>
> Nic Hughes:
>
> > To some extent yes, if anyone has suitable magic to lend you AP
then
> > they can do so. Or someone could call on divine aid. Or
something
> > could happen somehow - never underestimate the inventiveness of
> > players. Its more of an issue with the lesser losing positions -
> > does -5 mean anything if by the end of the whole contest you made
it
> > back up to +10?
>
> I keep forgetting to get a rulebook and a computer in the same
place,
> so pardon me hand-waving a little about what the current Actual
Rules
> are. But I'd be skeptical about being so fast and loose with this
as
> to result in a situation where there was an artificial difference
> between "the contest has ended, take your lumps", and "the contest
> is on-going, who knows?" Particularly if there's any ambiguity
about
> how many "sides" in the contest are present; or who is "in" the
contest,
> and who is not. Especially if it in any way encouraged complacency
> about the fate of a participant. ("Well, Bjetis is -39AP, but his
> opponent didn't bother with a coup de grace, so he's OK for the
> moment. Let's wait until we turn the contest around, and then lend
him
> 40 when we have them to spare.")
>
..and run the risk that you will leave it too late. Once the contest
is over you are in the epilogue and are dealing with the
consequences. In a situation like this it is almost always better to
start as early as possible, anything else is gambling that they "hang
on in there" until you get around to helping them.
-39 is of course an extreme case and it would take a pretty highlevel
or very lucky hero to have that many AP going spare at the end
of the contest and would then require a fairly hard AP lending
contest to save them. The resistance to get back to positive (20W)
is actually higher than for healing them after the contest (10W for
dying).
--
Nic