>You don't get involved in all those traditional dungeon bashy things. No
>mapping, no detailed tactical displays showing where monsters are in
>relation to the furniture, and so on. A HW game is a stream of role
>playing challenges, with the mechanism for resolving the challenges
>being basically the same. Combat, for example, just becomes one of the
>many exciting things you can do. <snip>
While I have no objection to a new rules system, particularly if it helps resolve non-combat situations 'better', I feel that some of the comments above are perhaps a little much. "Combat, for example, just becomes one of the many exciting things you can do" is a problem, because combat is most of the time _the_ most exciting thing you can do. The immeadiacy of the danger, the sense that Destiny Is In Your Hands, really serves to rack up the tension level.
Richard says (in one of the sections snipped), "You don't get involved in all those traditional dungeon bashy things. No mapping, no detailed tactical displays showing where monsters are in relation to the furniture, and so on." The problem is, some people _like_ this sort of thing. Look at any minitures player. I'm going to GenCon next week, and there will be 5000+ people there in the minis area, and they all think that position vs the terrain/opponents is crucial. I could go on at length about people who like to play Champions, or ShadowRun, or a dozen other games wherein most of the 'legwork' is setting up for the big fight at the end. But I won't; I know someone will just answer, "You can do it that way with the rules, if you like."
True; but not a complete answer. People who like this sort of thing, also like game mechanics that emphasize it, (or at least, give a good feel for combat). If HW doesn't give a good 'down & dirty' feel to combat, it's going to miss out on a lot of possible converts. These guys will say that Game X has a better feel, and forget it.
I know that designing a game that appeals to the rules-light intensiveroleplay guys, and the 'combat rocks' guys is probably an impossible task. But I would hope that Robin at least takes a swipe at it. For all that anyone can sneer at Champions and ShadowRun as being combat oriented, no one has every accused these games of being unpopular, or getting ready to go out of print. Gen Con is the biggest game con in the USA, and these games are heavily represented by volunteer judges running games. Rune Quest? Nada.
Reflectively,
Andrew
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