If I asked a student to do a rewrite on their thesis that suggests (to me) to require a major piece of editing/writing. I'd assume the same for a games designer "I want a rules rewrite" seems rather different from "change this number in table x".
>Then surely the _Issaries_ re-write would, equally have had no effect
>either? (While you didn't say this directly, your comments come in a
>"climate" of claims that "broad abilities" in general, or CC as such,
>would represent huge game mechanical ructions...)
I'd either have to ignore the change, ignore any imbalances it produced, or have to go back through every PC and differentiate abilities and tally inequalities in hero point spends.
>I'd have thought, other things being equal, that rules for broad abilities
>_were_ such a compromise...
They don't (as far as I can tell) represent a compromise between those who like the present ability divisions and those who think some broad abilities are being abused. I'm happy to be corrected there by any lurkers who feel they are a statisfactory compromise.
>Since I've several times been told I'm making a "simulationist argument"
>when patently I was doing nothing of the sort, I can assure you that's
>the net result, whatever the underlying process.
Your argument may not be simulationist, but several points (not necessarily made by you) in favour of it have been based on the idea that it is unrealistic to spend an HP and transfer full combat ability and so forth.
>Quite. (And largely wrong-simulationist, to boot, IMO.)
Well I can point anyone who want to to papers, books and models of skill acquisition and transfer. I can can confidently say that no simple Hero Wars mechanic will successfully simulate skill transfer.
>To give an example from my own game, lest anyone think it's merely
>my delicate sense of game-mechanical aesthetics: I described an NPC
>weaponthane, Alynra Speardottir, as being the best bare-fist fighter
>in the clan (it being evident from context that she wasn't ordinarily
>the best at "close combat"). This caused some eyebrows to be raised,
>since "by the book", combat skill don't work in that manner. Now,
>is that a clear, legitimate example of game mechanics tripping up
>narrative?
I can think of at least a couple of easy ways to model this in Hero Wars. For example, give her a moderate combat skill with a fist fighting specialization and high ability in "Fast fists" and/or "Solid punch".
In fact there is no rule against using non-close combat abilities in close combat (e.g., feats are explicitly indicated as being used in this way) so you could just give her "Fist fighting as a stand-alone ability.
Thom
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