>
>In the absence of NPC HPs, every HP expended has some beneficial
>effect: either increasing an ability, or bumping a roll. A PC HP bump
>countered by an NPC bump, however, has no benefit at all.
>
but a PC bump used to counter an NPC bump OTOH...
>But, I hear you say, the PC has succeeded in whittling away the NPC's
>stock of HPs. The problem here is the asymmetry: the PC's stock of
>HPs have been earned through play, whereas the NPC's HPs have been
>arbitrarily assigned by the Narrator. The Narrator is, in effect,
>just knocking off HPs from the character sheet of the PC.
>
Hmm, I think it is marginally dubious to bump *just* to counter a PC's previous bump, since it does give the impression of just using up the Players resources. Conversley if the Players finally corner the (supposedly tough) villain in his lair, Augment themselves up to the eyeballs to cancel out his mastery advantage and the GM then rolls a 20, it could all get a bit anti-climactic....
Now if the GM rolls "in secret" then he can just pretend that the roll was really a 19** - the players are still winning, but the fights not over yet, but if he is rolling out on the open then he can only give the character "plot protection" by use of a NPC HP
OK so players always roll "in the open" - but they have HP! And the GM can also "cheat" to preserve the PC's too...
>At (almost) any point where the NPC faces defeat, the NPC could spend
>a HP to survive. NPC HPs just act as 'ablative armour' that the
>players have to remove before they can really defeat the NPC. The
>players will want to defeat the NPC, however, so giving an NPC HPs
>has no real effect on the story (the PCs will eventually defeat the
>NPC, whether the NPC has HPs or not). Why bother, then?
>
However the GM does not *have* to use them. If the players come up with a cunning plan that allows them to defeat the villain then it would be churlish to force them to fail. Or if a battle has raged back and forth over several rounds before the PC scores a major victory while risking all his AP's then the victory is earned without needing to make it tougher.
> ...
> > >Forcing a PC to spend their HPs to produce a Narrator
> > effect (as it were) seems unfair.
> >
> > Fair/unfair suggests you perceive HW as a game that
> > can be won or lost,
>
While HW itself is "won" by participating in an enjoyable session, the contests within it can be won or lost by the individual participants (otherwise why have contests?)
The important thing is that the contest "seems" fair - if every time you spend a HP to bump your result the NPC bumps to equalise the result, then it probably doesn't, just as if you send your just created characters up 1 to 1 with a bunch of Close Combat:10w3 opponents with no option but to fight them it doesn't.
> It
> seems that the ONLY use fo HP bumps is to prevent see-sawing: either
> removing a down-swing, by bumping a defeat, or by finishing of the
> NPC quickly, by bumping a success. I suggest that any player bumping
> with a HP is telling the Narrator that they don't want a see-saw
> battle.
>
I think players always want to end the contest as quickly as possible, because that way the character is less likely to get hurt! Afterwards, though, it is the epic battles that become the most memorable. If every victory was a single blow "took him out before he had time to blink" then the impact is dulled. (My Feng Shui character always manages to get to the end of his damage track at some point in the game - that doesn't mean I wouldn't like to be able to walk away at the end of a battle!)
> ...
> > A villain possession of hero points represents their
> > importance to the story.
> ...
>
> The Narrator decided how many HPs to give an NPC. But the Narrator
> also has numerous OTHER ways for representing the importance of the
> NPC to the story. I suggest that NPC HPs are a poor way of doing so.
NPC HP are a good way for the GM to be able to balance an NPC "on the fly" if they have miscalculated earlier. It's a balancing trick, and slightly underpowering an NPC but giving them HP's that you can always choose not to use is a "better" solution than overpowering the NPC and then needing deux et machinae to rescue the PC's...
*Yes, I know Schizophrenia isn't the same thing as multiple personality disorder, it's just a figure of speech.
**"'A Good Dungeonmaster only rolls the dice for the sound they make' - E Gary Gygax"
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