Various

From: Nils Weinander <nilsw_at_ibm.net>
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 09:15:11 +0200


Lots of interesting discussion over summer. Too bad that I had to catch up on it all afterwards...

Hero Wars:

Alex:
>
> Mind you, I'm not sure the HW PP rule is a very good one. Perhaps
> they ought to be given out for crucial _character_ actions, rather
> than for RPing, as such.

A good idea. How you get PP is one of my gripes with them. Having them around is a necessity though. The Opposed rolls even out statistically in the long run, but in any single contest you are very much at the mercy of the Very Unfriendly Dice. Without PP, game play would grind to a halt quite quickly.

My second gripe is that save-your-ass points are the same as experience points. Expect very slow character progression, or perhaps rather that the characters who succeed in their objectives grow better slower than those who fail all the time.

I have seen some concern over the power level of HW characters. I can't understand why, as has already been pointed out, standard characters have the equivalence of 70% chance in a few skills, and that is in a simple ability test. In a contest, the chance is lower. So, I'd say that new HW characters are no more powerful than new RQ3 characters, they just have a much better cultural and community context.

Likewise, the omnipresence of magic is no problem is no problem, since it's so difficult to succeed using it. Here is one strange thing: it is much easier to use magic opposed (i.e. on an opponent) than on inanimate matter, as the background magic resistance is way high. I'm not sure I like that.

Now I'm through complaining. What I really like about the system is the character generation, the unified task resolution, the possibility to make things other than combat full of tension and not the least that when you _do_ have combats you don't have to slaughter your opponents to defeat them. 0 SP is not dead, like 0 HP.


Lions in Loskalm:

I think it makes perfect sense that lions show up in the KoW. Once, Malkioni knights nailed lion hides to their shields to display their victory over Basmoli. Nowadays there are no lions in Loskalm, the knights have their shields painted instead. Over the centuries teh significance of the lion has changed, so that it is now a regal beast of strength, courage and nobility (my conjecture, plausible enough?).

So, then comes the KoW, the dark shadow of Loskalm, everything it loathes and fears. In its hordes are found huge slavering cave lions which prefer skulking in the dark, ridden by savage cannibals with filed teeth.


Ygg's Isles:

Mike Cule:
>p 34 of Player's Book Genertela says they are *so* Orlanthi. Unless this
>has been officially Gregged?

Pter:
>I am giving my own opinion. Their isolation and the lack of nearby
>Orlanthi makes me suspicious that they ever emigrated from Heortland.

Adding my voice to Peter's (and others') here. They are not Orlanthi in the cultural sense (what Mikael Raaterova calls Orlanthing), only in what they worship. As Greg said at Convulsion: "There are fewer gods than we think".



Nils Weinander | Everything is dust in the wind nilsw_at_ibm.net | http://www.geocities.com/Paris/8689/

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