Re: MERP pre-begginer's questions

From: "D. Hall-Harris" <bakor@u.washington.edu>

Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 00:00:00 +0000

On Mon, 19 Jan 1998, Stanley, the Daredevil Crow! wrote:

> I'm interested in playing MERP but i like to understand the rules of a
> game before i play it. This is relatively easy for most games these days
>
> Minor:
> The faq hints and suggestions lists an example where aCommander would
> move using move order #850 but an Agent moves at #810; are there
> seperate move order #s for each class or is this a missprint?

Command 850 (Move Army) is how an *Army* Commander moves his army. Command
810 (move Character) is how any character moves by themselves. Note that
the mechanics of moving varies (characters pick a space within 12 hexes,
armies move directionally one hex at a time).

> The rules talk about buying and selling materials from caravans in your
> towns. Do the caravans automatically give worse prices to players(i.e.
> does it offer to buy "wood" at 50 while at the same time sell it at 70)

Yes, this is essentially the situation (but divide by a factor of 10).
However, as the buy and sell prices change every turn based on supply and
demand, you can still successfully speculate, if you have the resources.

> Is there a difference btween "Name New Character" and "Name New
> Character as"; and, if so, could you please explain it to me.

The "Name New Character As" order starts you off with a single classed
character with a starting rank of up to 30 (up to 40 if you have that
specail ability). This order must be issued by a character of the same
class as the one that you're creating, and the new character's starting
rank can't be any higher than that of the character that created it.

The "Name New Character" order allows you to put 30 skill points in
whatever combination of classses that you like. This is the only way to
create a multi-classed character. You *could* put all 30 points into one
class if you wanted to, and that is what the example was referring to.

You may have found the FAQ's confusing, but if you actually read the text
of the orders in the rules, they're very helpful. They're written
checklist fashion, so they're pretty dry, but I think very
straightforward.

Good luck!
Fred

References

MERP pre-begginer's questions
"Stanley, the Daredevil Crow!" <samcraig@io.com>
Mon, 19 Jan 1998 00:00:00 +0000