>FWIW I know what you mean re Archery. I ran a game last night using
>Archery on the simple contest mechanic. The archer was shooting at
>people at night and he has a shooting in the dark ability. Also he
>was shooting at people that he was superior to. I am not looking
>forward to the extended contest, especially if the opponent cant get
>to him. We shall have to wait and see.
I think the problem is that people aren't thinking through archery properly. Perhaps its a D&D hang-up. Most systems have a system of "Work out if archer hits, if he does work out how much damage he does, now what does the target do next?" Heroquest doesn't work like that. In HQ *both* sides have goals they are trying to achieve at the same point in time. My default action as the target of an archer is "get to cover". Whether the archer hits or misses isn't important - what matters is whether he gets a significant hit before the target gets under cover, out of range, up to his position to whack him, shoots him back, throws up a protective magic, or whatever. Think of every tactic you've seen used in films for people to survive being shot at - they're all valid.
Death isn't the only way to end a combat. For anyone being shot at, survival looks pretty much like a victory. Another issue is *why* was the archer shooting these people? If they can get away to sound the alarm, steal the mcguffin, kidnap the princess, or just draw the archer out of position, then he has suffered a meaningful defeat, even if he isn't injured.
Cheers,
Graham
-- Graham Robinson graham_at_... Albion Software Engineering Ltd.
Powered by hypermail