01-14-2013, 12:27 AM | #11 | |||||
Banned
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Europe
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Re: Better Aging Rules
Quote:
Originally, OPs accumulated at slightly different speeds for Humans, depending on living conditions. That part was inspired by Ars Magica living condition modifiers. But in Sagatafl living condition modifiers would instead change the OP interval, so that from a norm of 3 Years/OP it might change to 2.5 or 3.5 Years, or even to 2 Years or 4 Years. But long ago I decided to drop that and go with a constant 3 Years. Also, yes it is very nice as a "damage currency". For some kinds of magical attacks, e.g. if the attack-touch of a Wraith causes aging, as well as for severe spellcasting or Enchanting Fumbles. In a humano-centric setting, you can achieve much the same simply by using years-of-aging as its own damage currency. In a way that would fit with GURPS, where in 4th Edition much of the reason for the high cost of the various aging-resistant Advantages is that they confer resistance or even immunity to rapidly induced aging. That becomes a wrong dynamic if you want to have rapid aging as one of several possible consequences of a magic use Fumble, though. Then you need it to suck as bad as Elves as for Humans, at least if Fear-of-Fumbles is intended to be an in-world brake on magic usage, as it is in Sagatafl/rÄth. As for Decreptitude Points, I might well end up using something similar to that in Sagatafl. I haven't decided yet. The Aging rules aren't a high priority, actually. Quote:
As for when Aging Rolls start, I'm not yet sure, but I'll definitely go for something closer to Ars Magica than to GURPS. In both 4th and 5th Edition Ars Magica, Aging Rolls start at the age of 35. Originally, Sagatafl's OP would accumulate from birth. That made sense when combined with the variable interval, e.g. 1 OP per 2.5 Years for poor living conditions. but with that gone, it would make more sense to have OP start accumulating at age 36. Or maybe even at age 30, but with an RD bonus for the first 3 or 4 rolls, so it's not until age 39 or 42 that you make unmodified rolls. TL (or TeL in Sagatafl) can delay the onset of aging, or it can be based on a combination of access to modern medicine (again TeL-dependent, although some kinds of magic might enable medicine to function as better-than-world-TL - as I've pointed out elsewhere, that would work well in GURPS) a and quality-of-lifestyle. The poorest Westerners still live fairly good lives, compared to the average medieval nobleman or -woman, after all. Quote:
And aging only really becomes relevant in a campaign that spans a lot of in-world time. Such campaigns are rare, and players signing up for such campaigns can be expected to tolerate a bit more book-keeping, especially of mechanics that only come up once a year or so, such as Aging Rolls. One possibility is to make decline-rolls for attributes affected by aging, so that you make a roll and if it is lower than the value of the attribute, the attribute declines. That serves to affect very high attributes faster and earlier. But it happens to be contrary to everything I know about how intelligence works, and I like being able to simulate geniuses. So the opposite kind of roll, where if you roll lower than the attribute, it doesn't decline, might work better. Quote:
One thing I decided long ago was that I didn't want the use of lead water piped to have any effect on Aging Rolls, or indeed on anything else, because that would simply provoke players into metagamey anaochronistic thinking, and I don't want to do that. So I think it's better just to have a general modifier for Lifestyle rating. Do note, though, that Ars Magica takes the peculiar point of view that medieval "science" was right. So Mythic Europe doesn't have bacteria or viruses, and lead isn't toxic. Sagatafl instead takes the realistic approach of science-is-correct, which is also what GURPS, at least most of GURPS, takes. Quote:
Furthermore, there's some esoteric system design reason why in Sagatafl a permanent penalty to Constitution doesn't necessarily also result in a permanent penalty to stats derived from Con, but I won't go into that here. |
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ageing, aging, house rules, houserules |
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