RE: Re: How do you compare published abilities without numbers?

From: Matthew Cole <matthew.cole_at_...>
Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2009 15:15:40 -0000

excuse me but to defend Ian:  

<no offence><rant>
He was just paraphrasing The Mask "from zero to hero in nothing flat" I'm convinced that he wasn't saying that heroes that have no chance of victory in any given conflict are objectively 'zeroes'. ffs - it just rhymes and is a bit catchy. taking it literally is not really very helpful. what Ian was referring to was deprotagonisation  

</rant>
</nooffence>  

heroes in narrative games are by their nature not zeroes? totally

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From: HeroQuest-rules_at_yahoogroups.com [mailto:HeroQuest-rules_at_yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Tim Ellis Sent: 04 March 2009 13:02
To: HeroQuest-rules_at_yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: How do you compare published abilities without numbers?

• In HeroQuest-rules_at_ <mailto:HeroQuest-rules%40yahoogroups.com> yahoogroups.com, L C <lightcastle_at_...> wrote:
  >
  > Tim Ellis wrote:
  > >Yes. But the fact that they shouldn't roll against him doen't make
  > >them zeros because they can't hope to beat him.
  >
  > I'm not sure I understand this. Are we assuming if a fight is a sure
  > loss, it means you are a zero? (And also, there are all kinds of
  > other ways to interact with Harrek than fighting him, I would hope.)
  >
  

I was countering Ian's assertion:-
> One mistake I made when Red Cow was to have people in the story who
> the players could not hope to win contests with. That makes pcs into
> zeroes not heroes.

The mere fact that these characters *exist* does not make them zeros. The pc's can realise that going toe-to-toe with Harrek, or Jousting with Lancelot is doomed to failure, so change the nature of the contest.