The Hoser Report Archive

THE HOSER REPORT
The strategy newsletter for Duelmasters

#6 July 14, 1987

$2.00

THE MANAGERS CORNER

A few issues ago a weapons table appeared in which I made some additions
such as giving a ME to a LUA, etc. I goofed. A LUA can be well suited to a
ME, in the off-hand. In the rush to get that issue out, I was less than careful
in my entries. and tended to forget that this was a primary hand chart. To
set the record straight, here is an excellent table I have received for this
information from the Duelmasters Handbook, compliments Mike La Plante:

BAS
STA
SLA
PST
LUA
PLU
WST
TPS
AIM
PRP
BA
M
W
W
W
U
U
W
U
U
U
HA
U
W
W
W
U
U
W
U
W
W
MS
W
W
U
M
U
U
W
U
U
U
WF
W
W
U
M
U
U
W
U
U
U
WH
W
W
U
W
U
U
U
M
W
U
MA
W
W
U
M
U
U
U
M
W
U
SS
U
W
U
W
W
W
U
W
W
W
LO
U
W
W
W
W
W
U
W
W
W
BS
M
W
W
W
U
W
W
W
M
W
EP
U
W
W
W
W
W
U
W
W
W
SH
U
W
W
W
W
W
U
W
W
W
DA
U
W
W
W
W
W
W
U
W
U
SC
U
W
W
W
M
W
W
W
W
W
GA
W
W
W
U
U
U
W
U
U
U
HL
W
W
U
W
M
M
U
U
W
U
ML
W
W
U
U
U
U
U
U
U
U
QS
W
W
U
W
U
U
W
W
W
U
LS
U
W
U
W
W
W
U
W
W
W
GS
W
W
M
W
U
U
W
W
W
U
FI
M
U
U
U
U
U
U
U
W
U

W = Well suited, M = Marginal, U – Unorthodox, underlined cells are uncertain.

Enough of that. On to fighting styles. Some people have suggested that the
famed `luck factor’ might make trying to relate style, initial attributes, and
skills to expert unreliable. Maybe so. I’ve got some interesting thoughts on
the luck factor later in the newsletter.

However, during character design I still think it would be useful to know
what attributes to dump those last points into to maximize a specific skill
area. We’ve seen lots of PRP figures, here are some for the PLU (next issue
we’ll look at some LUA).

                  ST     CN     SZ       WT     WL    SP     DF     Hand
Original:         15     7      10       15     16    6      15     R
Final:            15     7      10       15     16    6      15
Increases:        Parry + 8 or 9 (skills) = expert (learned two same fight declared expert)
 
                  ST     CN     SZ       WT     WL    SP     DF     Hand
Original:         11     11     10       19     9     11     13     L
Final:            12     11     10       19     13    11     13
Increases:        Attack +6 = expert, initiative +7 = expert, Parry +9 = expert
 
                  ST     CN     SZ       WT     WL    SP     DF     Hand
Original:         11     9      10       17     15    5      17     R
Final:            12     11     10       17     16    5      17
Increases:        Attack +2 = expert, Defense +8 = expert, Initiative +4 = expert, 
                  Parry + 9 = expert
 
                  ST     CN     SZ       WT     WL    SP     DF     Hand
Original:         11     17     9        11     13    15     10     R
Final:            13     19     9        13     15    16     11
Increases:        Attack +9, WT,WL,DF + 1 = expert, Defense + 13, WT,DF +1 = expert,
                  Initiative +6, WT + 1 = expert, Parry + 12, WT,WL,DF + 1 = expert
 
                  ST     CN     SZ       WT     WL    SP     DF     Hand
Original:         14     5      6        17     17    6      19     R
Final:            14     7      6        17     18    6      19
Increases:        Attack + 3 = advanced expert, initiative + 5 = expert, Parry +7 = expert,
                  Riposte + 7 = expert

HOSE KNOWS

Questions and Answers
Q: In issue #3, Mark Ferris referred to a 13 WL equaling to a 65% chance to
raise a stat the first time. How about some further information on the
relationship between WL and the % chance to raise stats the first time,
second time, third, etc.

A: The common wisdom holds that stat raises are based on a d20. Since WL
is approximately 3-20, every point or it adds 5% (100/20) to your base
chance the first time. If successful, the next raise has about 1/2 the
chance of happening. Say your gladiator has a 19 WL. If you attempt to
raise SP (for example) for the first time, you have a 95% chance for success
(19 * 5). The next time you make the attempt, your chance is half of that, or
47.5% (its probably safe to round to the nearest 5%). The third attempt is at
half of that, or, (rounding up) 25%. Failed attempts change nothing.

In AD, the first 3 raises are treated as the first. Using the above example,
you have a 95% chance for EACH of the first 3 raises (remember, misses
won’t affect the odds). Then, the 4th raise is treated at 1/2, the 5th at 1/4,
etc. As you can see, with a 10 WL you only have an initial (and best) chance
of 50% per attribute. Another good reason why there will never be a
dominant character with a WL of less than 10 (I’ll catch some flak for that
statement I’m sure). Lastly, the game designer had (at one time) the intent
that a character would always have a 10 or 15% minimum chance of success.

Q: You’re supposed to have a better chance to learn skills against a more
experienced warrior, if you win, if it’s a long fight, etc. My experience has
been very mixed in this regard. Your comments please on this. Also, how
many skills per attempt would a particular WT level expect to learn?

A: It sounds like you’re already aware of the factors that increase learning.
The thing to remember, not only in regards to learning but performing any
other action, is that this is a game based on chance. There are no guarantees
of doing, anything, including getting x number of skills per fight. Your
character blows a die roll inside the computer, and you’re hosed regardless
of how good you think he is. Lots of managers grumble about program bugs,
the moderators, etc. when luck goes against them. They would be better off
writing the fight off as bad luck and moving on.

As far as determining skills per turn based on WT alone, forget it. I have a
BAS with a 13 WT (13 WL) that can pull down 5 skills per turn. On the other
hand, I have a LUA with a 17 WT (17 WL) that is lucky to get 3 per turn.
The best thing I can tell you here is the more WT the better. Sorry.

Q: I just received a replacement character. His stats are:

ST    CN   SZ    WT    WL    SP    DF
10    20   12    8     5     7     8

I’m new to Duelmasters and am not sure if this roll up has potential or not…
I was thinking of making him a LUA with:

ST    CN   SZ    WT    WL    SP    DF
13    20   12    13    11    7     8 (raise to 9 1st fight)

I realize that he would probably be slow and uncoordinated but with CN 20
and ST 13 he could probably take any punishment thrown at him and still
wear down his opponent. What do you think?

A: I never worry too much about the uncoordinated statement. My first
reaction was DA, but that LUA you have doesn’t look that bad. I don’t feel
that this is a long term tharacter. With that in mind, an 11 WT would be
sufficient. Use the extra points to get DF as high as possible (11 if you switch
a point from ST also). He should win maybe 5 of his first 7. Then send him
DA and hope for a better replacement. This should help your W/L quite a
bit if you have a new team.

Q: Do you have any advice on LUA? I’ve had 5 killed. Usually around fight
6. The death rate seems fairly high for the offensive styles.

A: I don’t think that the death rate is very high for anyone. However,
offensive styles tend to use up their END rather quickly, reaching exhaustion
in the first 2 or 3 minutes. When you’re exhausted only 3 things can
happen and all of them are bad. Hopefully the 5 you lost were all 6-0 or
close. This is ideal because not only do you get that tremendous boost to the
W/L, but you get to own someone for 4 turns via the blood feud (you should
have someone on your roster who can get at least 3 wins out of it).

In general, use mid to high offenive effort (for attack percentages) with mid
level activity (to conserve END as best possible) vs. defensive fighters. Its
safe to assume that you will always have determination via initiative.
Against aggressive fighters, don’t hold back anything. Vs. aggressive
opponents the fight will almost always be over in two minutes (usually less)
so END is not a big concern. Even if he you can dodge well, its not your
strength. Use light armor (ALE, F), and try a LO if you can use it. The ENC is
1/2 that of the LS, but you don’t have to hit a given opponent twice as much
to end the fight. If you like to take chances, you can forget a back up
weapon (keeping ENC down).

THE DUELMASTERS HANDBOOK & THE LUCK FACTOR

Last week a very interesting item came across my desk, the Duelmasters
handbook by Mike La Plante. Its a pretty slick little rag, 30 pages spiral
bound. Well thought out, well put together. Unfortunately, at this time it is
apparently not being sold and is only in limited distribution. The contents
include: Stats Vs. skills & capabilities, formulas for damage, hit points,
endurance, encumbrance, coordination, intelligence, weapons table with
damage ratings, weapons vs. stats & style, recommended set ups and
strategies for each style, and more. With updates and more to come..

The Duelmasters Handbook is the best attempt I have seen to date to
quantify the game. I’m sure that most of us are familiar with games like
D&D where the player can go to various tables to get a numerical value for
such things as hit points, encumbrance, etc. As we all know, in Duelmasters
RSI is sitting on this type of information like a mother hen.

This handbook contains tons of tables and practical information (linear
regression is used to derive much of it). The formulas are likely not the
exact formulas in use by the moderators, but are very workable. I don’t
neccesarily agree with everything in it, but it will give all players new
insights into the game (with any luck the authors can be persuaded to sell
it). It has been put together over the last 3 years by several managers and
apparantly sources close to RSI employees (leaks are not uncommon, I
understand lots of sensitive Hyborian info is floating around the LA area).
The authors have given me permission to use items from the Duelmasters
Handbook in the HR. Stay tuned.

Among the many things that give food for thought is the idea of the “luck
factor” (LUF). This is to be distinguished from the infamous “will roll” which
is akin to the D&D morale check. The LUF is used to explain many things as
we all know. In fact, it seems to come into play everywhere (at least,
everyhere something odd needs explaining!). Lets take a closer look at the
luck factor.

Now, one of the game premises is that as a warrior is trained (learns skills) it
increases ones mastery or probabillty of performing certain actions. The
common wisdom holds that learning a skill (say attack, my favorite) adds “x”
percent to ones base chance of hitting the opponent.

If you have this luck factor popping up everywhere, or if this factor was a
large percent of the act in question, the result would be an unpredictable
game. In other words, if the program goes through an elaborate procedure
of taking your base attack percent and modifying it (for weapon, tactic,
offensive effort, encumbrance, exhaustion, attack location, and anything else
which may effect the outcome), then adds a 50% chance of “luck”, what value
is the modified skill level in the first place? When a gladiator who has
learned 20 skills fights one that has learned only 10, we are all pretty sure
of the outcome. Fighters from the bottom of the rankings do not regularly
defeat those at the top. The luck factor can’t be that large.

Let me digress for a moment to one of my last visits to RSI’s underground
factory. I was watching the programmer Chuck Kraver input several
replacement characters (one of which was mine). As I have said in the past,
if you ever get a chance to visit RSI or go to the Tourney, watching the
computer screen as things are happening is a must. Getting back to the
story, the character overview program was doing its thing. Checking to see
that the point total was equal to 84. Checking to see if this was in fact a
legitimate replacement (we’ve all heard about the counterfiets – I heard of
one manager who actually had the nerve to submit an entire team of SZ 3
characters!). Then, the number 5, 10, or 15 was assigned to each of the new
characters.

I asked Chuck what the significance of this was. He replied that it was a
rating or evaluation devised by the game designer to measure the soundness
of a character design. It sounded bogus to me, but at the time it was clear
that I would not get a straight answer and it didn’t strike me as important.
It was forgotten. Until a few days ago.

After receiving the Handbook I called the authors (my next phone bill will
have a 10 kill desire) and the ensuing conversation turned to skills and the
“luck factor”. Mike and Mark La Plante said that each fighter had a bonus or
up to 3 skills during roll up, making comparison of simflar (even identical)
fighter difficult. And, the LUF was randomly assigned to each character,
being 5, 10, or 15 (0 is also possible). If I had not personally seen the roll up
program in action, I would have likely dismissed this. But, I had seen it on
RSI’s computer screen. I contacted a few other managers who don’t
communicate with each other, and got the same account. Hmmm.

Divide 5, 10, and 15 by 1, 2, and 3, and you get 5 each time. This is a
number that has been referred to as the percentage value of a single skill by
many people. Managers of very experienced fighters will verify that the
upper limit of learning in any one area is about 20 skills (less if attributes
affecting the skill in question have been raised before the 20th skill). 20 * 5
= 100. As in 100 percent. It fits too nicely.

Does this mean that if a character has learned 20 attack skills he has a 100%
chance of making a successful attack (i.e., never makes a “wide” or “wild”
attack). Not likely. Why? It would mean that a rookie fighter (or one that
has never learned an attack skill) would have a 0% chance of making a
successful attack. That is clearly not the case. Obviously every (or most
every) fighter starts above 0%. Which implies that you can exceed 100% (if
the above assumptions hold).

Also, it appears that the luck factor is no larger than 15%. This seems not too
large as to throw results, yet large enough to explain the odd things we
notice from turn to turn.

Now on to the number to expert (NEX) or more rarely number to advanced
expert (NAD) case. Suppose that you have two new characters with identical
stats, and the same fighting style. In the absence of the LUF you would
expect that each would require the same number of skills to reach expert
status in a given area. If the LUF as described above opetates here, there
could be a variance of up to 3 skills in the NEX (similar to a confidence band
in linear regression excepting it is not plus or minus). To illustrate lets plot
WT vs. NEX attack for the case of no luck factor (A) and luck factor (B)
assuming all other factors are equal.

(Really cheesy graph here)

The point I am trying to make is that ST, WL, DF, and style being equal,
every odd point of WT should reduce the NEX for attack skills. But how
much? Also you dont know what LUF will be assigned to the new recruit.
However, if you get off your duff and send your NEX info in for publication
(anonymously if you prefer – plain brown wrappers are ok), eventually the
influence of each stat on each skill area will be clear as will the influence of
each style. Then when you hit the first expert, you compare the actual to
predicted and you know what the LUF for that fighter is. It should be an
across the board type of thing. I’m out of room. More on this next time.

FEELS GREAT! LESS KILLING

FEELS GREAT! LESS KILLING

In HR #4 I invited managers to voice their opinions on the issue of killing in
the arenas. Here is a sampling of the responses so far.

I have had my best warrior killed, 3 A. E. and 1 exp. in 21 fights. I realize that I am in a deadly
arena (two teams are just about to reach 20 kills each In 40 turns; they’re both in the top 5 so
they know what they are doing) and personally I like it. It gives our arena character. It takes
skill to kill and I believe credit should be given where credit is due. High kill desires are supposed
to make a warrior less in control. This is a definate advantage to his opponent. If the opponent
loses or dies, this just shows how much better the first fighter is. Again, I can’t stress this
enough, it takes skill to kill and I believe credit should be given where credit is due.

Many people wouldn’t buy that story, so here’s what I tell them to put them in their places. This is
Duelmasters! Let’s face it, in a gladiatorial combat game, death is, as it should be, part of the
game. Do you think the ancient Romans used rubber weapons? Like it or not, each manager must
be wllling to deal with death. – Alan Yip

… As to the wild eyed managers and their sunning dogs going for the kill, also add their screaming
canaries. Editor you will not believe this but there is even a team on the Isle. The Hose Machine
that goes for the kill. Yes. True.

The data `seems’ to show that few arrive on the Isle with a lot of kills, although the figures can lie,
(You) would have to factor in the large number of TPS. (It) would seem that RSI promotes kills to
stir up ‘fuzzin and feuding’. That is Ok. (There is) intimidation. Discourage challenges. Means
more of your own work………Kills might be fun, although I would rather try to figure out how to best
a warrior who has beaten mine 10 times. That is a matter of taste. IS IT A PLUS? All things
equal, who will win? The warrior with a 7 kill or a 1 kill? I don’t know, I’d suspect the 1 kill.
If we must have kills why not give them more class. Something besides “Hosefoe wails and drops
dead”. Something elegant. More Erol Flynn like. More dashing. An occasional “Runs him
through”. – Victor Melucci

ODDS & ENDS

Among some of the suggestions recieved recently was a suggestion to go to a
longer format (maybe 7 or 8 pages). Since such a move would increase my
costs significantly, this would involve a price increase. Another manager
suggested generating sample replacement characters in each HR and inviting
managers to design the character and explain their reasoning.

I’m waiting for your input.

It looks like, the “computer” Spy Report is gone. Not to many managers liked
the compu-spy. I’m surprised it generated such strong opinions. Too bad for
RSI, I’m sure it increased their productivity. From experience. I can tell you
that writing a good report day after day for multiple arenas burns you out.
Its very difflcult to keep up on things such as alliances, feuds, and what not.

One astute manager noticed that in issue #5 1 raised my price back to the old
level. Yes yes, fluctuating market conditions.

A new definition for frustrating: Frustrating is when you learn the “favorite”
offense and activity of one of your most promising gladiators, and he goes on
a 4 fight losing streak when you implement the “favorites”.

Jeff Morgan

THE HOSER REPORT
The strategy newsletter for Duelmasters

#7 August 4, 1987

$2.00

THE MANAGERS CORNER

For those of you interested in LUA (who isn’t?), here is the information I
have received to date on this style:

 
                 ST    CN     SZ     WT    WL    SP    DF    Hand
Original:        12    11     11     13    17    9     11    A
Final:           13    11     11     15    18    9     11
Increases:       NEX initiative +2 (occured before WT raise). NAD Initiative +3. WT to 15, 
                 NEX Attack+4, WT to 15
 
                 ST    CN     SZ     WT    WL    SP    DF    Hand
Original:        15    9      14     15    15    7     9     R
Final:           15    10     14     15    15    9     11
Increases:       NEX Attack +3, DF to 11
 
                 ST    CN     SZ     WT    WL    SP    DF    Hand
Original:        11    11     8      15    18    9     11    R
Final:           13    11     8      15    19    9     12
Increases:       NEX Initiative +5
 
                 ST    CN     SZ     WT    WL    SP    DF    Hand
Original:        12    6      9      15    21    8     13    R
Final:           12    7      9      15    21    8     13
Increases:       NEX Attack + 1, NEX Defense +5, NEX Initiative + 5 or 6 (learned 2 
                 Initiative same turn reached expert)
 
                 ST    CN     SZ     WT    WL    SP    DF    Hand
Original:        15    6      11     17    17    7     11    R
Final:           16    8      11     17    18    7     11
Increases:       NEX Attack + 1, NEX Decisiveness +4 or 5,NEX Defense +6,NEX initiative +5,
                 NEX Riposte +6
 
                 ST    CN     SZ     WT    WL    SP    DF    Hand
Original:        17    5      12     12    17    10    11    R
Final:           17    8      12     13    18    10    11
Increases:       NEX Attack +5,WT to 13, NEX Defense +9,WT to 13, NEX Initiative +6,WT to
                 13
What is interesting is to compare gladiators with the fewest differences, and
see what those differnces mean to the number of skills required to hit
expert. If you missed issue #6, NEX means “number of skills to expert”, NAD
means “number of skills to advanced expert”. Attributes raised that did not
affect the skill area in question, or did not reach the next breakpoint (odd
number) are not induded. By popular demand, an in depth look at the
relationship of skills to attributes appears later in the issue.

If you would like to contribute, I need the initial stats of your gladiator, plus
what his learning and raises are in the order in which they occurred. You
need not identify yourself or the gladiator, and the gladiator does not
have to be currently active so long as your record keeping in clear. Next
issue we will run the stats for the BAS.


More reader inputs on “favorites”. A manager who reads his friend’s copy of
the HOSER REPORT (thanks alot – I know who it is and I’m going to double
charge his account) sent an interesting note regarding favorites. He said that
when one of his LUA got his AD invite, his favorite tactic was lunge and
dodge. Odd. Also, when his fighter went out with his “favorite” weapon, he
lost his next 3 fights. After switching back to the old weapon (LS), he won 3
of the next 4. I can believe that.


Jim Jarvis writes … “Now about the resurrections in AD, from what I’ve seen,
they should have happened. Many of the deaths occurred because of a
program error. The information on weapons & fighting tendencies was way
off. My lunger Mikos died because I tried to use those incorrect tactics &
tendencies. I was prepared to accept the death until I found this out.”


For those of you not yet in AD, the slain are being brought back (apparently
you have to request this). The program that generates the overview sheets
players received upon AD qualification had the “favorite” offense and
activity levels reversed. So if you had a fighter who liked “moderate
offense” and “very high activity”, it came back “moderate offense” and “very
low activity”. I guess this was quickly corrected, but not before…

HOSE KNOWS

Questions and Answers
Q: We … wonder whether or not any of the other PBM magazines have
enough in them about Duelmasters (our only PBM interest) to warrant
subscription. What is your opinion?

A: Like you, Duelmasters is the only PBM that I have ever been involved
with. As you might have guessed, my knowledge of PBM magazines is
limited. There seems to be alot of financial instability among them. As far
as Duelmasters coverage, I am sure that Paul Brown is doing everything he
can to get favorable reviews and articles. However, I would doubt that they
appear on a regular basis. The best of the lot is probably PAPER MAYHEM. I
don’t have the address but am sure that RSI does. Or, check your local game
shop.

Q: I too have recieved an awesome roll-up.

 
ST    CN   SZ   WT   WL    SP   DF
8     4    10   13   14    6    15
This is what I plan on doing with him:

 
ST    CN   SZ   WT   WL    SP   DF
12    4    10   19   17    6    16
I figure ST, CN, SP, & DF can easily be raised for odd points. The question is
should I make him aTPS or a PLU? I think he’ll be a terror on the sands
either way. Do you think I should revise him? Perhaps ST 11 and DF 17?

A: I like your figuring. As far as style my personal preference is PLU (look
at what his been happening to the scums lately), although as you point out
either way this looks great. I would lean towards 17 DF normally.


The largest problem you will face in the early going is END. Also, the risk of
getting slain for this character will be about as high as possible (which I
don’t think is very high, but thats another story). Obviously the answer is to
raise CN 2 points as early as possible, then add 2 or even 3 more points again
in AD. Raise WL to the next even number (one of these issues I’ll get
around to explaining my reasoning). This character will get to AD fast if you
forget atttibute increases except as mentioned. If END problems persist,
raise ST, but resist this temptation if possible. Even with an 11, damage will
be good (maybe). Obviously ENC will be lousy, the LO or SC with a ME are
good weapon selections. You could sub a SH for the ME and divert 2 points
to armor at your discretion. Raise that CN early. Consider the following:

 
ST    CN   SZ   WT   WL    SP   DF
13    4    10   17   19    6    15
Learning should be very close to the above design, but ENC, END, and hit
points (the primary weak spots) will be somewhat better. Train as above.
Compare these to the PLU designs of last Issue. This set up is almost
identical to the last example in terms of attack and parry (switch 2 pts. from
WL to DF, 14 is equal to 13 because of the missed breakpoint of 15). Great
damage may be within reach. Looks good, eh?


Q: Regarding targeting an area, if my warrior is a right handed LUA with a
SS and SM, and my opponent is a right handed BAS with a MA and ME, I
would assume:


a) Targeting his RA would be awkward since its on the far side from my warriors right
hand – unless I’m riposting.


b) Targeting his LA is tough due to the shield.


c) Targeting his RL is awkward for the same reasons as the RA.


d) Targeting his LL seems best because its the closet to my warriors RH.


Is my thinking correct? Also, is the game program complicated enough to
take all of this into account? Finally, what guidelines do you follow
regarding targeting the various areas?

A: Your points are well taken. Whether or not the game is programmed to
take these things into account I don’t know. Ive never seen indications that
this is the case, but on my own turns I have used the same rationale you
have outlined. Since an opponent can protect either side as well by declaring
a protect location of “LE” or “AM”, I’m not sure if it will give you a large
edge.


Note the key word “large”. Many of your fights won’t be close. But in the
ones that are, you certainly want every possible advantage. I think of
targeting in similar terms as protect location. On the subject of protect
locations, the rulebook implies that your basic parry percentage applies to
the whole fighter. When you declare the protect location, you are trying to
protect this area “extra hard”. It does not say that you are foresaking
defense of all other areas. To me, this means that you may be adding the
equivalent of maybe 1, 2, or 3 skills to the defense of that area (or 5, 10, or
15 percent). Going back to your example, the ME applies to the whole
fighter, not just the LA.


Going back to attack, I think that yor attack percentage applies to the whole
target. Following the right-to-left, left-to-right guidelines may give you a
small bonus.


Another reason I believe that program likely does not handle these is the
back-up weapon. If you have a ME (or any other back up) “thrust into your
waistband” or similarly attached, it offers zero protection. The point I am
trying to make is that if the programming reflects all of these subtleties, you
would expect that occasionally an attack would bounce off of a back up
weapon/shield. They don’t.


As far as the guidelines I use, I try if possible to avoid being predictable.
If possible, I will always try to kill my opponent. To me, this usually means
targeting AB, CH, or HE. Note that the opponent can defend two “Vital” areas
at the same time (AB & CH by declaring BD). If you want to score a large
number of hits target the LE (as likely to kill an opponent as the vitals, again
the program doesn’t reflect much difference, I think it just counts hit points
of damage). When you knock an opponent down, his defenses are noticeably
reduced. I would only target the AM if you want the fight over quickly (vs.
any opponent you are unsure about being able to beat).Hitting the AM
frequently will make the opponent drop his weapon. That will almost
always bring an end to the fight.

RELATING SKILLS & ATTRIBUTES – THE GOLDEN RULE OF FOUR

If my mail is any indication of what Duelmasters players want, they want
more detailed information on the game in general, learning in specific. I am
not very optimistic that much will be made available. One of the original
ideas in the game was that the enjoyment came from learning. As any
rookie manager will testify, this game adds new meaning to the expression
“School of Hard Knocks”.

But, why face that kind of learning curve? Isn’t everyone you know trying
to decipher the game? Lots of luck. Given the nature of the turn report, I
doubt that the main combat program will ever be broken down. A few
people might come up with a good model that approximates it. Some
individuals and groups are attempting to develop games from the ground up.
Developing our own game is alot of work just to satisfy a lust for blood &
death. Lets look at an easier way instead.


I attribute the bulk of my success to what I do on the character roll up sheet.
Given an excellent initial design (read “high skill levels/percentages”),
mistakes made on the strategy sheet become less critical because of skill
superiority vs. “peers”. This means a greater variety of options. A greater
variety of opponents which you can challenge and beat. And that means a
high W/L.


Back to character design again. I can’t control what the program code does.
I can control character design. Knowing the relationship of skills to
attributes is the most important part of this process. Fortunately, RSI has
provided every player with the tools neccessary to solve the puzzle. No
need to keep you in suspense. If you have already discovered this give
yourself a pat on the back and have a beer. If not, you have not been asking
yourself the right questions.


Have you ever noticed that after being declared “expert” (in anything), it
always takes four additional skills to reach “advanced expert” unless
an attribute affecting that skill area is raised to the next breakpoint?
This is the Golden Rule of Four. The reference point from which to
base all observations.


What does this mean? Lets suppose we have our young recruit steadily
winning, and learning attack stills. One fight, he learns a single attack skill,
and is declared expert. Our rookie has but a 12 WT and naturally we can’t
tolerate 1 skill per turn, especially when our rivals are averaging 2. Next
turn we attempt to raise WT to 13, and succeed. The next outing shows the
raise payed off. We killed our opponent and learned 5 skills, 3 of which are
attack (I LIKE this gladiator). And lo and behold, an advanced expert! Now
we decide increased damage is important for the upcoming blood feud, and
attempt a ST raise to 17. We succeed. No extra damage, but now we
achieved another expert (parry).


So what is going on? Of course, hitting the WT and ST breakpoints added the
equivalent of 1 skill (5%) in attack and parry respectively. And who knows
where else? We will in a short while.


By all accounts, expert ratings are based on an absolute scale (the
Duelmasters Handbook postulates actual percentages). So, a parry expert
BAS has exactly the same base percentage as a parry expert who
happens to be TPS. Therefore, advanced ratings are based on an absolute
scale so the distance between the two remains constant. In fact this is what
we observe (4 skills, or 20% difference), unless you have done stat raises.


Then, it is simply a matter of plotting what you observe. If you have read
HR #2. the table will be similar to those. This is the table I have constructed
for WT.




WT Breakpoints vs Skill Areas

 
       ATK       DEC         DEF        INI         PAR      RIP
 
3>5
5>7
7>9
9>11
11>13  +1                    +1         +1
13>15
15>17            +1                                          +1
17>19
19>21

That is how you relate skill to attributes. What the table says is that a WT
raise to 13 will add 1 skill equivalent to attack, defense, and initiative. It
probably does more, but I have yet to observe it. Notice everything is +. All
the observations are on the high side of median. If you have ever had a roll
up sheet for a low WT character, you know that the intelligence descriptions
are negative in tone. It suggests penalties. There is an important
implication here which will figure importantly in succeeding installments.


How do I do it? Simple. Lets look at the ideal case. Suppose you are
interested in the 21 WT breakpoint. Start with a fighter whose WT is 19 or
20 already and who has never raised stats (except to even numbers, or any
CN). You wait until your gladiator is expert in all 6 areas but not yet
advanced expert in any (remember, this is the ideal case). Do the WT raise
to 21. Then go back to skills and nothing but skills. Count how many skills
(x) are needed to hit advanced expert in each area. 4 – x – skill value of the
attribute in question. Get the idea?


In the real world it wouldn’t be that easy. For one thing, how many fighters
are that evenly skilled? Probably none. It may take several warriors to
fully evaluate a single increase. There are benefits in sharing (hint hint).


If you have been doing this long enough, you’ll complete the table. If you
are like me and raise attributes rarely, this could take forever. But imagine
the character you could design if you had a complete table for each attribute.


The tools are there.

ODDS & ENDS

A new reader asked me about setting up a forum of Duelmasters managers
on Compuserve. I don’t have a modem and don’t use Compuserve (Cash-we-
serve). But that doesn’t mean that its not a good idea, so I’ll run this
manager’s message.

Anyone having a subscription (or access) to Compuserve, please send me a
note by email. I would like to try to arrange a regular (weekly) online
conference (either in the gaming forum or by CB). My Compuserve ID# is
72407,3246. – Garr Groin Ripper, Manager of Dragonguard


Mike LaPlante and his number-smashing program appear to be on the verge
of a real breakthrough on his stat tables. What he needs is more raw data
(initial roll-up sheets). Also, if you have documented learns, stat increases,
etc., he could use those. I sent him about a dozen of my old roll up sheets
(names and ID’s removed of course), but I’m sure he would love to have
more. You can send them to me to forward, or diredly to Mike at 2969
Delaware Crossing, Va Beach, VA. 23456 or call (804) 468-0643.


Whats in it for you? Firstly, Mike is forwarding all results of his efforts to
me, which will of course appear in the HOSER REPORT. Imagine how nice it
would be to optimize your next recruit to exactly the role you have in
mind. No more wasted time and money on characters destined to
mediocrity, Picture your team W/L moving above .600. A strong AD stable.
Remember, the HOSER REPORT is in limited circulation, not just every manager
will have access to this. I knew I could appeal to your greed. And, if you
have a good information base, perhaps you can negotiate with Mike for your
own copy of the Duelmasters Handbook. Why don’t you pick up the phone
now?


Well, its almost Tournament time, registration has begun. Time to think
about your Tourney roster. If you have any gladiators “on the fence” of the
DA, its time to give them the shove.


This is an excellent opportunity to bring up a promising young rookie.
You’re going to get a minimum of 2 fights. In 2 days. Maybe many more.
These fights will not appear on your record either. A great deception. I’ll
wager that not too many of the new managers in AD realize that some of the
Mordant and Osksi warriors have 30 or more fights than their record shows.
Talk about learning the hard way…


Better yet, your opponents may not participate. Won’t they be in for a big
surprise on the next turn! Another huge benefit is the challenge priority for
Tournament Victors. It is almost as good as a blood feud challenge. When
you make a Tournament Victor challenge, it gives you the first opportunity
at who you want. If they are not avoiding you, you got ’em (they have the
normal chance of success if they are avoiding). Before any non-TV challenge
is determined (including your targets!). One opponent, no waiting. Of course
there is one catch. You have to avoid elimination for 10 rounds. I think
your chances of that are improved by one simple fact: The more
experienced Mordant/Osksi and Phoenix managers (and maybe many LA
managers) will be in the face-to-face Tourney. That leaves the mail Tourney
for everyone else (you can’t register in both).


For those of you going, you’re in for a great time. For those not going, try to
make the mail Tourney. Its worth it.


Jeff Morgan

THE HOSER REPORT
The strategy newsletter for Duelmasters

#8 August 25 1987

$2.00

THE MANAGERS CORNER

To the Hoser

I’m sick of it. What I’m referring to, of course, is the complete dominant advantage of low size
warriors. I’ve had the misfortune of receiving among my 40+ roll-ups, an average warrior size
of almost 13.5. The lowest size I’ve ever laid eyes on was a 6. He was killed first turn. So you
see, I’ve never had the good luck to be able to take advantage of the system error that lets little
people win.

It’s true that the new rules have helped out Big Bashers and hindered Little Scum, but only barely.
Another problem that goes unanswered by this solution however, are the size 5 lungers and size 9
bashers that are now terrorizing around. Their small size does not hinder their attack ability, but
instead makes them faster and more endurane. They do less damage per blow, but land twice as
many blows and learn faster too. They take less damage, but never give the opponent a chance to
swing. The only thing that is to the disadvantage of these warriors is a higher mortality rate (big
(deal) Upon reaching AD however, this disadvantage disappears. ARRRRGH!!

I’m telling you this because I’m hoping you will write, in the Hoser Report, an article attacking
this problem and maybe incite people who are also sick of it to write to RSI and tell them to do
something. I have a few suggestions – maybe you have more.

1: TALLER WARRIORS HAVE A REACH ADVANTAGE, i.e. decisiveness bonus.

2: LET WARRIORS KILL EACH OTHER MORE, I know you’re in favor.

3: FIGURE SIZE INTO THE ABILITY TO TAKE DAMAGE AND CARRY WEIGHT MORE THAN IT IS. Big guys, as
it is now, can still be frail with a 9 con, 19 size. Bullshit.

4: RAISE THE SIZE LIMIT ON SOME WEAPONS. LS takes a 9 size, halberd takes the same. Why? How
`bout that large shield? Not too large, is it? Evidently not, if a size 3 warrior has no trouble
hefting it around in front of enemy attacks.

Surely, the right balance of these and other ideas will make a size point just as valuble as any
other. That’s fair isn’t it? – Mark Nau

I think the solution is very simple, and does not involve a great deal of
modifications to the game. Instead modify the characters which exist as
datafiles and can be easily edited.

How? A change in character design rules. Size would not count as part of
your 84 point allowance. The allowance would be reduced to 72 points
(84/7), plus whatever size may be. Thus, every new character would
have the same number of points to build attributes and thererore skill areas.
The root cause of the old bias would be gone. A new bias? Yes. But, that is
the way of the real world, and Duelmasters is advertised as “realistic”. I
think the pitch was something like `the most intense and realistic`. Where’s
the beef?

The older characters? As with scum, many managers are heavily invested in
small characters and owe their success to It. Any type of point
reapportionment would be too political to be implemented. That doesn’t
mean that it shbuldn’t be done. Instead of taking from the runts, give to the
big guys. In theory. every point below 12 (average) is a bonus point the
small fighter recieved. So, give the manager of the big guy a bonus point for
every point he has above 12 (points that under the current system are a
liability) for allocation. A size 15 character would get 3 points. A size 21
character would get 9 points (kind of scary, eh?). No more than 6 to any one
attribute, nothing above 21; just like character design. Just like character
design.

Even if this were to be done instantly, you wouldn’t see the effects quickly.
The current small fighters have had (in many cases) years to take advantage
of the loophole.

This issue features a mans style, the BAS. Here is what I have received:

              ST    CN   SZ    WT    WL   SP   DF  Hand
Original:     16    10   16    13    10   9    10  ?
Final:        17    11   16    15    11   10   11
Increases:    NEX Attack +5,ST to 17, WT to 15, DF to 11
 
              ST    CN   SZ    WT    WL   SP   DF  Hand
Original:     14    11   14    14    11   8    12  L
Final:        15    11   14    15    11   9    13
Increases:    NEX Attack +6, ST to 15, DF to 13, WT to 15
 
              ST    CN   SZ    WT    WL   SP   DF  Hand
Original:     11    10   15    14    12   11   11  R
Final:        11    11   15    15    12   11   11
Increases:    NEX Initiative +1, WT to 15
 
              ST    CN   SZ    WT    WL   SP   DF  Hand
Original:     11    6    14    17    9    16   11  R
Final:        11    7    14    17    9    17   11
Increases:    NEX Attack +4, NEX Decisiveness +4, NEX Initiative +2
 
              ST    CN   SZ    WT    WL   SP   DF  Hand
Original:     19    11   14    11    11   6    12  R
Final:        19    12   14    13    12   7    13
Increases     NEX Attack +7,WT to 13, DF to 13, NEX Dec +10, SP to 7, NEX
              Initiative +4,WT to I3.SP to 7, NEX Parry +8, DF to 13

HOSE KNOWS

Questions and Answers
Q: What is the exact meaning of achieving an expert or advanced expert
rating in some skill? For instance, say a warrior has an advanced expert
rating in initiative on his 12th skill. Suppose another warrior got his AE
rating in initiative on his 6th skill. Are they equally skilled? If yes, what if
they both gain 3 more initiative skills, are they still equally skilled?

A: The meaning of expert and advanced expert is that the gladiator has
reached an arbitrary level (initiative percentage) that triggers the computer
to print notification on the bottom of the turnsheet.

In answer to your hypothetical situation, the warriors are equally skilled
when declared AE (if they reached on the same turn). What this means is
that they were very far from equal when they began their careers. And,
given a limit of 20 skills per skill area, it means that the one which required
6 skills to reach will max out at a higher level (6 skills higher). Again, the
huge importance of well designed characters. Well designed characters
reach expert in less skills. They finish higher. Everything else being equal,
they will always be superior to warriors with an equal number or fights but
lesser beginning skill level.

If they from that point gain 3 more initiative skills each, they are still equal
since the value of a skill is constant. It is also possible that the fighter that
required 12 initiative skills to reach could have learned them all before the
other fighter learned 1 initiative skill. Not too much mystery who will be
faster. How much faster? Treat yourseff to a beer if you said 6.

Q: I just got the following replacement character. What would you do with
him?

 ST     CN     SZ     WT     WL      SP      DF
 5      12     9      9      6       13      16

I made him a PRP with ST 9, CN 12, SZ 9, WT 15, WL 9, SP 13, DF 17. What
do you think?

A: I don’t think I would keep him. But if I did, your design appears to
make the most out of him.

Q: …Also, since you claim to be the “expert” on PLU, why does this guy only
have a 2-5-1 record:

 ST     CN     SZ     WT     WL      SP      DF

 11     11(12) 5      16(17) 16      11      14

His fights went something like this:

l) Lost to WST, 4 more fights

2) Killed a PRP, 1 attack skill

3) Trashed on the bloodfeud by a PLU w/3 more fights, CN increase

4) Butchered by TPS, 3 parry skills

5) Butchered an incompetent STA, 1 parry skill

6) RSI screwed up and lost to a BAS. 1 decise skill

7) Butchered by a PST. WT increase

8) Butchered by a LUA, his 1st fight, 1 initiative skill

In the 1st, 4th, and 8th fights he fought in “classic” PLU style (parry first 3-4

min. then rip loose and lunge), in 2nd and 3rd fights he fought like a LUA.

He hasn’t gotten an expert in anything & I’m getting very depressed. His

favorite weapon is the LO fought 8-5-1O-L or around there.

A: From the looks of it you should have lost 3 of those fights (1,3, and 6),

so think of him as 2-2-1. Essentially, you started out with a 81 point roll-up.

The WT, WL, and DF breakpoints are missed. Might as well be 15, 15, and

13. But there is nothing seriously wrong with the character, he looks solid.

With a 17 WT the skills will come if your fights are longer than 1 minute

(and you win). Don’t fight like a lunger unless you are doing a stat raise

(which is independent of fight length). It looks like his favorite learn is

parry (not uncommon for a PLU), so while your primary defense (parry)

may be shaky now, it should improve quickly. I think that lots of managers

use a defensive minute for a PLU that looks like a TPS. Don’t. Think in

terms of a lunger, never less than moderate activity level, and never less

than a low offensive effort. The parry tactic works fine with activity levels

up to 7 (from my experience). If the activity level is any higher, you are

usually getting the initiative (because high activity level increases base

initiative percent). If you are attempting to defend (low offensive effort) at

this time your attacks recieve no bonus (from high offensive effort) and the

whole situation is very inefficient. Avoid it.

Q: What effect does kill desire have on decisiveness?

A: I’m not sure. The rules say that a low kill desire makes a gladiator

“tentative”, which doesn’t sound like the desired effect. A high kill desire

may make one “less controlled” and “lower overall defenses”. I think the

part about lower defenses is very true, but other effects are unclear or

minor in magnitude. A better question may be what effect does decisiveness

have on kill desire.

Since lungers are getting the most kills (as a style), there probably isn’t a

link worth worrying about.

Q: What effect does activity level have on decisiveness?

A: It appears to me that higher activity levels do increase decisiveness.

However, I would be careful about using an activity level appropriate to the

gladiator in question.

A NEW FEATURE

I thought that after eight issues of my ranting, assaultive style the average
manager would appreciate a fresh point of view. So, you get to be subjected
to the ravings of the one and only Dan Saltich, the Mr. Baseball of
Duelmasters. In as much as he owes me several large pizzas, I think you
may be seeing more of his ideas in the future.

HOW TO NOT MAKE FRIENDS BUT INFLUENCE PEOPLE, OR WINNING

THROUGH INTIMIDATION

BY

DAN SALTICH

(Mr. Duelmasters)

I suppose that before I start this article I should at last establish some credibility. I have been
playing Duelmasters since the very beginning (yes, I remember Gladiators). I have, during my
stint in this gome, done everything humanly possible regarding the game, including running every
style multiple times, graduated over a dozen warriors to AD, and even had a warrior win his first
22 fights. That isn’t bragging, I just want everyone to at least believe some of what I am going say.

Why am I writing this article? Well besides the fact that I admit to some friendship with the
Ultimate Hoser himself (which mostly ends up being alot of added costs on my phone bill), I also
wish to pass on some info that I believe in very strongly.

Well what is this mystical secret? It mostly adds up to being some things that all people know,
some things that people might not know, and some things I don’t think anyone knows. What it all
basically comes down to is my strategy for taking top team and staying there.

To start, lets assume you’ve recieved your characters and have designed each in a reasonable way
(I know, a big assumption for some people). My sample team has: 2 LUA, 1 PLU, 1 TPS, and 1
PST. Now for the first five fights I will treat my PLU as a LUA because he wont have sufficient
defense ability to do any diffrent. Now I have 3 LUA that will fight 10-10-10-L for the first two
minutes in their first five fights. Why? Well nothing (with a few mutated exceptions) is faster
than a stripped down (light or no armor) lunger going 10-10-10-L. And for my first pearl of
wisdom I will tell you that at 10-10-10-L a lunger gets an attack bonus for using that particular
strategy. Also, the LUA have no defense to speak of and if you wait around you’re going to get
wasted. LUA’s are there to attack, so do it; and if you run out of endurance well most LUA will get
the fight over before that because you will be fighting beginning characters and in the beginning
offense has a big advantage over defense.

Now the first thing my TPS is going to do is pick up a SH and a ME. Reasons? Simple, lightweight
and yet the best parrying combination around. My TPS (in following with my beliefs) is not going
to be a scum, but don’t be stupid; we have to use the parry tactic at least in the first couple of
minutes to stop those hordes of offensive characters. But lets come out in the late rounds and
attack; not only does parrying cost END, but coming out increases our chances of winning against
another TPS who may be scummier than us.

For simplicities sake, lets treat our PST like our TPS because beginning PST tend to resemble TPS
but lack some of the defense and aren’t usually well suited to high offensiveness. As a general rule
I agree with Hoserus Maximus on fighting strategies for the different styles, but what I have said
here may be a few exceptions.

There, now we have some basic strategies for our first turn. These strategies will, for the most
part, hold up for the first 5 turns. But we come to a part now that separates the men from the
boys (or the 15-3s from the 10-8’s).

Challenges! The first golden rule is that if your warrior is not challenging someone, you’re hosing
it big time!! Why would you not ever, if that was possible, fight on your own terms? After your
first turn, at minimum you’ll know what 5 other fighters look like, so right there are 5 potential
challenges. Now its time to get completely heartless (this is where i’m going to catch flak). But if
you beat a warrior, why on God’s earth not challenge him again? If he is stupid enough not to avoid
you or alter his strategy he deserves to be beaten again. This strategy can also be effective if you
barely lose to fighter and have things you can alter. This is why I also suggest you avoid people
you fought last. A popular misconception is that avoiding is saying you’re afraid, all it says to me
is that I want to fight who I want when I want.

In conjunction with challenging let me say something about killing, I’m all for deaths in the game
but you have to look at them as to how they will effect your W/L record. Hopefully the editor won’t
delete this, but don’t always try to kill. The worst thing you can do is kill a new warrior on an
experienced team because he now owns your warrior for the next 4 turns. However, on the flip
side of that, one of the best things you can do is kill a warrior one a new or worthless team. Also
try not to get into large feuds with more than one team, its all fun writing the personal ads and all
but the bottom line is that you want winning warriors. Save the taunting and teasing for when
your warriors become ultra-powerfull and fear no one (HA HA).

A couple of more tidbits on challenging and then I’ll go on (I could have written the whole article on
challenging alone). Remember, those 1-7 warriors are there for a reason. The more fights your
opponent has over you the better your skill learns will be. This is called the Thelonius Loner
syndrome named after a great scholar (but not warrior) in Mordent.

Also, remember as you rise to the top look around and see who your competition is and try to take
advantage of their weaknesses (if any). This only goes toward increasing your chances to take top
team. And once you have top team never feel obliged to give anyone a fight they want, continue to
use challenging strategies that max out your tallies in the W column.

In closing I want to make a few statements that are not relative to the previous article. First, a
couple of corrections on info Ive read in the HOSER REPORT. (1) Stat increases in AD go as
follows: 1st is at full chance, 2nd is at 1/2 chance, 3rd is at full chance, and 4th is at 1/2chance.
From there it is the same and I have this on very good authority. (2) Don’t go to the tourney
expecting to garner valuble info from the computer screen, you will be sadly surprised. I have
seen the on-screen output and there is nothing there of any use. Well I have more secrets but one
does have to protect ones own interests and besides its time for:

RAG ON RSI

Well, no not really, but I would like to ask everyone a question. Are they happy with the decision
to shelve the obvious problem of AD when these are the managers favorite warriors and have had
large amounts of money put into them? RSI seems to be of the opinion that as long as the
turnsheets are being submitted there is no immediate problem. As patrons of the game we really
have only one weapon and that is our business that we give RSI. I want to throw out a suggestion
that has already been discusssd between other managers. Don’t everybody get scared but the word
is boycott. At this time I don’t want to organize anything I just want to get input from other
managers. The idea was a one turn hold out to signify unity and the extent of the unhappiness
among managers.

Your inputs, suggestions, or critiques are welcomed.

Dan Saltich
A1 Melniboneanon Maraudars
A4 Princes of Amber

ODDS & ENDS

Alan Yip asked about developing manager mailing lists for style specialties.
He didn’t even tell me it was ok to release his address. Hmmmmm. I am not
going to organize any list myself, but will publish manager names and
addresses unless the manager requests otherwise.

Good news from Mike LaPlante. Due to popular demand the Duelmasters
Handbook will be made available. Mike is selling them at cost, about $10
for 30+ pages. Updates will be available at a nominal cost (the Handbook is
spiral bound to make replacements/additions easy). I have spoken with
several managers (one of whom sent Mike 80 overviews), the Handbook is
getting high marks from all.

Mike’s overview database has swelled to over 230 characters. The more the
merrier. He could especially use overviews that have lots of extremes (3-7,
17-21). Next time you have to send a replacement to the DA, why not design
him with extremes and send the overview to Mike? I have just recieved the
last Handbook updates, you’ll be seeing selected items probably beginning
next issue. I think you’ll like it.

Did you know that you may fight a new recruit on the same turn you submit
the roll-up? Apparently some people were under the impression that you
had to recieve the overview before fighting. Not so. On the strategy sheet,
write “new” for the ID#.

I’ve been thinking more about disarming tactics. Sometimes the fight
doesn’t end when a gladiator drops a weapon. Given that possibility, I would
rather remove the opponents primary weapon than the off-hand one
(usually a shield). Given that 90% of the gladiators are right handed, this
means targeting right-to-right.

Time to begin working on the Tourney strategies. As you expect, I highly
recommend training skills. Reasons? You have absolutely no idea of who
you will get each round. There are a large number or fighters that can teach
you alot, particularly in the later rounds. If you need attributes, raise them
in the first 2 rounds while there are still cupcakes in the field.

Its too bad that the mail Tourney couldn’t be spread over a period of time.
Since it will all be run at once (apparently), you won’t get the suspense of
waiting for the pairings after each round.

The strategy sheet for the mail-in Tourney allows you to use a back-side
strategy for up to 5 styles. Not quite as good as knowing who your next
opponent is, but helpful.

My opinion of heavy armor (ASM and above) has never been very favorable,
but one of my recent AD fights might change my mind. My stable has been
after a certain character for quite some time. In response to my recent
challenges, the slasher in question increased armor from ALE/L to APA/F,
and weapons from SC/SH to SC/SC, ME. It worked for him. My great damage
lunger hit 9 times and couldn’t end the fight. Heavy armor has its place,
even in AD. Of course, the next turn I used a HL and crushed him like an
insect (he was very foolish to drop his avoids). The HL is a great option for
high ST lungers. You lose some initiative, but if your opponent is in plate
(particularly with multiple back-up weapons) it should’nt matter. He’s
dragging around an anchor.

Want to get your HOSER REPORT faster? Place your Zip-4 code on your next
letter to me. You can bet I won’t look it up for you. I understand it can take
a full day off of delivery. Mine is 1093.

Did this just happen to me, or are all arenas now being shipped without
newsletters?

Jeff Morgan

THE HOSER REPORT
The strategy newsletter for Duelmasters

#9 September 15, 1987

$2.00

THE MANAGERS CORNER

An important part of Duelmaster gaming is the challenge. I’m not going to debate the
issue of challenging up or down, but what style opponent to challenge. I have compiled
information from the past ten turns in my arena (*25) and it is very accurate, as I
know the fighting style of each warrior. The following table contains the result of every
duel, no matter how mismatched (they even out in the end).

 
        BAS     STA   SLA   PST   LUA   PLU   WST    TPS   AIM    PRP
BAS     0       7     2     3     19    4     10     9     0      3
STA     5       0     4     6     16    2     8      5     0      5
SLA     2       1     0     1     10    6     3      3     0      5
PST     12      6     0     0     9     5     4      8     1      7
LUA     8       17    1     7     0     4     13     13    0      10
PLU     4       1     3     7     18    0     5      3     1      8
WST     4       5     5     2     11    8     0      6     2      7
TPS     3       5     1     1     14    1     4      0     1      3
AIM     0       3     0     1     3     1     1      3     0      0
PRP     3       5     2     4     5     5     9      6     0      0
The table is read with the winner along the top and the loser along the side, thus the
matchup between the lunger and basher shows that the LUA has beaten the BAS 19 times
while the BAS has won only 8. It is fairly common knowledge that a lunger will usually
destroy a basher, but some of the other interesting matchups are:

 
BAS/PST         12-3
LUA/SLA         10-1
LUA/PLU         18-4
WST/BAS         10-4
Notice that the total parry style continues to trash bashers regardless of the rule
changes. Both TPS and lungers seem to dominate the arena (only the PRP fare well
against the LUA!?). Remember that since most of the warriors have less than 10 fights
that these stats reflect mainly initiate duels, and may not be the same for veterans. –
Brought to you by the manager of Shadows of Chaos, arena 25.


In HR #5 I offered a simple flowchart of how the Duelmasters
program might handle combat. An anonymous manager working on
his own program (on an Apple II) who does not wish to be identified
offers this version (I leave it to you to draw the flowchart):

 
1) SEPERATION - the warriors are physicolly separated, instead of in-close melee.
2) 1ST ACTION - determine who gets first action as warriors close.
3) ACTION - either an attck (Goto 4), a fient (Goto 8), or not act (Goto 10).
4) DEFENSE PLAN - the defender will dodge, parry, or just let it go.
5) RESULT - is the defender hit (Goto 6) or missed (Goto 10)?
6) DAMAGE - assess damage and result on abilities and next actions.
7) BRANCH DOWN - Goto 10 for evaluation.
8 ) FEINT EFFECT - was the opponent thrown off guard or was it ignored?
9) RESULT - assess penalties to defense and initiative.
10) EVALUATION - assess fatigue and evaluate ability to continue for both warriors.
11) NEXT ACTION - does the attacker go again (Goto 3), does the defender counter-strike
(switch roles and qoto 3), or do the warriors break away due to defense, strategy, etc.
(Goto 1)?
I like it. I think it will give very good results, and achieve them
using a simple model. Clear. Concise. Complexity, if desired, can be
added into the individual sub-routines. Perhaps I can get in on the
playtest?


Running pretty low on number-to-expert stats, here is what I have
on the STA:

 
              ST    CN   SZ   WT   WL   SP    DF   Hand
Original:     10    13   16   15    9   10    11   R
Final:        11    13   16   15    9   11    11
Increases:    NEX Riposte + 8, SP to 11
 
              ST    CN   SZ   WT   WL   SP    DF   Hand
Original      13    11   13   12   11   13    11   A
Final:        13    11   13   13   11   13    11
Increases:    NEX Decisiveness + 4, WT to 13
HOSE KNOWS

Questions and Answers
Q: How do you feel on Mr. Saltich’s statement that a lunger gets an
attack bonus for going 10-10-10-L? Why would kill desire have an
effect on this attack bonus if it does indeed exist?

A: I feel that that strategy has always worked well for me. I
believe Dan said lungers as a style get the bonus, not that kill desire
directly increases your attack percentage. If there is an attack bonus
for kill desire (I can only hope) it perhaps arises from the notion that
not trying to kill means only making weapon contact, whereas when
you try to kill you actually try to push your weapon through the
opponent. This is speculation, you may want to ask the moderators

Q: What are the drawbacks of each special tactic? What are the real
advantages of each special tactic?

A: Each character can be thought of as a set of numbers in the
computer (or more accurately, in a data file). If you have HR #2,
these are listed in the article on character design. Briefly, they are
skills and capacities. I doubt that tactics would have any effect on
warrior capacities, with the possible exception of taxing endurance.


Where I think they come into play is in skill percentages. A reading
of the rulebook tells us that while using a tactic may boost some
performabce aspects of the fighter, the overall effectiveness is
reduced. This indicates that there are more penalties than bonuses.
However, if you are concerned about (for example) parry, losing 20%
of attack ability will not be a large concern. Using a tactic boosts the
appropriate area(s) by “x” number of skills while in use.


What you seem to want to know is specifics, so I’ll stick my neck out
(remember, I don’t play all of the tactics because of my team roster).
Lunge, bash, and slash most certainly boost initiative and attack. The
bash probably costs you heavily in dodge ability, maybe parry also.
Conversely, the lunge costs parry heavily but probably minor
penalties to dodge and riposte. The penalty for slashing would be in
responsiveness and riposte. The decisiveness tactic of course helps
dccisiveness, but I’m not sure about attack. It probably also helps
responsiveness, at the cost of riposte and initiative. On the defensive
side, the parry tactic boosts parry, but definitely inhibits riposte and
initiative, maybe attack. Dodge gives you the equivalent of added
defensive actions, the cost is probably in initiative and attack. The
riposte tactic boosts riposte and attack, hurts initiative, decisiveness,
and parry. I haven’t the slightest idea what responsiveness does.


Q: What are the key stat types for each style of warrior?

A: This question presumes style should be selected first. I select it
last. However, there will be style limitations based on stats. In
general, the AIM should have high WT and DF (15+, 17 preferrred).
If the SP is 11 or greater, consider STA, PST, or PRP. For high SZ,
think about BAS, LUA, or SLA. The BAS should also have a high ST,
that is less important for the SLA or LUA. In fact high SZ/low ST
makes a very good slashing combination. I would hesitate to make a
LUA with less than SZ 9, try PLU instead. Endurance burning styles
(particularly WST) should have as much WL as possible.


An easier rule of thumb is let the low-value stats (SZ, SP) point you
towards a group of swIes, then maximize high-value stats. Make the
character the style you’re most familiar with.


Q:Can any warrior “pretend” to be another style, with slightly
lowered effectiveness? Would you prefer a SLA vs. a TPS or would
you like your SLA to act like a slightly lesser LUA?

A: As I said in HR #2, the reason I prefer the PLU is that they can do
almost anything that does not require decisiveness. I see no reason
why experienced fighters can’t try these things. You might be
surprised how well a lunger can riposte, or how well a basher can
parry. Your ezample sounds like a great trick to pull. I recommend a
SC (a good lunging weapon). Remember, the parry tactic is supposed
to neutralize the slashing tactic but is vulnerable to the lunge.


Q: I have a TPS with 20 wins and 14 losses. ST 14, CN 10, SZ 9. WT
17, WL 9, SP 16, DF 15. WL has been improved twice, CN once, ST
once, SP once, DF once. He has 6 parry skills, 4 attack skills, 2
defense skills, 1 decisiveness, and 3 initiative skills. He is learning
very slowly. He is in the Champion class. Won 6 of his last 11 fights
& learned 7 skills. All of my other warriors are just beginning or are
Initiates. Do I want to send him to the DA or keep him around for
bloodfeuds? I am currently trying to improve WL if challenged,
SKILLS otherwise. Any suggestions, or am I just being impatient?

A: If there is a luck factor assigned to individual fighters, we can
guess what factor was assigned here. Its tough to learn when losing,
and harder yet when you’re busy raising attributes. You’ve spent a
minimum of 6 fights (out of 34) raising attributes. Given an original
WL of 7 I’d bet `the figure is 15 fights and wouldn’t be surprised if it
was 20, leaving maybe 15 for skills. That would mean he is
averaging around 1 skill per turn. With a 17 natural WT.


His individual W/L is a respectable .588. If your team W/L is lower
than .588 keep him around, but forget about more attributes! You
need skills. Badly. I’m sure that most every other gladiator in the
Champion class has more than 16 skills (if not, I’m setting up a team
in your arena). You’ll probably have to challenge low to win, which
of course will not help your learning. If the learning average does
not pick up and the W/L keeps dropping, can him before he damages
the team W/L.


One final consideration. With a high WT and a high SP, this fighter
will have a relatively high decisiveness. Coupled with a poor
endurance this will mean trouble (unless of course you challenge
LUA, BAS, and the like; do you really want to do that?). Remember,
TPS will learn decisiveness skills.

UPDATES

For those of you charting attribute increases vs. skills (HR #7), I can
report that increasing ST from 10 to 11 will NOT effect attack
percentage. Since I know that extremes in strength can cause
increases in the attack and parry percentages (I have seen gladiators
increase to 15 and 17 to get expert attack), it appears that there is a
“dead spot” in the table.

For those of you interested in quick lungers, the following design
should be informative:

 
              ST  CN    SZ  WT   WL   SP   DF
Original:     10  14    10  19   11   9    11
Final:        11  14    10  19   11   9    11
Increases:    NEX Initiative +3 skills
THE CHALLENGE SYSTEM

One of the suggestions received was for an explanation of the
challenge system. It appears that the only thing many managers
know about it is that they never get the people they want.
Its actually quite simple. What I am about to describe is the manual
method we used to use years ago. Of course the computer handles
this tedidus chore now, but I believe there have been very few
changes to the actual method. If not totaUy accurate, it should give
you a better insight as to what you’re up against. First, turnsheeets
were sorted by challenge type, as below.
 
DARK ARENA	BLOODFEUDS	TV CHALLENGE	NORMAL CHALLENGE	RANDOM
Note that the priority of challenge decreases as you move to the
right. Dark Arena is an automatic challenge (assuming no moderator
error of course). These people are the first out of the “available”
pool.


Next, bloodfeuds have to be determined. The reason that there are
only two sheets in the diagram is that hardly anyone ever dies
(makes sense, huh?). The total number of sheets were counted, and a
random number generated via die rolling. The number corresponded
to an indivudual strategy sheet, which was then removed (what I’m
saying in my verbose fashion is that everyone has an equal chance of
getting pulled). A check is made to see if the challenged warrior is in
the available pool. The only reasons a warrior would not be in the
pool is that he is either not playing, DA, or already challenged and
removed. Assuming the challenged warrior is availablee the
connection is automatic unless he is trying to avoid. There is a 20%
chance of avoiding a bloodfeud, 80% chance of avoiding any other
challenge type.


Lets assume that your opponent did avoid your bloodfeud. The first
challenge is then crossed off. It used to be that the avoid on the
opponents sheet was also crossed off, but now they are not expended
(no longer neccessary to double-avoid). If your second challenge is a
normal challenge your sheet goes into the normal challenge pile, the
opponents sheet goes to its respective pile. Of course, you can always
double-challenge. If you had done that, the second bloodfeud
challenge would have to be determined as the first was. If successful
(the odds of missing a double-bloodrued challenge are 25:1 against),
both fighters are removed from the pool. This process continues
until all bloodfeuds have been determined.


The process is repeated for Tournament Victor challenges. Since the
number of DA and bloodfeuds will be small, you can see the
enormous (I’ll say it again – enormous) advantage of this challenge
type. In effect. you cut to the front of the line. Take it from
someone who had 3 Tournament Victors at the last Tourney, you
almost always get who you want. Conversely, the chances of a
hostile manager getting a challenge on you are slim. About the only
thing that can mess you up is if the fighter you challenged is not in
the pool.


This challenge type can really make life miserable for your
opponents (if you like to feud). They’ll have to use an avoid against
you almost every turn. Which of course means they only have one
left. If you have two powerfull friends… By the way. there Ejit be
T.V. challeirgers ,`now that we’ve had a Tourney. This status will be
good for 6 months or until the next Tourney, whichever comes first
(32 months have elapsed since the last Tourney).


Now the normal challenges are determined, using the same
procedure as the above cases. If you get who you want, both fighters
are removed from the pool. If you use both challenges and come up
empty, your turnsheet goes into the random match-up pile. The bulk
of turnsheets are in the normal challenge pile, meaning you could be
in a long line. Many things can happen. Your fighter can get
challenged out by someone else. The fighter you want may have got
his challenge through, or been removed by someone else. Or not
even playing that turn. And Or course, he may be avoiding you.


Lastly, remaining fighters are “randomly” matched. The computer
won’t let you get anyone farther away in the rankings than one class.
In the old days remaining turnsheets were thrown into the air, and
how they landed was how they were matched (we eventually went
to the paper bag method, all those sheets were a pain to pick up).
Conceivably, the arena champ could draw the lowest ranked fighter.
It made for some interesting fights.


Is it to your ad+antage to challenge? If there are people available
whom you can beat, my opinion is yes. If you can make a good
challenge, it lets you dictate the terms. Why wouldntt you want this?
Some people never challenge and do fairly well, its a personal
decision. Looking at my own AD team performance, the breakdown
looks like this (through 33 turns):

 
          When Challening      When Challenged          Random
Wins      33                   30                       31
Losses    18                   18                       23
Kills     3                    0                        2
Slain     0                    1                        1
W/L       .647                 .625                     .574
The .625 was a surprise (I thought it would be much lower), but then
again I also make good use of the “if challenged” option on the turn
sheet. Your own percentages may surprise you.

ODDS & ENDS

Questions and Answers
By the time you read this both Tourneys will be over. If you would
like to write about your Tourney experience, I’d be glad to print it.
A manager wrote me asking if I could obtain a copy of the
Duelmasters Handbook for him, he is in an alliance against the
author. I asked Mike about this, he said no problem, Its available to
anyone regardless of arena politics. Just like the HOSER REPORT. If I
was that worried about “giving away secrets”, it wouldn’t be
published. Besides, there is no “ultimate secret” or position in the
game. Well, except for the size 3 TPS.

By the way, response from HOSER REPORT readers has been little short
or overwhelming. Mike has gathered so much info that yet another
revision will be out soon. Therefore, I’m holding back somewhat
from reprinting anything. It may be quickly outdated, and I’m plain
out of room this issue.


There has been increasing talk of a boycott, from LA, Phoenix, and
Georgia. LA or Phoenix would be the logical place for it to begin,
thats where the highest concentrations of managers are. I personally
don’t think it will come about, because no individual has stepped
forward to organize (those of you itching for action don’t expect me
to organize it).


I have not confirmed it, but have heard that there are almost 50
Hyborian games in progress. Significance? RSI’s cash flow is not as
heavily dependent on Duelmasters as it once was. Therefore for a
boycott to get managements’ attention, it will have to involve a fairly
large number of managers.


Has anybody seen the rules for the new “Advanced Duelmasters” RSI
was telling us about? It has been a while now.


Next issue will contain excerpts from the Handbook, 3 replacement
characters for readers to design, perhaps a wrap-up on skills, some
excellent letters that got here just a day late, and whatever else you
send me. Good luck on the sands.




Jeff Morgan

THE HOSER REPORT
The strategy newsletter for Duelmasters
© 1987 Eudaemonic Enterprises
#10 October 6, 1987

$2.00

THE MANAGERS CORNER

The Not-So Perfect Warrior
(Gee Honey, not Leftovers Again)


I think everyone is in agreement as to what makes the super warrior, the future
Duelmaster and Tower Guardian. However, that is like knowing (believing) that the
Jaguar XKE hs the ultimate car; most people end up driving $5,000 imports. What do we
do with the vast majority of the downright awful roll-ups?


The usual response is the DARK ARENA…. and for those “must win at all cost” types,
that is probably the only answer. But I started playing Duelmasters because I liked the
concept and for the brief amount of time I’m reading the fight results, I’m in a dark
smelly underground catacomb, sharpening my sword or gritting my teeth as a teammate
sets a broken bone. It goes against the feel of the game to DA every below average player!


When I recieved my first team roll-ups, I also got a “terrific” roil-up guide (golly TWO
whole pages!!) which offered such insights as “…. consider the type of character LARGE
and STRONG or SMALL and FAST….. attributes will affect your characters ability to
fight…..ability to carry weapons and armor….”, Blah-de-blah.


“Big help!”, I thought. But wait a minute, lets look at those statements in connection
with the statistics and the fighting styles. The first is ok if all you want is a basher or a
wall of steeler, and the second makes a great parry riposte or total parry (old rules).
But what about LARGE and FAST or STRONG and SMALL?


I think that all too often, we get into a “tunnel vision” mode of character roll-up. Just
got to get that wit/will combo or he’s no good syndrome. Why not look at the character
and see what can be enhanced rather than forcing a fit. Small ST? Only need a 5 for the
EP or SH. And if 12 is an average score (84/7) then you have 7 points to go elsewhere…
like WT or DF. And then pick the style that will take advantage of the low ST (PRP
maybe?). He won’t ever knock anyone down or bash through a shield, but he just might
be able to put his little sword into his opponents eye with the speed of a striking snake!


One final thought, an example of what I’ve been rambling about. My first Duelmaster,
was destined for the DA after his first fight (yep I’m one of those w-a-a-c types). Here
are his stats:

 
ST     CN     SZ     WT    WL    SP     DF         Basher 16-6-0
11     7(I)   14     17    9     17(1)  12(1)
He won 14 of the 16 fights in the first minute, the other two in the second minute. He
lost two of the 6 fights in the first minute, the other 4 in anywhere from 2-7 minutes.
Gave him just enough ST to handle a decent weapon and the rest to WT so he’d out-learn
his opponents fight for fight.


I hope this has stirred the old feelings of excitement and challenge in character design.
The arenas need more unusual character types out there. Send any comments to: Mark
LaPlante, 2969 Delaware crossing, Virginia Beach, VA, 23456.

HOSE KNOWS

Questions and Answers
Q: You mention, in #6, about a luck number (0, or 5, or 10, or 15)
being part of character generation. I wasn’t sure if you meant that
the number was computer generated, or assigned by the operator.
Also, do you know if it can be changed later?

A: The number is computer generated. I do not know if it changes,
my guess would be that it doesn’t. If my guess that it adds 0,1, 2, or
3 skills to each skill area is correct, then a change in this number
could be detected. If it decreased, you may notice a character
achieve the same expert (or adv. exp.) status twice.

Q: Do certain styles tend to learn at different rates (all else being
equal)?

A: All else being equal, there is no difference in learning rates
between styles. Note the key phrase “all else being equal”. As you
know, some styles tend to have longer fights than others. Fight
length is the most important factor in learning that the manager can
(usually) control.


Q: Is a 9 SP lunger who lust recieved his expert rating in initiative
just as fast as a SP 11 lunger recieving the same (all other relative
attributes being identical)? What I’m asking is this: Does an
attribute such as SP really make a warrior faster, or does it make
related skills such as riposte and inltiatlve easier to learn, and thus
being able to get more skills in those areas or getting to advance
expert faster?

A: What?! I think you may be comparing apples to oranges. Starting
at the top I assume you’re defining “fast” in terms of initiative since
we’re talking lungers. Yes, the SP 9 lunger is currently as fast as
the SP 11 lunger since they both reached the same level at the same
time (the maximum potential of each may be different).
Remember, SP is just one factor that influences initiative. Suppose
the SP 9 lunger next turn learns another initiative skill, while the SP
11 gets no skills. They are no longer equally fast, SP 9 lunger is
faster (by one skill).


SP will make a warrior faster, but so will SZ, WT, and style. The only
thing that make skills easier to learn is WT (and maybe WL).


Q: You mentioned that WL should be increased to an even number.
Why?

A: Because, if you increase to an odd number. you may hit a break
point. Gladiators can learn up to 20 skills in each area (used to be
more before the program was fixed), unless the gladiator in question
has been raising attributes. If you have a very experienced fighter
in AD, you probably have already noticed this. The more attributes
you raise, the less skills are possible.

When Gladiators became Duelmasters (getting back to ancient history
now) it was Ed’s (the game designer) intention that a gladiator could
overcome his 20 skill “maximum” by raising attributes after
reaching 20. However, raise before 20 and it just counts as normal
skill value (which is why raises sometimes trigger expert ratings).
When I was working at RSI I asked Chuck Kraver about this on many
occasions, and the learning program was to be programmed to do
this.


Example: Two identical lungers, 11 WT. Lunger A never raises
attributes. Eventually lunger A tops out at 20 attack skills. and is
100% better than originally (20 * 5). Lunger B raises WT to 13. then.
tops out at 19 skills. Since raising to 13 is equivalent to 1 attack
skill, lunger B is 100% better (19 * 5 + 1 attribute increase). What is.
the difference? Lunger A can still go to 13, and will be 105% better.
Lunger B has already “wasted” that increase. Note that B may be
able to get to WT 15, or raise ST, WL, or DF. But so can A. And A will
always be 5% better in attack.


I don’t know if this actually got programmed, we’ve all heard about
enhancements that never came about. Keep in mind you can go for
years in real time before a gladiator can accumulate 20 skills in a
single area. Is being “perfect” worth the wait?

HOW DOES IT ALL FIT IN?

Since the beginning I have written about the learning system and
character design. I could probably deal with the fine points of skills
for another 10 issues, and still have more to say. A well designed
character with a good number of skills can get by with almost
anything on the strategy sheet. Yet the ability to read fights and
the strategy sheet have been neglected. Next issue we’ll shift gears
and take a closer look at these factors.

Lets start at the very beginning, with the replacement roll-up. How
exactly are the initial skill levels determined?


First, we must have a place to begin. Lets assume for now that the
character is a total zero. Zero attack %, riposte %, everything. How
does the roll-up program transform this into a new gladiator?
Consider the following:


0 + (style modifications) + (attribute modifications) = new gladiator


Zero is our arbitrary starting point. We may wish to go back and
change it to fit observed facts, but it does seem a logical place to
begin.


Style modifications. As you may have guessed, each style has
certain bonuses and penalties. For example, the PRP gets a
substantial boost to riposte %. The TPs gets a parry boost. While
much of this is intuitive, we do not know for certain what declaring a
particular style does to a roll-up. However, by setting it up in terms
of an equation, we can solve for it when we know the other values.


Attribute modifications. This we have the ability to learn by using
the Golden Rule of 4 so thoughtfully provided by RSI (see HR #7).
Imagine having a table for each attribute. Essentially, this is what
the roll-up program has. It looks at each attribute, determines the
effect on each skill area, and presto. By using the Golden Rule of 4
we can reproduce the information the roll-up program has. Consider
the following hypothetical tables for WT:

 
 
      3     5    7    9    11   13    15   17    19   21 
ATh   +5%   +5%  +5%  +5%  +5%  +5%   +5%  +5%   +5%  +5%
DEC   +5%   +5%  +5%                       +5%   +5%  +5%
DEF   +5%   +5%  +5%  +5%       +5%   +5%  +5%   +5%  45%
INI   +5%   +5%  +5%  +5%       +5%   +5%  +5%   +5%  +5%
PAR   +5%   +5%  +5%  +5%             +5%  +5%   +5%  +5%
RIP                        +5%  +5%   +5%  +5%   +5%  +5%
 
 
      3     5    7    9    11   13    15   17    19   21 
ATK   -10%  -5%  -5%  -5%  +5%  +5%   +5%  +5%   +5% +10%
DEC   -5%   -5%  -5%                  +5%  +5%   +5%  +5%
DEF   -5%   -5%       -5%       +5%   +5%        +5%  +5%
INI   -5%   -5%  -5%  -5%  +5%  +5%   +5%  +5%   +5%  +5%
PAR   -5%   -5%  -5%  -5%             +5%  +5%   +5%  +5%
RIP                        +5%  +5%   +5%  +5%   +5%  +5%
Which do you think is more workable? Lets suppose that we are
interested in maximizing the attack percentage of a new basher. The
natural WT is 9. Using the first table, the contribution of a 9 WT
would be 20% (4 skills). Now, assume we dump 6 attribute points to
WT. The contribution would rise to 35%. For WT alone. Don’t forget
that ST, WL, and DF will add to attack (because everything is a plus
in this model!). And, the fact that he is a basher should give him
another attack bonus. So, using the upper table it is quite possible to
have even an average basher with an initial attack percentage of
say, 150%. Sounds a tad high to me.


That brings us to a minor obstacle, that of knowing “how much”
percent is right. I think the computer would have a difficult time
dealing with negative or zero percentages. Also, we see rookies
obviously proficient at certain skills (indeed, some are rated expert
before their first combat), and therefore greater than zero. But given
a value of 5% per skill, with the potential of learning 20 skills this
means we will be dealing with percentages of greater than 100%.
This sounds like nonsense, but there are a number of schemes that
would allow such a thing.


Suppose the most perfect character concievable could have a parry
percentage of 300%. A given PST could have a numerical percent of
150%. But this would be only half of potential, each time the
program went to check if a parry was successful, he would have to
roll a 150 on a d300. In otherwords, only a 50/50 chance. This
explanation has problems, I’ll let the reader think it through.


Another possibility draws from the idea that certain offensive tactics
cancel defensive tactics (and vice versa). Imagine that certain skill
areas cancel other areas (like parry and dodge cancel attack). Any
percentage “over” 100 would subtract from one or more
corresponding percentages of your opponent. A close reading of the
red rulebook supports this, as did some of the old “Ed’s Ramblings”
columns that used to be in the arena newsletter.


There is a solution more elegant yet, if you are working on your own
man-on-man combat game, give me a call. The thing to remember is
that this game has random number generation (probability) at the
core. Now, getting back on track…


For lack of a better place to start, lets look at the Duelmasters
Handbook. It puts the value of an expert rating at 80%, with the
advanced expert being 100%. One could make an arguement for an
expert being 100% (it is such a nice even number, more appealing
than 80). But we’ll use 80 and 100, which can be changed later if
need be. Therefore. most roll-ups should not begin above 80%
because most fighters do not have expert ratings before the first
fight. Also, when we hit expert we can subtract from 80 to get the
initial percentage.


Looking at the second table, we see important differences. First,
there are negative bonuses for WT below 11. This is an arbitrary
line drawn by the editor, it seems to be the minimum WT, ST, WL,
and DF of a workable character (check roll-up sheets if you don’t
agree). As you can see 9 is a penalty, but less of a penalty than 7
This means raising to 9 is a bonus by virtue of being a smaller
penalty (got that?). Another thing to notice is the inclusion of “dead
spots” in the table, where hitting the next odd number does nothing
to some skills (it takes extreme WT, SZ, or whatever to affect certain
skills). The last difference is that the progression of penalties and
bonuses isn’t necessarily 1 skill per breakpoint.


The basher using this table would have an attack% of -5% at a 9 WT.
Things look better by allocating the maximum 6 points, the WT
contribution becomes +15%. Add bonuses for ST, WL, DF, and style
and I think we’re in the ballpark.


To summarize. these tables can be constructed using the Golden Rule
of 4 and making a few assumptions. Of course, a single manager
could play for a lifetime before compiling this information. A good
size coalition could do it in a few years. Subscribers to this
publication could do it in a few months (hint hint).


Once you have a table, and using NEX statistics you’ve seen in the
HOSER REPORT, the style modifications can be determined. If the luck
factor does exist it could complicate this somewhat. This in turn
allows you to design the best possible character from a given
replacement. PRP with maximum riposte. TPS with maximum parry.
BAS with maximum attack. Whatever you need in the competitive
environment. Having done this, its time to consider how to read
your fights, and the finer points of the strategy sheet. Next issue.

HAVE YOU BEEN STEALING THE HOSER REPORT?

If you plead guilty to the above, now is the time to banish the guilt
forever by ordering your own subscription!

* Think of the CONVENIENCE of having the HOSER REPORT sent to you
without delay!


* Think of the PRESTIGE of telling your friends that you have your
own subscription!


* Think of the EDITOR. By expanded support of this publication you
can rest easy knowing that the HOSER REPORT will continue to grow in
quantity and quality.


* Think the OLD DAYS when the moderator was your only source
of information.


Isn’t it worth it?

ODDS & ENDS

Ok, quite a few of you wanted to have a few roll-up characters to
hone your sklls on. The following are actual replacements which I
have recieved recently. Pick any, pick all. Design your best
character, and if you wish tell us how you would outfit and manage
him in his early outings. Try to keep the length of your brilliance to
under one page,. If there is a good response we can do it again.
 
 
     ST   CN   SZ   WT   WL   SP   DF  
#1   7    13   11   9    12   9    9
#2   16   12   13   4    9    7    9
#3   6    9    10   11   9    11   14
#4   12   9    11   21   4    4    9
It has been brought to my attention, by several people, that there
are more bootleg copies of the HOSER REPORT than medium shields in a
total parry locker room. I am glad to know that so many more
people read the HR than I thought. On the other hand, it is not really
fair to the readers who actually pay for their copy, and somewhat of
an insult. If this newsletter isn’t worth the cover price to you, then
don’t read it. Now I can certainly understand the situations where
you have a roommate, brother, etc. who plays the game and you
share a copy. But people are making multiple copies, and copies of
copies. A line must be drawn.


Unless you are color blind, you have noticed my new twist: the HOSER
REPORT in living color. While it certainly is pretty, that is not my
primary motivation for introducing color. The color HOSER REPORT will
be very difficult to photo-copy, which should scuttle the pirates in
short order. Rest assured by next issue I will have the time to
perfect the non-copyable issue. Enough said.


Another change you may have noticed is on the front page. I will
have more to say about this next issue, and an announcement will be
coming soon after that will be of great interest to readers.


The Grand Tourney is now history. I participated in the mail-in
(which is somewhat embarrassing after all of the shameless hyping I
did about the face-to-face tourney), it seems to have gone very
smoothly and RSI deserves praise for a job of enormous proportions
well done.


Don’t feel bad if you came out of the Tourney with a poor W/L.
Given the format, you have to make it to round 6 just to reach .500.
RSI distributed a Tourney newsletter to all players, if you keep a
database on opponents it would be a good idea to make note of how
they did.


I had promised excerpts from the Duelmasters Handbook, but the
latest revision arrived (too late for deadline), making the old one
obsolete. I have given it a quick read, it looks excellent, much new
information (thanks largely to HR subscribers). Rumor has it that the
author will be making use of the same new printing techniques as
the HOSER REPORT.




Jeff Morgan