No problem! A rant can be fun as long as it doesn't get personal - which your post didn't, IMHO.
> I think this extra keyword point per year and other such mechanisms
> as generally misguided, and from the same school of thought as 'all
> begining pc's are crap' which is something else I don't agree with.
Fair enough. I don't think we can find much common ground on this point, so I will move on...
> I'd bet my starting warrior with 3 heropoints against the clan
> champion and no hero points any day of the week.
Naturally you can spend loads of HP in a contest and narrate your PC as being the greatest swordsman who ever lived, and it would be perfectly fine (if your narrator agrees). In fact, I can narrate my "Spear Combat 13" librarian as being a highly skilled warrior if I want - I just have to come up with an explination for why he gets trounced when he actually gets into a fight (assuming I don't buy my way to victory). That isn't so hard to do, if you are clever.
As a player, though, I don't want to rely on those methods very often. It is just too costly. And mentally exausting. I would rather have my character's abilities reflect his/her level of ability directly.
> As for GM's, have a look at the general ratings given in Heroquest
> and pitch the npc at the level you think appropriate with regard to
> the needs of your story, without have to go through all this
> heartache about how old they are.
Heartache?
I don't use the Advanced Experience rules for NPCs when I narrate a game any more than I use HPs to buy their abilities. I am way to lazy for all of that, if nothing else. I just make them up - usually with just a few appropriately high keywords.
> To players - if you come up with an idea that says your character
> is a battle hardened humakti champion that doesn't mean that your]
> narrator is duty bound to give you loads of free experience,
> anymore than you 'kill with a glance 13' is not going be be
> attracting pompous magic modifiers of d+60 and you require a total
> victory to succeed.
I think this is not a relavent point. Narrators have a duty to help everyone in their games have a good time regardless of what rules are being used. That typicall means keeping the power levels balanced within the party, but not always. Just because a rule can be abused does not neccessarily make it a bad rule.
I personally don't allow players to use the Advanced Experience rules to introduce characters that are more powerful than those of their fellow players. All the PCs in my game are about the same age except when the story demands that it be otherwise (IE they are siblings).
> This does not mean character gen presented in the Heroquest rules
> is broken or undesirable.
I agree. The rules I use are basically the Advanced Experience and Saga rules. (HQ 178-179) I am quite satisfied with how these rules have affected my game.
> Quite where figuring out at what rate NPC's should advance fits
> into addressing this premise or any other is beyond me.
I don't think anything we have discussed suggests that our games can't address everything you mentioned. It seems completely beside the point to me.
I don't think there is any real need to use the AE/Saga rules for NPCs (as stated above) but I don't see how doing so would prevent a HeroQuest game from addressing the sorts of issues that you described. To each thier own.
I'm off to bed as well! :)
~Kevin McDonald
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