Reaction

Alrik:Handicraft describes articles, which explain old school roleplay as was common in the 70s or 80s. Overall these are things missing from OSRIC™.

If the adventuring party attempts to parley or negotiate with the other side during an encounter and there is no compelling reason for combat, the Game Master may randomly determine the other side's reaction.

Roll a d% and try to take the circumstances and the overall situation into account. Compare the total result with the entries on the table.

If a party member is the one who speaks first, their reaction bonus (or penalty!) is taken into account.

Example: The adventuring party encounters drunk gnomes.

Alrik, Nora, Bryn and Kassandra are taking a walk among the houseboats in Fix at night. A group of drunk, rowdy gnomes are blocking their way and want to try to persuade Bryn to give them his wine. Bryn (CHA 16) wants to keep his wine and move on with his friends without being bothered, so he starts talking to the gnomes. The Game Master wants to use a reaction roll to determine how the gnomes react to Bryn. She rolls a d% and gets a 9. Since Bryn can be quite likable and convincing, he gets a +25% bonus on the die roll because of his CHA, for a total of 34. The Game Master also thinks that the gnomes have been rather cheerfully drunk up to now, so she adds another 10 to the roll, for a total of 44: Irritable. The gnomes now stop trying to talk Bryn out of his wine, but are a bit irritable about the way they are being treated here: "We are not some random hirelings that you can boss around, we just wanted to have a nice chat!"

Depending on the situation, further modifiers may come into play (see Loyalty).

W% reaction roll ≤05 Violent, the party is attacked 06-15 Your money or your life, the party is about to get robbed 16-25 Threats, the party has to do the other party a favor 25-35 Insults, the group is mocked or provoked 36-45 Irritable, the group is treated in an unfriendly manner 46-55 Uncertain, the other party does not want to take any risks 56-65 Respectful, the other party is polite but does not commit to anything 66-75 Friendly, the other party is understanding, may give advice 76-85 Cooperative, the other party is willing to cooperate 86-95 Helpful, the other party supports the group with advice and action ≥96 Enthusiastic, long-term cooperation is possible