> If I were a player in such a game, presented with said guidelines,
my
> main reaction would be "What do you mean by "heavy"?; how can we
reach
> an empirical definition of "substantial"?"
Hmmmm. I am now convinced that half the people I play RPGs with on a regular basis are Alex Ferguson in disguise.
I am really, really not trying to slam you Alex, but that particular group of people are not the people I would invite to play Hero Wars with me.
I want players who are willing to accept whatever bonus I happen to hand out at the time, trusting in my ability to judge what modifier the story requires.
But as I reread these comments, they seem unduly harsh. Thank you Alex, for replying to my request. In the context of the guidelines, "heavy" means -3 to -15, while substantial means +3 to +10.
> My experience has been it's hard to adequately "incentivise"
colourfully
> explicit and narrow abilities
That is exactly what my fear is as well.
(or properly penalise overly broad ones),
> without seeming excessively arbitrary as a GM, due to the need to
> "juggle" these modifiers at time of use to an excessive degree.
Again, my personal answer would be to not to play Hero Wars with people who are displeased with 'excessive juggling'. Of course, this completely side-steps the issues you raise.
> A
> more robust mechanic, that allowed the GM to make the magnitude of
> the "narrowness" (or breadth) more explicit to the players _at the
> time of choosing the ability_ would IMO be invaluable. (She can
> always slap on extra mods situationally _as well_, clearly.)
Doesn't this just play into your argument that 'broad skills' are necessary and desireable? Don't lead me down that garden path, sir, I pray you.
If this is not your intent, forgive me. Do you mean some sort of mechanic that limits the amount of applications any particlar ability may be applied to? Or do you mean that the GM would 'label' each ability as it is chosen 'Broad', 'Regular' or 'Narrow'(each category having some mechanical advantage and corresponding disadvantage over the others)?
I am not sure I can envision such a mechanic that would be less cumbersome than 'excessive juggling'. Do you have a specific mechanic in mind that I have not suggested here?
Doyle
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