Re: Kudos to Bruce Ferrie/Augmentation

From: Ian Cooper <ian_hammond_cooper_at_...>
Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2001 17:03:32 -0000


Stephen McGinnesss wrote:

> I only realised during the gameplay that augmentation is an
extremely risky business. When you try to augment then there is rarely an occaision when _nothing_ happens - you either gain or lose. Is this intentional.<

Yes. Hero Wars states that magic is dangerours and has side affects:

Consequences and Magic
"Magic is always risky. Narrators should strive to be creative in applying negative consequences to the working of magic, tailoring the specific consequence to the desired result of the magic...the narrator should impose a modifier based on the degree of defeat ... normally be applied to the magical ability used in the contest..."

Magic is risky so penalties are possible the greater the rewards you seek.

We generally apply the penalty to the ability being augmented, as per the augmentation rules. I am tempted to be more creative - tailoring the penalty to the circumstances, sometimes penalizing the augmenting ability, as implied by the Consequences and Magic rules, and sometimes penalizing the augmenting ability. Follow the story.

Penalizing the augmenting ability (I'd probably chose the affinity/grimoire rathern tah spell/feat) weas suggested a long time ago on this list as an alternative for people who could not envisage the penalty appying to the augmented ability, so some people may already play that way. I'll let you know how everyone reacts (which includes Bruce) ;-)

Ian Cooper

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