Re: Fixed-length extended contests?

From: Sam Elliot <sam.elliot1_at_...>
Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2005 08:44:50 -0000

> On Wednesday 23 Mar 2005 5:05 pm, Sam Elliot wrote:
> > An example could be: You have to hold the trolls off until dawn,
> > you've an hour to go,

Neil:
> Excellent example of a good contest. But...
> > let's give it five rounds, including incremental augments for the
lightening sky, if you're on higher AP by the end, Elmal will have come to the rescue.
> ...why fix the duration at five rounds?

Three reasons (conflated in my earlier posts - sorry)...

1. Fix the number of rounds (or fix the bid proportions) pre-hoc...if (big if) that gamist element somehow contributes to the drama - if it is unlikely to, then that's my answer.
2. To model something in the narration which is linear (for the sake of argument) like the contribution of the rising sun, if (big if again) this contributes dramatically. But this could equally be done by just increasing the augment each round and being flexible with perceptions of time.
3. If the narrative so far does include something which is fixed - a series of contests at a fair with a winner declared at the end. Perhaps best done with the carryover rules (I was mistaken earlier - I did understand those rules, but had been confused by the HQ stages and so on, but the rules didn't grab me as fabulous). As I said, I'm not a big fan of contests at a fair, perhaps as I've never partaken, but I feel I'm missing a trick.

> Your goal is: hold the trolls off until dawn. Their goal is
something like 'Eat the hoomans before dawn'. If you knock the trolls down to -ive APs, you've held them off. If you end up at -ive APs, the trolls got you before the sun got them. If, in the first exchange, the heroes bid everything and win, narrate how their initial repulsion was so devastating that the trolls immediately fled. If the heroes keep bidding small amounts, the two sides keep sniping at other as the endless night wears on. If you want Elmal to lighten the sky, that'll probably be a small bid ("We hunker down for a few hours: 7AP, using my 'Build Stout Defences' ability") with any AP loss converted into a Hurt for the trolls.

I had meant to say, "You win if your AP remain +ve", not the greater final AP wins, as I have a sneaking, perhaps misguided, suspicion that that might work. Yes, if someone goes negative first, end of story. But otherwise, it might work for point 1 above.

Sam.