My Problems with the Hero Wars Game System (as presented)

From: Joerg Baumgartner <joe_at_toppoint.de>
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 98 23:23 MET DST


First of all, I found the playtest session to have been an enjoyable experience. The system doesn't exactly address my preferred style of gaming, but then I like sensible-looking, text-rich webpages more than colourful moving Java-contraptions, so I'm hardly the trendsetter.

Things I dislike about the current mechanics address the powergaming, ruleslawyery types I'm going to encounter when I will start to run Hero Wars - or, as Alex called it, "letting the minimaxing powergamer inside speak":

"plot points" are gained for rolling dice as often as possible - you have a one in twenty chance to get one. If you want lots of plot points, roll as often as possible.

To achieve this end, bet as few action points as possible in the detailed opposed solution. Don't do anything risky which would make you spend a plot point...

If the opponent is stronger than you, sit out the conflict, until you get the chance to use a plot point to devastating effect. This may mean that you need to expend more than one action point at a time, even though that reduces your chances to regain the plot points in the short run.

Or spend some time rolling for plot points, then bet more points than you had (probably the only way to kill an opponent) and use a plot point. There might be a backlash, sure, but if you've been losing anyway...

Then there is the temptation to burn off a plot point in case of a bad tie in success (i.e. your opponent rolled better than you), in which case you get to transfer the amount of action points bet if you don't spend the plot point, or you gain double the amount of action points bet (half of these from your opponent IIRC) if you burn it off. In other words, you can better your result by 300% for a plot point, and might turn the evidently crucial event (if it wasn't crucial, nobody would go through detailed solution, opposed or not, if I understood the system correctly - "think about where you'd see the scene in a movie; if it's five minutes, use the detailed system, if it's done in the off, do a simple die roll").

Nick Brooke he sez
> There is a (non-numeric) relationship between role-playing activities
> and status point bets: you can't, for instance, have your character
> (in a legal dispute) call his opponent a broo-fucker and claim that
> it's only a one-point bet.

That's simply an announced fumble in my book - about the equivalent to "I lie down on the belly and strike with my greatsword", instantly raising the target number by about 10 to 15... no problem if your character wants to show off and takes the greater penalty for greater fame (or whatever).

Nick tries to defend plot points:

> Plot Points are rather like the similar points (Hero Points, Force
> Points, Fate Points, and lord knows what else) that many other
> systems use to allow players some respite from the evils of the
> uncaring dice (and to allow GMs to reward good play). Most players
> will have at most a handful of Plot Points. You can spend them for
> permanent changes to your character's abilities (like experience or
> training); for use of powerful magics (like one-use Rune spells or
> Enchantments); or to improve your result on one die roll by one level,
> once, after the roll (i.e. from failure to success, from big failure
> to failure). Spending them like currency is not, in the long
> run, the most efficient thing to do...

>From my estimate, they are almost as common as are the experience points
in Star Wars which can be burnt off to ward off desaster or increase success. As I said above, for about every 20 die rolls the player has to do there will be a plot point (each time the target number is rolled), to an average of one to two per 4 hours session of action.

OTOH, a 6 hour session of intense _role_-playing (e.g. internal discussions on the moralty of killing a helpless party member for an unspeakable crime) would pass without any plot points granted, unless you want to diminish in-party discussions to die rolls.

In RQ3, I was faced with the "tick frenzy" ("ok, I scored a tick with broadsword, knife, fist and kick so far, next attack will be a bite"). I fear I'll see a "let's roll" frenzy with HW just to get all the nice plot points.

The good side of HW is that you start out with quite competent characters - in their chosen fields - which makes the urge to double that sword attack a bit less, I hope.

I guess that there will be wiseguys who tell me to switch my players. Since we're talking real-life people of the closer private circle, this isn't an option.


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