>-- In HeroQuest-rules_at_yahoogroups.com, "Jane Williams"
> Sounds like one to watch, then. But an awful lot get this, as much
else,
> wrong. Hence, presumably, the number of people saying the
equivalent of
> "they get away with this on film, so we can in games."
We're just going round and round about sim vs nar here. I think it's likely that Jane simply prefers a sim play as regards HP and the like, and that our suggestions about nar play are misplaced here. I for one apollogize for the clutter I've thrown into her queries.
I do feel that I have to say this quickly, however. Just as some films are plausible, and others not, some nar is more plausibe than others. Plausibility is a red herring here. It's precisely the question of how the decision gets made - drama made plausible, or simply plausibility first, that divides these two modes of play. Which is to say that my play, despite being driven by drama, all seems very plausible to the people playing (if I do say so). In fact, again, compared to Chris, my games seem very simmy sometimes. That is, the initial drama considerations get so burried under the later work to make them plausible, that the fact that they were drama first often gets lost. This is just my preferences at work.
To a large extent, I think that HQ is pretty damn self-correcting in this way, at least in terms of HP. That is, I simply err on the side of too many HP, and let the players sort out plausibility for themselves by deciding on how many of the HP to spend (saving the rest for "Bumps" or "Radiation Accidents"). To a lesser extent, this happens with how people distribute Saga levels - but you do have to put a bit more consideration into it.
Mike
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