First the defense is different than HEX. How is defense in Desolation derived? I asked this elsewhere, but this does seem like the more appropriate forum.

The equipment has a condition listed in the stat block. Does the weapon quality affect the hit/damage roll? Do weapons wear out at a specific rate or does the GM arbitrarily decide the condition of weapons? Such as fighting a fire something or rather (insert beastie) and surviving the weapon is slightly damaged from the intense heat?

The character appears to have most of the same starting numbes I'd expect to see in HEX, but the number of talents is even more impressive than a D20 style game. How do Talents and the number that a player receives derived? Do certain "classes" get more Talents than others?

I'd like to know a little more about the magic system.

Hello,

The Defense was wrong on the sneak peek. It is 5. Still editing ...

Weapon quality only matters when botches are rolled. A "good" piece of equipment is a botch away from becoming "worn." A "worn" weapon is a botch away from becoming broken. A GM could also determine that some actions (using a dagger as a shovel) would cause a "good" weapon to become "worn." Some types of improvised weapons do less damage than their well-made counterparts.

The extra Talents (and extra Flaws) are based on race. Each race has certain "free" Talents and accompanying Flaws.

In a nutshell ... A magic user must take a magic Talent and a Skill in order to cast spells. This gives him access to one magical tradition. The traditions are culturally based and have different possible spell effects. Any spell, even those cast successfully, can harm the magic user with Burn.

Hullo, Jamie,



Yeah, I had wondered about this...



This is something that I rather like, Jamie, as to be honest, I had concerns about how weapons could be broken in combat and get worn down. I had been using the botch idea for breaking weapons, never even considering the wear and tear on the weapons (which I should have, given the rarity of people to fix things and all), although I suppose that one could also argue that a character with a higher Strength than what is needed for the weapon could have a higher break chance as well. What about the wear and tear on armour? Handled the same way?



Love the stuff about Burn. A really...interesting.. concept and game mechanic that my players have come to love/hate.

"Why is there a Mark on my hand!!?? Did you just put that there while I was asleep, Tolor??"

It's handled similarly. If your armor takes a certain amount of damage over and above its Defense rating -- it's dropped down a notch on the good/worn/broken scale. Disclaimer: That one's still being debated among the team right now.

I like the idea about the higher Strength rating being more likely to break a weapon. Might be too crunchy from a rules standpoint ... something for us to think about.



Heh ... That one is fun. I played a dwarf who had that Talent. I had used my magic to keep a village alive during the Long Winter (made runes that kept fires burning hotter, etc.). Luckily they were grateful enough to volunteer to be marked and I didn't have to blackmail them. "You want heat? Well, I want to share a little Burn with you."

Hullo, Jamie,



Err, no...right off the bat, I would suggest changing this to a value of say, two or three times (I use 3 times in my own game right now), and that seems to work well. That's in one blow, mind.... it becomes worn, and the Defense rating drops by 1. The next blow that does that massive damage breaks the armour completely. You could use a rule where if the armour takes two consecutive blows at double the Defense rating, the armour drops.

Whatever the case, rather than make this a hard and fast set of rules, it's likely best to put them in a Sidebar and give the players the option of gritty, realistic armour damage and all.



I don't think it's a crunchy rule per se, just one of common sense. However, I can see the desire to keep the rules somewhat less realistic a factor as well. Assuming that one comes up with a rule for handling this, a Sidebar might be a good bet.



The line above is actually one from my player, Kathy, playing a thief who really disliked the fact that he Marked her. Btw, what was the name of your dwarft there? I want to add that tagline to my tagline file, and credit it to the right character!

Yes, at the moment the armor condition drops after taking a mighty blow of 3x its rating, but that could change.

Said dwarf is Kaelem Doene.

Hullo, Jamie,.



Actually, that seems about right to me. Are you thinking of making the multiplier higher or lower?



Thanks for the dwarf's name. Consider the tagline noted.

The only potential problem with the 3x I see is someone in leather or hide armor with a Def of 1 (which will likely be the most common armor in the After) having their armor cut to shreds in short order. But, life is tough in the After so maybe that's OK. It would certainly make tanners more popular.

Hullo, Jamie,



Yeah, that would be a problem with the 1 point armours for sure. However,, let's say that armours go like this in terms of protection

Cloth, Fur: 1 pt
Hide, Thick fur 2 pts
Leather 3 pts

That would mean that the leather could take 9 pts of damage in a singel shot before being damaged, whereas the 2-pt armour would take 6 pts to reach that condition, and the cloth would take 3 pts. (Assuming these are the values for the armour, of course.)

The problem with making the value x4 or x5 is that some of the tougher armour types will be virtually indestructible. That was why I went with the x3 modifier, since as you say, life is tough in the After.