Re: Starting a new contest

From: Steve Lieb <styopa_at_...>
Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2000 07:21:23 -0800


"hibbs, philip" <philip.hibb-_at_...> wrote: original article:http://www.egroups.com/group/hw-rules/?start=606
> Getting back to the Great Troll vs Oscar situation, let's say the
Great Troll
> truly doesn't care about humiliation. It barely understands the
concept. How
> should this be handled? In a situation where the referee decides that
an
> ability is useless, say for persuading a rock that it ought to roll
uphill,
> then she can disallow it. But lets say the she says it is possible,
but is very
> difficult. The Great Troll doesn't have "Stupid 15W", so it can't use
that as a
> defence.
>
> Should Oscar just have a penalty imposed, due to the nature of his
opponent?
>

At the risk of repeating something that will have been already said (weird issue of tense here: I have 10 more emails to go through, so for me responses to this email are in the future, but obviously they've been written in the past. sorry for the aside. just was sort of goofy)

Anyway...I've come down to realizing that IMG if Oscar wants to insult the Troll, it's the Narrator's call. If it's conceivable that it works, use it. If it's critical to the scene, make it an extended contest. But if (as the original example posed) he's trying against a ZZ berserker?

Narrator fiat: give the player a chance to reconsider. if they try it, it would be like trying to use Rapier Wit to fly, ergo "As the troll rushes you, he smacks you with the Maul, ignoring your witticism."

The question then is - how would people suggest this be handled? Sure, the contest is the easy part - I'd almost assume the troll gets a bump for Oscar standing still. But the result? Apply a wound automatically? I think a maul upside the head might KILL (or at least knock out) someone that's just going to take it - i.e. a heck of a lot more than a wound, but how much more? Since we don't have hit points, how do we penalize this character appropriately?

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