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Questions:

  1. Fighting with two Quickness weapons at the same time.
  2. How quick is Quickness with a two-handed sword?
  3. How much to make oneself decent?
  4. Determining number of attacks and types of damage.
  5. When do attribute bonuses kick in (rounding)
  6. Can Totems be recharged?
  7. Skills, how learn so fast?


Fighting with two Quickness weapons at the same time.

Date: Fri, 19 Sep 1997 23:33:40 -0500 (CDT)
Reply-to: Hephestuss@aol.com (Dan Lawson)
From: Hephestuss@aol.com (Dan Lawson)
Subject: Rules Lore

The following comments were submitted via The Rule's Lore FORM:

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I am running a campaign currently and have ran into a bit of a delema. If a character has two weapons of quickness, do both attacks go off on the first segment of the combat round?

Dan Lawson

Dan,

Thanks for your question. If you have a character that has two weapons of quickness and has two attacks in a single series, then yes, the first attack from each weapon will occur during the first segment or second of that series. So, if a character had two attacks per series and two quickness weapons, both of their attacks would always occur in "1"'s. Essentially, they wouldn't need to roll an initive dice.

If the character had say 3 attacks per series, then in each series, they would get two attacks in 1's and then need to roll an initiative dice for the 3rd attack of the series.

Hope that answers your question.
-Pharaoh Games

Swords

How quick is Quickness with a two-handed sword?

Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 18:53:20 -0500 (CDT)
Reply-to: hadesme@aol.com (David)
From: hadesme@aol.com (David)
Subject: Rules Lore

The following comments were submitted via The Rule's Lore FORM:

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We have been playing your game for a while and ran into a small delimina. Is a two-handed sword with the quickness enhancemenst still taking the 1 sec penalty due to its size or will the magic allow it to go off on 1?

David

David,

You know... that's a really good question! First, sorry for taking awhile to respond to the question.

The quickness enhancement will allow the first attack of a series with a two-handed weapon to occur in "ones" automatically. By the book, since we did not cover it, subsequent initiatives in the series would incure the two-handed delay. However, Lew, (our Arbiter in our own campaign) rules that it would also negate the 1 second delay for a two-handed weapon. Therefore, if you had two attacks in a series, the first one would automatically be in 1's and the second would be your initiative roll without the 1 second penalty. This would make sense.
-Pharaoh Games

Swords

How much to make oneself decent?

I borrowed the core rules to Pelicar from my brother a while back, and found it to be a really great system. But... I think i have an addition to your oops! section. It seems some equipment has been left off the lists, specifically clothing. Now, you may assume a starting character has sufficient clothes for decency and the climate, but what about when the hero needs a really snazy outfit for the awards diner in his honor? how much will a female adventurer need to shell out to look good at the ball? maybe you could post the answers to these questions on the oops page and return me to sanity.

yours to the apocalypse,

Sean

Sean Thompson
G.E.M. E.M.U (via the Internet)

Sean,

Thanks for your question! I looked over the price list and found an even bigger Oops! We're missing the costs for 9 weapons! (smacks hand on forehead) I'll discuss it with the guys to see what kind of cost there would be that an average adventurer would spend and then post it along with the Weapon Costs on our Oops page.

Our thoughts on the matter are that you could conceivably spend almost any amount on an outfit. For most folks, an outfit that cost around 250 bits would be very nice indeed. This is roughly 1 month's income for a store merchant.

Most adventurers that are rolling in the $$$ would probably spend a minimum of 4000 bits, which is how much a self-cleaning outfit costs (as listed in the Magical Devices.. granted, most of the cost here is magical enchantment and gems which might possibly be woven into the fabric to hold the enchantment). Keeps the food and wine stains off, and so on. It could however have exotic fabrics and gems woven into it raising the cost even higher. A self-cleaning suit is typically formal/evening wear for such an occasion as a ball and is tailored to the individual.
-Pharaoh Games

Swords

Number of attacks and types of damage.

Dear sir,

I have just recently acquired the Pelicar game system. So far, I am very happy with what I have read. I do have some questions I hope you can clarify:

1. How do you calculate the number of attacks per melee?

2. How do you determine what damage is normal, major, and critical?

ANTHONY J. HOLTZMAN (via the internet)

Anthony,

Thanks for your question. I do not know if you know about it, but the OOPS page on our website at answers your first question (we inadvertently left out a table with the information; although, it is hinted at in places, e.g., the conqueror example on page 39). Basically, for every 75 attack bonus in Weapon Skills (only counting the weapon skill slots, not Strength Bonuses and so on), you gain an additional 1/2 attack.

For your second question, the differing types of damage come into play with the Critical Hit chart. There are also some spells which deliver major damage as opposed to minor. But, in melee, Critical Hits give the possibility for delivering major and severe damage or wounds. For example, on page 47, look at the critical hits in the range of 470-479.
-Pharaoh Games

Swords

In A Roundabout Way...

You never mention in the manual as to round attributes up or to only gain the new abilities after it has been raised a full point. In my campaign I had it be only after the whole point had been trained since I had no clue. Could you please fill me in on this.

Thanx in advance,

Kirk Haines (via the internet)

Kirk,

Congratulations; you caught an error that we had not yet found. We will soon be adding this to our OOPS page. Although we mention in several places that attributes can carry decimal points, we never explain how to deal with them.

Whether you allow your players to round up of the .5 mark or make them wait until they reach the next whole number, probably will not have a huge effect on the game. However, the original intent was that the decimal points were only markers as to how close one was to the next ability, modifier or whatever. A 33.99 Reflexes only conveys +16 to defense, -4 to initiative and +24 to skills. The score should be a full 34 before moving up to +18/-5/+27. Furthermore, the number only counts as 33 for the calculation of base defense, saves, checks or any other need to use the attribute in a formula.

Thanks for pointing out our mistake. If you catch others, let us know. Thanks again.

And thanks for playing Pelicar! Game on!
-Pharaoh Games

Swords

The Charged Totem...Don't Leave The Temple Without It!

I am preparing to run Pelicar for the gaming society here at the University of Utah, and have a question. Is the totem consumed by the release of the last spell rank stored in it? Or can it be refilled? If it can be refilled, is any preparation required?

Thanks,

Bryan Gardner (via the Internet)

Bryan,

Totems do not become useless when they are emptied. In fact, they are generally purchased empty. When a character of a priestly profession receives spells each morning, the deity essentially places certain energies within the character's biofield. When casting a spell, these energies can be released by the priest to produce a magical effect. When charging a totem, this energy is transferred into the fine wood or stone sculpture. In order to accomplish this, the character is appealing to his god (actually minions of the god) to do the transfer. However, this requires no more time than casting the spell would, but the spell is no longer available for casting (as it essentially has been cast into the totem).

Once the totem is charged, any one who meets the requirements can evoke the energies held within. The advantage to the priest is that his biofield can now receive new spells the next morning, hence increasing his "bank" of casting ability. From my experience, the incantations which are situational and less commonly used are the best for totems. Examples would be: Munificence, Speak with Animals, Poison Absorption, and Underwater Breath. Such spells a priest might not use for months, but if he needs them, he really needs them.

Thanks for writing. It's great to here about another Pelicar campaign starting up. Also, please let us know how the campaign is going. We may be interested in having your campaign (events) influence the real Pelicar timeline.
-Pharaoh Games

Swords

Skills, how learn so fast?

Um, your game seems pretty cool (I ran into it at GenCon), but I have a problem with your skills section. You set up the skills brilliantly - The one shot things, the percent things, and the level things, but you screwed up. You put some skills in places where they should not be, in particular the Musical Instrument and Singing skills. I am a musician, and I sing as well, and first off, when you're ten days into learning how to sing, you are *NOT* a virtuoso. Ten days into singing lessons, you're still learning how to breathe correctly. And singers don't get very much of the theory neccessary to compose music. They get almost none of it, actually. Music Theory and Composition should be two seperate skills, and *ALL* of them should be percentile based.

Thank you,

Jessica

Dear Jessica:

You are absolutely correct. Here on earth, one cannot possibly learn a musical instrument or how to sing properly in only ten days. However, Pelicar is not Earth. Most, if not all, of our skills have very short training times compared to the amount of knowledge learned. Its funny that you mentioned the same skill our publishing editor did. Due to our concepts of the biofield, the influence on mankind by the gods, and a bit of superheroism, these things are possible. It could be said that the skills are absorbed rather than learned. As a character gains levels their biofield, in effect, makes room for new abilities. Keep in mind in the Pelicar system, characters become great heros capable of falling off a high cliff and living. At the higher end of the multi-skills, even levitation is possible. Fantasy-world physics are different than here on Earth. Our skills system allows one to learn Math I in only 20 days. This is going from learning to count to calculus in only three weeks. Obviously, learning on Pelicar is different than learning on Earth.

Thanks a lot for trying out our game. If you find a need to tweak the system to your liking, then go ahead. We have put a lot of thought into the game, but the goal is for you to enjoy it. It would be very simple to run the game, making music and singing percentile skills.
-Pharaoh Games

Swords

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