Re: Hero Wars extrapolations

From: Alex Ferguson <abf_at_cs.ucc.ie>
Date: Thu, 6 Aug 1998 19:41:06 +0100 (BST)


Pete Nash writes of his, and hopefully others comments on HW:

> And I hope that some of what we all write will help him with the final
> draft. Even if it is just more explanations on how to apply the system
> to certain situations.

Hear, hear! (Or is that Here, here? J. R. R. seemed to think so, which confused me greatly in my impressionable youth.)

> If you have two parties of five members each, and during a contest both
> sides lose four, then it means that the final characters will have the
> accumulated points of all the others who went down, lost the argument,
> etc. The resolution table doesn't only allow action points to be
> transferred from loser to winner, it can also create new action points
> too.

It also can cause them to be "forfeited" (meaning lost entirely) (this is the "usual", but not invariable result of a Failure, in fact -- fie upon that table!), which is normally going to be much more common than them being gained outright. But yes, the above could happen, though it sounds a little contrived.

> Sitting at the fall of Whitewall the PC's see the crimson bat coming.
> Everyone else sensibly runs away, but you have one PC who decides enough
> is enough. He bets his own total destruction (say 2000 action points)
> against the bat and uses his plot points to win the single round of the
> contest. He wins. The bat is destroyed, and suddenly Whitewall is saved
> by a single superhuman character with 2000+ action points routing the
> Lunar army off the field, and the campaign plot line is buggered.

You're assuming that: a) there's _no_ limit on the PP stake (as opposed by being allowed to bet a tad more than one has), and; b) that the CB doesn't have a level or two of Mastery up its tentacle.

Aside: if one spends a PP to improve a Failure to a Success, how is it determined whether you've won or lost the round? Bring back partial successes, I'm beginning to think... (See also my comment about being able to go from "Success (Loser)" to "Big Success" with one PP.)

Slainte,
Alex.


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