, at which point the PC collapses. FP's are also lost by travelling (1FP/hour) , riding (1FP/90 mins), or by being knocked out or placed into shock (all FP's lost).

FP's are recovered at a rate of 1D3 - 1 per round of rest, which means that a completely exhausted character who has been travelling all day, mugged and beaten unconscious can be up and ready to run again after about four minutes of rest. This is silly.

So here's my idea:

PC's have two sets of fatigue points - let's call them first and second wind.

First Wind points are equal to CON, and are lost at the following rates:

1 per round of combat or normal movement
2 per round for more vigourous activity
2 for each magic point used in spellcasting or spirit combat

Once all available First Wind points are used up, the PC starts to lose Second Wind points at the same rate. First Wind points are recovered at a rate of one per round.

Second Wind points are equal to the average of STR + CON, and are lost either as a result of the PC running out of First Wind points or from heavier physical activity not covered above - travelling, carrying heavy objects, a day's work at the Zebra Pens, etc.

Rates of loss should be left up to referees to decide, but I think that the standard rules for such activities should be inserted here, with some changes:

Travelling time is replaced by distance:

walking (2 points/kilometre)
riding (1 point/kilometre)

and I'd suggest the following:

Carrying stuff (1 point/5 ENC)
Physical labour (1 point/30 mins)
Injury (1 point/point of damage taken)

With every Second Wind point lost, the PC loses 5% from all skills and resistance rolls. Second Wind points are recovered at a rate of one every 5 minutes. Once all available Second Wind points are used up, the PC starts to lose temporary CON points.

Healing

This idea was suggested on the Glorantha Digest by Luc Laverne. I thought it was a good one, do I stole it.

Here is an alternative rule to include some kind of long term effect to wounds. The rule is simple : just one heal spell can be cast at a single wound per day. So if Arquak the duck received two sword blows from one of Delecti's skeletons, Zara, a duck healer with a heal 3 spell, could cast one spell at the first wound (a 4 point blow to the abdomen without any armor, so there's still 1 point left to be recovered later) and another for the other wound (a 6 point blow to the head, blocked by 4 points of armor from Arquak's helmet, leaving 2 points to be healed completely by the Heal 3 spell)

Also, to make such partially recovered wounds affect the character, each HP lost to a hit location would reduce all skills using this particular location by 1 point. So, Arquak the duck would suffer from a 1% penalty to any agility skill, and some other skills where his legs, or abdom, is useful. Wound to the chest would affect all actions using anything below the head.

A side effect to the use of this rule is to make heal 6 spells much more powerful than six heal 1 spells. This way, a warrior with the heal 1 spell would maybe refrain from casting it to his major wound, since he would have to wait a day until he could cast it again, or whoever else on this particular wound. It also makes a difference between a lot of small scratches and one single deep and open wound.

Of course, players will have to take note of the wounds they received, which is just normal. CA healers could have some advantage over this, such as beaing able to cast several spells at a single wound ...

If you have any comments or suggestions to improve these rules, please feel free to mail me.