Worldscale conclusion and a new perspective

From: Toksickburn_at_...
Date: Sat, 17 Aug 2002 03:02:19 EDT

Ups,Greg blew my cover.I´m a simulationist..But it´s not my fault-i didn´t know.Maybe i´m brainwashed by 18 years of roleplaying.;-)

So the answer to my problem is:the ratings relate to the story.Hmmmm.... My interest in HW is the gamemechanic.I was always looking for a heroic, basic-roleplayinggame,that can be used for every genre.HW is this system to me!
My momentary interest is,how to design a genre/world:animals,monsters,weapons,whatever.To be able to do that,i need a scale.That´s how i look on HW.
It was the same with RQ-there it was:the BRPG.There was an openended scale,but to be able to design anything,you had to painstakingly compare and then assign a value.
HW is different,you have an openended scale,but you have also,thresholds/masteries that mean definite things.Thresholds, that make it easier to design a creature,for example.Now comes Greg and tells us:assign whatever rating,that suits the story......hmmm.While it better explains the philosophy behind HW/HQ-i do not know much more. Does it effectively mean,that all the ratings in AR mean nothing,except for giving me a scale,on how the various powers of the beasts relate to each other ???

As i see it,ratings in HW are at first,just numbers,maybe giving you a clue about "quantity" but not much else.That changes when the mastery concept is added.All of a sudden,every group of twenty gets a meaning.That was the very powerful tool,that helped me to assess-THAT is the scale. As i mentioned in a previous mail,i don´t understand why human abilities get a much broader spektrum of 80 points in comparison to superhuman/godlike abilities:
1-20

21-40(W)
41-60(W2)             human
61-80(W3)
-------------------
81-100(W4)           superhuman
101-120(W5)
-------------------
121-140(W6)         small god
141-160(W7)
161-180(W8)         god
181-200(W9)
201-220(W10)       great god

Why not giving every powercategory two masteries/thresholds,like this?:

1-20-ordinary/layman
1W-10W-trained
11W-20W-master
--------------------->Humans

W2-superhuman
W3-halfgodlike/divine


--------------------->Superhumans

W4-lesser god
W5-small god


--------------------->Demons/Spirits

W6-"average"god
W7-powerful god


--------------------->Gods

W8-greater god
etc.
Like this,a failure becomes a success for a trained+master,but more likely 
for a master(that´s his experience).

A failure with a superhuman becomes a critical(that´s superhuman indeed,ain´t it ?!)
A halfgod alway succeeds,even when he fumbles. A lesser god even bumps his opponent down,on a critical(that´s truly demonic)...
This scale makes much more sense to me.

Comments ?

Christian

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