Dropping action points

From: Graham J Robinson <gjr_at_...>
Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2000 09:39:19 +0100 (BST)

Okay, I've now managed to run a few games of hero wars now, and while I really like the basic system, the action points system is a pain. It slows things down too much, adds all these extras complexities and terminology
(was that a handicap or a penalty?) and makes things far too abstract for
my tastes. So myself and my player have been experimenting with using a series of simple contests instead of a single extended contest.

So far we've only done this for combat, but it seems to be working pretty well. Basic idea is that the player declares his action, attempts to gain any bonuses he wants (and I'm getting a lot of this, especially from devotees of gods like Yinkin and Orlanth Adventurous) and then we run a simple contest. The results are worked out using the following little chart :

Marginal Victory : Opponent at -3 next action. Minor Victory : If opponent injured, he's dying

		If opponent hurt THIS ENCOUNTER, he's injured
		Otherwise, opponent hurt.
Major Victory : If opponent injured, he's dying
		Otherwise, he's injured

Complete Victory : Opponent at your mercy.

The result is a combat system that runs really fast, allows lots of tactics, reasonable realism, and is moderatly dangerous. (ie. for two reasonably even groups, we had 50% injured both sides in four contests.) People who get injured stop fighting fast.

I would also allow people to try desperate stuff, by giving them a bonus
(+3 sounds about right - but not playtested) at the risk that if their
opponent gets the victory, it will be one level better.

So far reaction to this has been very positive - especially since now the rules synopsis is one sheet of A4.

Graham

-- 
Graham Robinson.			Dept. Computing Science, Glasgow.
gjr_at_...			http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~gjr

"He hadn't a single redeeming vice."
	Oscar Wilde