Re: Re: cementing; ease of use

From: Benedict Adamson <badamson_at_...>
Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 14:20:22 +0100

Tim Ellis wrote:
...
> But you still haven't explained why you think having to spend a HP to
> keep a powerful item is going to destroy game balance.
...
If you don't mind, I'll choose a milder example, since my choice of an extreme example seems to have mislead you.

Imagine we have a group of characters. They have spent some HPs increasing their important abilities, which (for sake of argument) are as follows:

Ken (Close Combat 13, Clan relationship 20), Bob (Close Combat 20, Clan relationship 13).

We see that Ken has spent his HPs in improving his Clan relationship, whereas Bob has spent them on improving his Close Combat. Ken does better in politics; Bob does better in combat. Each player knows there are areas in which their character can do well, and another where they do poorly. Each feels that they can sometimes save the day, and in other situations they will have to be inventive and cautious: each gets to contribute to the game.

Natalie the Narrator runs an episode in which there is a Magic Sword 1W. Not a vastly powerful item, I hope you'll agree. Natalie decides that the characters may cement the benefit of the Magic Sword.

OPTION A: Bob cements Magic Sword 1W:
In any subsequent melee, Bob can use his new Magic Sword 1W ability in almost all the situations where he could have used his Close Combat. In effect he has increased his Close Combat from 20 to 1W for the expenditure of 1 HP.

As before, Bob does better in combat, but Ken does better in politics. If Natalie is worried about Bob's increased combat power (ooh, +1) unbalancing the game, she can run some extra episodes of clan politics. But I doubt she would have such worries.

OPTION B: Ken cements Magic Sword 1W:
Now Ken has a combat ability of 1W and a politics ability of 20. In effect he has increased his Close combat from 13 to 1W for the expenditure of 1 HP. There is no situation in which Bob is better than Ken. Natalie can not run any episodes that counteract the unbalancing produced. Ken can do everything for himself; there are no situations in which Ken will be out of his depth and have to rely on Bob: Bob's contribution to the game has been reduced.

If one can cement items for 1 HP each, a powergamer can simply follow this rule:
If the item provides an ability that is not one of your favoured abilities, cement it.
Otherwise, spend the HP on increasing one of your favoured abilities.

Of course, if all cemented items start at an ability of 12, these problems do not apply. Instead, there are other problems, which I have discussed elsewhere.