Questions or observations regarding the rules

This subforum is for discussion of the Iron Falcon Rules for Classic Fantasy Role-Playing. Maybe someday they'll have their own forum, but for now I'm keeping the discussion here.
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Rhialto
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Questions or observations regarding the rules

Post by Rhialto »

I recently bought pdf copies of the original game our of curiosity and found - probably like most "younger" gamers (meaning I started RPing in the late 80s) - that they are vague on many points and not terribly well organized.

So I really appreciate the effort made by Solomoriah on making IF such a clean and concise ruleset in the same spirit.

One thing I was wondering about when comparing the original and IF rules:
if I read the originial rules correctly, points from ability scores are not traded.
It is just that certain classes can treat their prime requisite as being higher for the purpose of XP awards if they also have good scores in other abilities.
For example, a fighter with INT 11 (2 points above 9) and WIS 12 (3 points above 9) can treat his STR as being 2 points higher for computing his XP bonus.

In IF, ability scores points are actually traded.
So a question for Solomoriah: is that intentional, or do you interpret the original rules differently?

My other observation is fairly trivial: the sample character has no hitpoints. Is that an oversight?
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Solomoriah
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Re: Questions or observations regarding the rules

Post by Solomoriah »

Rhialto wrote:One thing I was wondering about when comparing the original and IF rules: if I read the originial rules correctly, points from ability scores are not traded.
It is just that certain classes can treat their prime requisite as being higher for the purpose of XP awards if they also have good scores in other abilities. For example, a fighter with INT 11 (2 points above 9) and WIS 12 (3 points above 9) can treat his STR as being 2 points higher for computing his XP bonus.

In IF, ability scores points are actually traded.
So a question for Solomoriah: is that intentional, or do you interpret the original rules differently?
The rule in Iron Falcon is intentional. I have it on good authority that it was a common house rule; of course, you can do it however you want.
Rhialto wrote:My other observation is fairly trivial: the sample character has no hitpoints. Is that an oversight?
I would say that not having hit points is always an oversight.
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Rhialto
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Re: Questions or observations regarding the rules

Post by Rhialto »

Thanks for the answers.
Solomoriah wrote:The rule in Iron Falcon is intentional. I have it on good authority that it was a common house rule; of course, you can do it however you want.
Sure, but I am also interested in figuring out how the original game was meant to be played.
And points trading has a completely different "flavor" than giving an effective increase to the prime requisite.
The former encourages turning any fighter into a doofus who neglected his education in favor of physical exercise. The latter gives a small mechanical benefit to smart fighters.
Also, with points trading, it doesn't make sense to me that a wizard cannot lower Strength to gain Intelligence (thus neglecting physical exercise in favor of education). The other rule appears more sound, since Strength has no bearing on a wizard's studies, so it should not allow him to level faster.

BX and BECMI made points trading the official rule, but they also unified the exchange rate and permitted wizards to lower Strength for Intelligence.
Rhialto wrote:I would say that not having hit points is always an oversight.
:D
BTW, are you collecting errata somewhere?
I think I spotted a few trivial things.
Or is R53 not on your agenda right now?
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Re: Questions or observations regarding the rules

Post by Solomoriah »

I'd be happy if you posted an errata thread. I have no problem with doing another release in a few months.

In the interim, I'll consider whether or not to make the points trading (as it is in IF now) optional, and provide the "standard" rule for experience. The main downside is that I'd have to add an example section.
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