[TORG] Lower limits of modification

[Tommy Tanaka]

On Sun, Oct 18, 2009 at 3:13 PM, Phil Dack <philipdack at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

>
>  ----- Original Message ----
> > From: Jasyn Jones <jasynj at gmail.com>
> >
> > So, the question: In baseline TORG, can nothing can have an attribute of
> 0? Does
> > 0 = Dead? And should it be that way? Or should we allow negative Stats?
>
> Definitely. Not a common set of circumstances, but I agree with you:
> perfectly logical in the rules, and I can't think of any mechanics that
> wouldn't work properly.
>
> I'm going to being unalive again now.
>
> Phil
>
>
Well, a couple of minor problems, like how much stun can something with a
TOU <= 0 take? Is it just automatically unconscious, or does it have to
actually take damage. And what about fatigue effects? How easily does an ant
fatigue?

Hmm. Let's see. Extending the Value Chart into negative values, a 3 mg ant
has a weight value of -12 and a Strength ranging from -7 to -4 (that's going
with the "ants can lift ten to fifty times their weight" claims.) I'm still
not sure what its Toughness should be, theoretically about on par with its
Strength. Though there's always going with the GURPS approach and having
split values (TOU 10 for purposes of stamina and general health, TOU -5 for
purposes of taking damage; that sort of thing.) There's some precedent for
that, both in that creatures can have natural armor adds, and that some
creatures have values for resisting interaction skills that are different
from their actual interaction skill values. On the gripping hand, why
exactly do we need precise statistics for an individual ant? D&D's Swarm
creature type is probably the right way to go. Unless some Weird Scientist
shrinks all the PCs down to the size of ants, and you want to have an
adventure based on that. (In which case you're better off using the PCs as
is and scaling up all of their encounters.)

-Tommy "Honey, I Shrunk the Storm Knights!" Tanaka

-- 
"Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often
it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it,
time runs out."
-Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.justintimeadventures.com/pipermail/torg/attachments/20091018/7ac79c08/attachment.html>