richard.develyn:
> I ask you to reserve jusdgement on this. Wait till you've had a go
> playing HW. In the play test there was quite an involved encounter
> between the PC party and a Chieftain's advisers. It 'ran' just like a
> mass combat, yet what we were actually doing was using all sorts of
> different ways to influence one another.
And I ask you to pay attention to my posts; I ran in the same 'play-test' module at GC VII/LA, and have referred to it here on the Digest.
It did not run 'just like mass combat', albeit similar in many respects. There was a tension level present; failure meant bad things were going to happen to the clan. But the threat of immediate extinction wasn't there, if we failed we would have had to retrench and come up with a new strategy. The prospect for eventual success was still there...
me (richard double quotes me):
> ... combat is most of the time _the_ most exciting thing you can do.
richard:
> maybe because of the way the games you've played have been written.
You are missing the point. Combat is usually (but not always) the most intense thing you do because:
1) the PCs feel more direct control over the critical event(s)
2) potential maiming/death of PCs
3) results are often more permanent than non-combat climax's (not always).
People who fail in the non-combat stage often do the Orlanthi thing,
and fall back on "Violence is always an option".
Example: the Orlanthi PCs fail in a diplomatic mission to Fazzur Wideread, and fail to get him to rescind a crippling tax upon the clan. The game continues, the PCs struggle on manfully. (And if they are Varmandi, we all know how they raise the necessary head of cattle...) Example: the PCs all die in the Starbrow Rebellion. Result, start new characters....
Hero Wars should have a optional combat system. People that don't want to use it don't have to. But it should be available to people who do, and it should have a good 'combat feel', or the addition won't be usefull. This is the point I have been trying to make. It will hopefully broaden the appeal of the game, which is good for everybody.
Andrew
End of The Glorantha Digest V6 #61
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