>Hero Wars is not basing its success on being a realistic combat simulator.
Actually, we're not just talking about combat, Rick, we're talking about all sorts of encounters. I think HW is revolutionary (AFAIK) in being a system which treats all kinds of encounters the same and I think it will play a very important part in my role playing life because of it.
Still I'll try to make my examples from now on be less combat-oriented :-)
All game systems strike a balance between Story-Telling, Realism and Game-Balance and I'm not alltogether sure that the same balance has been struck consistently. It's this latter part, Balance, which I'm wondering about, and which I think is also what we're arguing about.
The fact that you have a well-defined system of skill expertise and progression suggests that Balance is a factor of HW. You can't just do MGF - pick what you want to be good at and how good you are at it and go from there. As soon as rules are introduced which limit you, you're bound to start getting debates about loop-holes in them and inconsistencies. In the end you have to respect the rules, IMO, or not have them.
Richard
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