Re: AP's and switching in combat

From: Andrew Dawson <asmpd_at_...>
Date: Sun, 26 Mar 2000 14:03:02 -0500

Just in case it's not obvious: Thanks, Roderick, for playing along with me as I try to nail down how Hero Wars works.

At 10:17 AM 03/26/2000 -0800, Roderick Robertson wrote:
>> 3. Same situation: The limiting factor that I can think of is that a large
>> AP stake means a large risk. Since Cyrano is presumably defending with
>> Fencing and attacking with Wit, I can see a negative improvisational
>> modifier being added to the next Fencing defense to simulate the risk
>taken
>> in order to stake a large number of AP staked in the previous Wit attack
>> (maybe Cyrano throws his arms wide apart in order to punctuate his point
>> and has to scramble to bring his foil back in line for defense). Does this
>> sound right to you or do you have a better idea?
>
>The risk of a big AP bid is in losing it. There need not be any penalty to
>the ability rolls. If I bid big, and win, well, I gambled and won. If I
>lose, I am at a disadvantage. We are not trying to model combat so much as
>the flow of advantage between the contestants. Igf I won the exchange, I
>obviously brought my blade back in line after my exorbitant gesture, while
>if I lose, I didn't.

I don't see this in the rules (please correct me if I am wrong), but I recall seeing somewhere that the AP bid should match the stated action. For example, a description of a perilous action should be matched with a large AP bid, while tentative conservative actions should be matched with low AP bids. Questions:

1. Is this true? Is this mentioned in the rulebooks?
2. If true, what is Cyrano doing that is so spectacularly dangerous so as to justify a large AP bid? (When I first made this point about whether Cyrano takes a modifier in order to make the large AP bid, I had in mind the technique of matching risk to AP bid.)

Thanks,
Andy