Rules that would be realistic, but be a real drag to have to use

[kitsune9]

For me, Traveller 2300 and 2300 AD had very lethal combat. If you have armor where you got hit, you're likely dead. And if you survived, you're likely to go into shock and go unconscious. God help you if a explosion goes off and you're just near it, not in it. The concussive blast alone will take you out.

In a convention that I went to, there was a couple of guys who created a sci-fi rpg and it was a really fun session they ran, but combat was very complex. If you got hit, you had to deal with hit locations, damage, trauma, shock, and blood loss. Combat, like Traveller 2300 or 2300 AD was lethal. Getting shot once was likely to put you down for the rest of the adventure. Duck and cover were very critical mechanics to follow if you got caught in a shoot-out.

Still, the session was fun, but I can see that if one is not prepared to deal with all the mechanics, it can grind the combat to a screeching halt. The character sheet itself was a small booklet of 16 pages.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Critical failure rules for combat. Speaking from years of experience in combat sports, even games like Rolemaster are fairly generous to PCs. In a real thirty-two person tournament, it's not uncommon to see one or more people drop their weapons, people appearing to hit themselves, one or more stumbles, and so forth. And while my game of choice produces almost no injuries due to strikes, due to our padded weapons, I have seen numerous cases of injured knees, pulled groins, wrenched wrists, and twisted ankles, almost all of which could be described as mainly self-inflicted. And when you include more minor events, people slip and lose their footing, or their grip, with great frequency. If you played out a fight realistically, it would probably seem like a slapstick comedy with gruesome punchlines.

Anyone ever found some equipment durability rules they actually like?

I like the weapon breakage (which I'm adapting to critical fumble) rules in 4e Dark Sun. If you roll a natural 1 you may reroll the to hit roll. If you choose not to reroll (i.e. you play it safe) nothing happens except you miss. But if you reroll, not only do you get a chance to hit, you get a chance to botch badly. (You botch if you miss at present - I'm going to experiment with you botch on an even, meaning that you can have your weapon break or otherwise fumble after you hit).

In AD&D 2nd ed, the optional rule about Weapon type vs Armor Modifier. While certian weapons probably do better against specific types of armor, it just is another layer of rule text you need to muddle through to get to the end result. Then again, it was optional.

This is again an implementation problem. Those rules sucked - but I have a soft spot for the Rolemaster to hit vs armour type tables as massively flexible and not too hideous to look up while giving weapons the right feel (and something I want to see in an MMO).

 

[Wik]

I like the weapon breakage (which I'm adapting to critical fumble) rules in 4e Dark Sun. If you roll a natural 1 you may reroll the to hit roll. If you choose not to reroll (i.e. you play it safe) nothing happens except you miss. But if you reroll, not only do you get a chance to hit, you get a chance to botch badly. (You botch if you miss at present - I'm going to experiment with you botch on an even, meaning that you can have your weapon break or otherwise fumble after you hit).

Change it to botch on an odd number - that way, your weapon breaks on a 1, and doesn't break on a critical, which will mesh more closely with most players assume D&D should play.

 

[Celebrim]

There are a lot of things either in rules or simply as aspects of the world which in practice you don't model because its simply too much trouble. Off the top of my head:

Realistic extent of and numbers of langauges.
Realistic extent of and numbers of coinages.
Accurate light source modeling.
Realistic wear and tear on equipment.

 

[The Shaman]

Change it to botch on an odd number - that way, your weapon breaks on a 1, and doesn't break on a critical, which will mesh more closely with most players assume D&D should play.

But wouldn't it be cooler if you could break a weapon on, or in, your opponent?!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Realistic extent of and numbers of langauges.

This one puzzled me.

Then again, I know 2 languages pretty well- English as a native speaker and German as a 3 year resident (with subsequent returns)- plus a smattering of a few others. And I know a whole bunch of Multi-multilingual people too. The average number of languages learned by teachers at my HS was somewhere around 5...and a few were in double digits.

 

[Thunderfoot]

The "common" tongue as a trade language. I posted a bit a while back about a human male trying to hook up with a female elf at the tavern using nothing but trade talk. When you break down a one-night stand and the subsequent breakfast preference into mergers and acquisitions or legalese language (something in which I'm sure Danny is proficient) it takes on quite a darkly humorous, yet shockingly realistic interpretation of said language.

"How do you prefer the preparation of your medium-sized poultry ovum?"

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

This one puzzled me.

Then again, I know 2 languages pretty well- English as a native speaker and German as a 3 year resident (with subsequent returns)- plus a smattering of a few others. And I know a whole bunch of Multi-multilingual people too. The average number of languages learned by teachers at my HS was somewhere around 5...and a few were in double digits.

I think he means there should be many, many more languages. Many, many, many, many more, since not only are the languages of various human polities likely to differ (and not all be common), but you'll have different languages for orc tribes, differing varieties of elvish and dwarvish from their isolated groups, etc. Sure, the Big Empires of Yore probably spread their languages (just as the Romans did), and the lifespans of demihumans may reduce the rate at which language drifts, but there should still be vastly more languages than just Common, Elf, Dwarf, etc.

Also, accents; sure, you may *technically* speak the same language, but you may not be able to understand what each other say. One of my co-workers could not understand a word that this caller from rural Tennessee said over the phone. She had to hand it to me, since I'm from Kentucky, and I was able to understand the lady just fine*.

Reading about the conquistadors a while back, one of the big things was that they had to find intepreters about every other tribe. One (maybe De Soto?) had to have a chain of like 5-6 interpreters to get by; you can imagine the complete and utter misunderstandings that ensued.

Brad (* - I speak English, a bit of French and Spanish, and Appalachian Southern)

 

[Thunderfoot]

I believe there were 7 interpreters on the Lewis and Clarke expedition, and they only went from St. Louis to near modern day Astoria, Oregon.

 

[drothgery]

I believe there were 7 interpreters on the Lewis and Clarke expedition, and they only went from St. Louis to near modern day Astoria, Oregon.

Well, that's roughly 2000 miles by 21st century highways. A similar-length trip through Europe (say, from Madrid to Athens, which isn't much longer than St. Louis to Portland), again over 21st-century highways, passes through 8 countries, most of which speak different languages today (and a few regions that historically spoke different languages or at least dialects so distinct they used to be nearly incomprehensible).