> It is clear that you have not yet grasped the paradigm shift the Hero Wars
> is bringing.
Eric, it is clear that you have not grasped my point. Wish I could be surer that you'd bothered trying.
I have made no objection to "default" starting characters getting bump-ups; all I'm asking for is a little bit of clarity in (or at least, _about_) the rules for this. Having two nominally different mechanisms to do what's actually the same thing seems a tad silly to me, in anyone's "paradigm". To wit, Mastery bump-ups, and bump-ups vs. "ordinary" types.
Furthermore, being coyly non-explicit about who the PCs do or don't get bump-ups on is just going to make the process of "scaling down" things for people who want to start with 15 or 18 year olds more cumbersome and confusing than it need be. (I haven't even at all decided if I'm _in_ this category yet, lest I be suspected of being some hair-shirt anti-powergaming zealot. Having a clearer idea of what the notional "power level" actually _was_ in HW would be a start...)
Now, I'll admit that since I haven't seen these rules directly (though I think there was tangential reference to them in the demo game) it's not entirely evident how obfuscated they really are, as against to what extent I've just been Befuddled by the flurry of apparently contradictory explanations of this. So with all due apologies to the messengers concerned, I'll be shooting them first, in preference to the presumed-innocent Mr. Laws.
> You are thinking ordinary means ordinary in ability. It does not, it means
> ordinary in terms of just background color. If you have two identical
> farmers, one can be ordinary and the other might not be, depending
> on the GM's need.
This's a glib rationale, but it amounts to the same thing. Whether "Ability" means actual game-world prowess, or some storytelling notion of the same, or even yet, just a handy measure of how much "screen time" someone gets before being smooshed is neither here nor there. (The fact that Hero Wars "abilities" are called "Abilities" suggests to me that they _do_ have something to do with ability, appalling literalist that I am.) Sure, I can see perfectly valid game reasons for "fudging" (as it used to be called in the good old days) "NPC skill levels" (ditto!), I'm just not sure how predigested I care to have my fudge, thanks.
Bonus gripe: as annoying as I found all this talk of "paradigm shifts" initially, I find it much, much more so now that assorted luminaries have adopted it as their pre-gen put-down of choice for anyone making even a tangentially not-quite-positive-enough comment on HW. Oldthinkers Unbellyfeel Herowarswise, as it were. (And human nature being what it is, having it used on _me_ is yet more galling than merely observing it being deployed on (real or suspected) RQ-stick-in-the-muds, which I'll spare you all a detailed disclaimer of being.)
It's not as if I were remotely attacking HW; wearisome discussions on the Digest aside, I'm feeling increasingly Up about it, and if I could go down my local games shop (or even, an actual game that wasn't _quite_ so laughable as that one), buy an armful of HW boxes, and use it to corrupt impressionable young minds up at the U.C.C. gaming society come the start of the new term, I assuredly would. As however, this option doesn't seem likely to be on the table for about another year or so (sigh), is it really such a sin to attempt to have a sensible discussion, or even, (gasp) a critique, of what is notionally still a work in progress, without getting counterattacked by overly rabid HW defenders -- or as is far, far worse, patronised by them?
Slainte,
Alex.
Well, that was all a touch overwrought, I suspect; ended up as a more of a portmanteau grouse than sticking to Eric's point, please bear with me. (And previous infractors, there but for the grace of me not being bored enough at the time...)
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