Re: Ability advancement

From: Ian Cooper <ian_hammond_cooper_at_...>
Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 12:41:52 -0000


DD:
> Wow, I'll bet about half the Hero Points in our games are used to
> bump.

Alex Ferguson
> Is this because you have an especially vicious GM (the phrase
> "Vicious Narrator" seems very odd...),

This matches with our experience. Half or more of the HP gained are used to bump.

Is this a cruel narrator? I don't think so, we alternate and I don't think so any one is particulalry cruel. They are usually spent to avoid defeat, but sometimes that is because you bid everyting on your action.

One point that concerns me is that when analysing the game people talk about returns for the bid (bid low if higher, high if lower etc.). but this rarely happens to us 'in game'. People describe the bid, and we decide the AP cost. When players act heroically, as they are want to do (in fact being more heroic or outlandish than your fellow players is part of the fun of HW 'I swing from the chandelier', 'I pole vault over the wall slamming foor first into the defender as I fly past, in an attempt to knock him from the wall' for us). These actions are very big AP bids, you don't want to fail them, so we end up parting with HP.

Also it frequently matters what defeat level we drive our opponent too. Sometimes we spend HP just to get a better level of defeat to ensure our enemies plans have been foiled for good.

I think that this is group style more than anything else.

Ian Cooper

Powered by hypermail