Hero Wars

From: Alex Ferguson <abf_at_cs.ucc.ie>
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1998 20:59:19 +0100 (BST)


Stephen Watson replies to Phil Hibbs:
> > 1. The conflict resolution cross-reference must be memorable for
> > nearly all occasions.

> I had the center of the table memorised by halfway through the demo
> session, so I don't think it'll be a problem. It would just need a few
> more sessions to memorise the big success/big failure parts.

I'm sure that's true, but it's not a great endorsement of the game as a "straight out of the box" system. What's worse, the table seems to me to serve no real purpose -- you have the same sort of range of die-roll-outcome as RQ, or Pendragon (fumble/fail/success/crit) supposedly a more abstract (or "goal-oriented", if you must) interpretation of those results. To have to get all Rollmeisteresque at that point, and look up a _table_ seems to be the very height of perversity.

Seems to me that one could get _essentially_ the same effect with no matrix. Just apply aggressor's outcome and defender's outcome separately, to each, after noting who won if there's a success/success situation (cf partial successes, anyone)?

Something like:

Big Failure: forfeit 2xN points.
Failure: forfeit N points.
Success: transfer N points from loser to winner. Big Success: gain N, transfer N.

Apply each cummulatively, so if I fail, and my opponent succeeds, I forfeit N, _and_ transfer N to him, as with the HW table. Some of the other marginal results would be different, but not in a way that'd matter much, I think.

The advantage of a table, I admit though, is that it avoids having to phrase the "but what happens if we both crit" as special cases, and tends to happen in RQ et al. The best of both worlds is to have the table, for the sake of clarify, but make it systematic enough to be recreated once the underlying principles are understood, you don't actually need it.

Sorry to make my first comments so negative; overall I was favourably impressed, but the table made me shiver. In fact, our test session actually ground to a halt while everyone started to try to figure out the table, complain about it, and (worst of all) try to fix it!

Slainte,
Alex.


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