Which is often a reasonable stance, or so I am told. ;)
> If the story says of Lancelot that he is "The Best Knight in the
> world and can't be beaten" then there is little point in trying.
I agree completely, and think I said as much in my last post - I hate empirical statements for NPCs like "The Best Knight in the world and can't be beaten."
Furthermore, if the outcome of a contest is a forgone conclusion then the narrator shouldn't use a contest to resolve the issue. Broadly speaking, the defeat of Lancelot in battle isn't a reasonable tactic for any achievable goal. The narrator and players should instead frame the contest differently. To use a prior example, when the knights defending Guenevere's pyre face Lancelot the issue at stake and tactic employed (to use HW2 terms, IIRC) are not "Defend the pyre (stake) by killing Lancelot (tactic)" but rather "Be true to principles of friendship and loyalty (stake) by letting Lancelot kill us (tactic)" or "Defend the pyre (stake) by abating Lancelot's fury with our display of courage and sacrifice (tactic)."
In the first alternative contest (be true to principles) the resistance might be the character's fear of death. In the second (defend the pyre) the resistance might be Lancelot's fury. In both cases the players are now participating in a contest that their characters have some chance of winning.
The more I think about this, the more uncomfortable I become with listing abilities for NPCs at all, since it invites "apples to oranges" comparisons. These days I don't think of NPCs as player characters under the control of the narrator. I think of them as story resources, to be used by the narrator in whatever way creates Maximum Game Fun. HeroQuest (and particularly HQ2, from the early playtest version I saw) is a great system for ad lib storytelling - which is the kind of game I run these days. I would therefore much rather see a paragraph or two of color text describing an NPC (Lancelot) or class of NPCs (Royal Guardsman) and perhaps some advice on how the narrator might use them in play. Resist the urge to underline abilities and keywords!
For example: (forgive my lack of authurian knowledge)
Lancelot du Lac
Lancelot is a foreign knight who was attracted to King Authur's court
through its sterling reputation. He is a tall dark-haired man of grace
and noble bearing who is generally believed to be invincible in
combat. He is secretly in love with Lady Guenevere, wife of his sworn
liege and good friend King Authur, and is tormented by the conflict
between his passion for one and loyalty to the other.
Note: When there is no overriding story imperative to guide the narrator, in any contest where the tactic is physical battle with Lancelot the resistance should be "Nearly Impossible" and be treated as a narrow when compared with relevant Player Character abilities.
Or something like that...
-KPM
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