Re: Moon Magic Modifiers

From: David Cake <dave_at_...>
Date: Fri, 7 Apr 2000 19:59:18 +0800

        Can I just add that multipliers to abilities are a very bad idea in Hero Wars, that have the potential to really screw your game around at high levels (especially that times 1.5 one), and a simple positive of negative modifier would have had much the same effects?

        I said this in playtesting, several times. Its still true. HW abilities are basically logarithmic measurements (w4 is as much better than w3 as w2 is better than w1, ignoring APs which in practice do not effect outcome much when there is a large ability difference), so multipliers to abilities aren't multipliers, their exponentials. Exponentials rip game balance to shreds. Detailed example on request, but I've sung this song to Roderick so many times I'm sure he can hum the chorus if he cares.

        That said, its a Naff Retcon as well as bad rules.

>I'll tell you, from an Outside-Glorantha Pure-Rules viewpoint, it is a hell
>of a lot easier to tell players that their abilities act as normal, as
>opposed to acting at 1.5x

        So simply change the ability to represent the level when its full, and have a scale of amounts that are subtracted when they are outside the glowline (ideally, thats subtracted, not multiplied by >1, but I'll settle for multiplication rather than addition/subtraction as long as it makes characters weaker, not tougher, because that has far less game unbalancing effect).

        There is a long tradition of games issueing errata, even ones that change small parts of the game radically. This is a good one to change. Put the change in SGU or something.

	Cheers
		David

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