Re: Re: HW vs Champions; stats

From: Roderick and Ellen Robertson <rjremr_at_...>
Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2000 17:09:09 -0700

> Roderick wrote:
>
> >I can take
> >100 words and produce a pathetic stickpicker, or a heroic near-hero (as
long
> >as my narrator allows me to do it, of course...).
>
> I think we've had this discussion, but the 100 words have nothing to
> do with whether you're a near-hero. That's determined by the Narrator
> when she chooses the starting values for characters. Your stickpicker
> could have multiple masteries in Cringe, Grovel, Pick Up Stick, and
> Whine if that's the campaign level.

What I meant is that my choice of abilities can make a "useless" character or a combat (or romance or politics or whatever the focus of the campaign is) monster. I can use 100 words describing my "heroic" stickpicker's abilities to whine, cringe and rake sh*t, or I can describe his stamina, weapon prowess and irresistable charm. Timmy the Trollkin or proto-Harrek are just as "balanced" (or not). In a game like Champions, Timmy would have a huge amount of points to buy skills (which kind of defeats the purpose of playing Timmy), while Proto-Harrek is saddled with Blind, Gout, and Flatulance...

> >(Example of HW
> >balancing: A narrator described allowing a player to take "Company of
> >Char-un cossacks as followers". This character is so far out of balance
> >compared toKallai, the example character, that it's not funny.)
>
> No it's not. You get a starting level follower. "Company of Cossacks"
> starts at the normal beginning level (13, isn't it?). So you get 13
> APs from this gang... Hero Wars is well balanced in this regard.
> (Also don't forget that any superlatives are meaningless in character
> descriptions.)

I wasn't the Narrator in this particular instance, but even so... As far as I (Roderick the Narrator) am concerned, you *can* take more than one Follower as a beginning character. As long as the narrator agrees that a company of Cossaks means some specific number (at least that will appear when needed), then there is no rule that says that the character couldn't have 20 (or 50, or 500) Char-un dragging at his heels wherever he goes (The player could as easily have said "I have 25 Char-un followers"). Of course, this is an extreme example, and the narrator has to decide if it is acceptable or not. In a Kallai-and-Rurick level game, 20 followers is a bit out there. In Chris Gidlow's Tarsh War you start with 450 Char-un...

Sure, all the Cossaks have "Cossak" at only 17 (character's highest ability -8), but there are *so many* of them...

RR