Column Shift

[dantai]

Hi guys,

Concerning column shift, I checked all the other games that use the ZeFRS system, and they all make it very clear that a column shift involves moving by one of the smaller columns. Not sure why nobody else thought to check this. Also not sure why the Conan RPG was the only game that didn't make this clear. I can see no purpose for the bold lines at all.

[markkrawec]

Aug 6, 2014 3:33:36 GMT -5 dantai said:

Hi guys,

Concerning column shift, I checked all the other games that use the ZeFRS system, and they all make it very clear that a column shift involves moving by one of the smaller columns. Not sure why nobody else thought to check this. Also not sure why the Conan RPG was the only game that didn't make this clear. I can see no purpose for the bold lines at all.

I don't have it in front of me right now but as I remember it, the chart on the back of the main Conan book didn't have lines for each of the smaller columns. It literally only had lines at -25 & lower, -15, -10, -5, 0, 5, 10, 15, & 25+ (or something like that). If there had been lines for the smaller columns I don't think there ever would have been any controversy at all.

[mfjj]

I've always read it as moving along the narrow columns, that's how it was done in MSH. I kind of blame that game for the confusing language in the rules. In MSH, you didn't go by a numerical stat, but by Typical/Good/Excellent/etc. Saying to move a number of columns right or left was really the only way to make adjustments.

In Conan/ZeFRS, everything is a number, so it would probably be easier just to have modifiers be stated as adjustments to the stat or skill being rolled against. For instance, I have sword skill of 5, attacking someone with movement skill of 2, while in darkness (a -6 modifier) would have me roll on the -3 column. It would lead to differences at the far ends of each side of the chart where each column corresponds to a range of numbers rather than one single number, but those situations would be rare.

I've been working on a revision of the rules, and that was my solution: just removing the term "column shift" entirely.