> > some of Benedict's ideas
> > amount (to me) of punishing players for spending their HPs on skills they
> > are interested in.
>
>
>I was trying to suggest that some activities that the narrator should be
>doing anyway (using contests only for drama, varying the contests,
>giving each person a chance to be the star, providing realistic
>opponents) will naturally encourage players to diversify their HP
>expenditure, and so reduce the rate of advance.
As I said elsewhere, I think your posts amount to "we don't have this problem, and these are the stories we tell, therefore telling these stories will solve the problem". I think you are missing the point. Telling interesting stories is *not* a guarantee that a given *rules* problem will not surface. Believe it or not, I do use contests only for drama, etc. I doubt I'd be still running a campaign of this length otherwise.
The reason, I believe, you have not encountered the same problem I have is *not* the stories you tell, but the group of players you have. My experience is that players naturally decide "I want to be good at X" and look for opportunities to increase X. They'll spend HPs elsewhere, increasing other skills based on plot, worries about next week, etc. But X (or possibly X,Y,and Z) will go up on average faster than their other skills. This does not result in hugely unbalanced characters, just characters who are quite good at most things and brilliant at a few. If you aren't seeing this, it is because of the choices made by the players, not the stories you are telling.
Basic lesson - your group will vary from mine. Rules that work for my group will not necessarily work for mine. If the rules don't work, fix 'em - not the story!
Cheers,
Graham
-- Graham Robinson graham_at_... Albion Software Engineering Ltd.
Powered by hypermail