Dave.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Graham J Robinson [SMTP:gjr_at_...]
> Sent: 19 April 2000 10:43
> To: hw-rules_at_egroups.com
> Subject: Re: Combat
>
> James Turner :
>
> >This may be a stupid question but....
>
> You said it not me :-)
>
> >For those saying that the extended contest rules for combat take too
> >long.
> >Have you tried increasing the amount you bid?
>
> The problem is that I don't have control over the size of the bids - if
> someone wants to be a coward and bid small, that's his right. The other
> problem is that I have not found any benefit during play from APs. Yes,
> they allow control over the battle, at least on half the dice rolls - "Can
> I bid five again?" "Nope, the troll wants to bid 40, and its his turn"
> "But I don't have 40 left" "Tough."
> It also can encourage a form of dramatics, if not actual roleplaying, in
> that the GM may require descriptions of what you are doing before you can
> bid.
> However, the cost is extra complexity, extra terminology, and - in my
> experience - extra attrition. Typically, players will not bid more than
> half their remaining APs, unless they are clearly winning the contest.
> That means that as time goes on their bids get smaller and smaller. This
> means that either the contests take forever, or the GM has to make big
> bids. (And for those of us who want the drama side, come up with dozens of
> variants on "The troll really goes for it.") Of course, your players may
> vary, but as I've now played this with 15-20 players from all over
> britain, I think I've got a reasonable feel for how it runs in reality.
>
> I think part of the problem here is that I want combat to be (a) over fast
> and (b) dangerous. APs allow an apparent degree of control, but are slower
> and tend to prevent real injuries. I say apparent, because so far I have
> only seen two potential strategies - If you think you are going to win
> bid big, or If you think you are going to lose, bid small and hope
> something happens to save you. Maybe there are others - anyone?
>
> Dropping APs, but keeping trying for bonuses, and allowing people to trade
> a bonus for a bigger penalty if they fail, keeps the drama, encourages
> role playing and makes combats faster and simpler. Also, unlike some of
> the suggestions floating around, this has been playtested and has, so far,
> got 100% approval from the players.
>
> Graham
>
> --
> Graham Robinson. Dept. Computing Science, Glasgow.
> gjr_at_... http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~gjr
>
> Tact, noun:
> The unsaid part of what you are thinking.
>
>
>
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