From: wah2@po.CWRU.Edu (William A. Humphrey)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Rolemaster Power Points
Date: 24 Jan 1993 05:13:18 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: slc12.ins.cwru.edu


In a previous message, bcash@crchh410.BNR.CA (Brian Cash), writes:

>Doesn't this just more incentive for people playing mages to be an elf?
>I think the races should be more equalized, or you end up with the common
>Highman=fighter, Elf=mage, Halfling=thief, Common Man=fishmonger combos.
>
>Just my 2 cents worth.

   Well, maybe.  But then again, the average of 10(d5+1) is 35, and the
average of 10(d4+1) is 30.  So a typical 10th level elven mage has 5 base
PPs more than a typical 10th level human mage.  The modified total PPs are
likely to be a little more unbalanced because elves have racial bonuses to
all of the power stats (PR, EM & IN).  A typical elven stat bonus for a power
stat is about +20, while a human's is more like +10.  So a typical 10th
level mage is likely to have 42 PPs if he is an elf, or about 33 PPs if he
is human.  This is a difference of one max-level spell per day.  This is a
significant difference, but not enough to make absolutely everyone who wants
to be a mage dismiss humans out of hand (BTW, common men get d4 PPs, high men
get d5s, just like elves.)  Also, consider that humans get more background
options than elves.

   The jist of all this is that under my system, elves are slightly more
intrinsically powerful in magic than humans, but humans are not exactly
slouches.  Which is exactly how I want it.

   In my campaign, out of every 10 PCs, 5 are some variety of human, 4 are
some variety of elf, and the last is some other, unusual (dwarf, gnome,
centaur,...) race.  I encourage my players to pick a race and profession
based on interest, not numbers.  Not all of the elves have been spell-users,
and there have been many human spell-casters as well.  I also set my campaign
on the Shadow World, and unless a player has a good (read intruiging)
background in mind, the PC must be from a "local" race (and elven nations
are far between).

   Well, I see that I've strayed from the subject.  So I'll sum up and then
shut up.  I use the Power Point development skill just like Body Development
in order to maximize the consistency in how I handle the rules.  I assigned
the PP die types by race (just like the dice for Body Dev.) based on
perceived and desired levels of innate magical prowess, and the base PP
maximums likewise.  The total number of PPs available to the average spell-
user is roughly equal to the number available to the best spell-user under
the core rules at low to medium levels, and slightly less at high levels.
The rate at which PPs are recovered is limited, mitigating the increased
PP totals available.  And finally, this all works for me in my campaign
because I am fortunate to have a group of true role-players who do not
expend any great efforts in min-maxing their characters (in fact, some of
my players HAVE to be role-players and not min-maxers; they don't know the
"rules" well enough to do so!)
-- 
					Bill H
50 Years Ago Today (or thereabouts):			14 January 1943
* Roosevelt & Churchill attend the Casablanca Conference to plan the invasion
of Europe.
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc,rec.games.frp.advocacy