Boulders

Azmodeous

Azmodeous

Artisan
On page 82 of the rule book under Weapon Guidelines; Thrown Weapons it says:
"Chapters may rule that some specific Thrown weapons, called Boulders, may only be lifted by creatures with Superhuman Strength and the skill Thrown weapon."
What is the stand on this for Seattle? I've looked but cannot find a reference for it on the forums. I thought it would add a little more flavor to my character if I were able to throw Boulders and would like to know if it was allowed. I don't think it would be game breaking, as it's not like I could carry a bunch around with me, I would more than likely have to pre-stage a few at a location that I thought that they would be useful. Just wanted to hear some other's thoughts on the subject.
 
In Seattle, boulders have not been allowed except in specific plot-controlled circumstances/modules, and those rules/properties have been explained on the field so there wouldn't be any forum reference.

So here's my answer:

They have had the following properties in Seattle (and Oregon too) in the past:
  • Requires some amount of Superhuman Strength (aka Monster Strength) to pick up/move. Smaller boulders have required 2 Monster Strength, larger ones 5 or more.
  • Has the "Massive" carrier (I believe it is a flat amount of damage announced ahead of time at opening or the start of a module/encounter)
  • Hit anything they touch with that damage, even if you roll it, bounce it, etc. until it stops moving.
  • Requires the Thrown Weapon skill to use as well.
So, short answer, if you'd like to use these with a character, you'll need to (in no particular order):
  • Ask the local plot team for approval and tags
  • Clear it with the chapter's Head of Rules (Bryan Gregory; "Polare" on these boards).
  • Have the phys-rep safety-checked by a weapon marshal
  • Do all of the above for any chapter in which you plan to play the character since boulders work on a chapter-to-chapter basis and are plot-controlled items.
Most importantly, don't expect to be able to use them in every chapter.

-Adam
 
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What you *can* do as a PC, completely within the existing rules, is make a large thrown weapon rep, have it tagged as a "Heavy Thrown Weapon", and it will do a base of 3 damage instead of 2. You could go about throwing them as your character and call them whatever you like in-game (even "Boulders"), but out of game they're Heavy Thrown Weapons.

You would need the Thrown Weapon skill and a blacksmith to create some tags for you.

Anything tagged as a "Boulder" cannot be used by PCs except under very limited Plot circumstances, which generally revolve around getting some source of Monster Strength.

-Bryan Gregory
Seattle Head of Rules
 
How does Endow translate to the Monster Strength scale? Could he pop an endow and toss a boulder on a one for one basis?
 
Endow explicitly does not grant Monster Strength. There are things that Monster Strength allows (permanently busting down a door, for example) that Endow does not.

Or, to put it another way, if I were to use a numerical scale...

Normal PC strength might be a 1
Endow will let a PC temporarily reach 2
Monster Strength goes from 3 on up

Depending on Plot, some roleplaying effects might let someone with an Endow temporarily oppose someone with Monster Strength, but for the purposes of the rules Monster Strength is always "higher" than Endow strength.

-Bryan
 
Good to know!
 
Ok, thanks. After reading the responses, it makes sense that payers can't throw boulders. When I first posted the question I didn't realize that they did massive damage. Now that I know that, I could see having a bunch of PC's throwing boulders would be a bit overpowered. Thanks for the responses.
 
but making 24"+ throwing rocks are fine, just not tagged as boulders.
 
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