> From: "simon_hibbs2" <simon.hibbs_at_...>
>
>I'm toying with using an idea suggested by a player in an
>upcoming Hero Wars game (starting next week).
>
>We found extended contests a bit dull the last time around
>and some players have a hard time visualising what APs realy
>represent. If an AP loss means you're at a disadvantage,
>shouldn't that mean you're at a penalty to your rolls?
>
<SNIP>
>
>We've obviously not worked out formal rules for this, but
>what do you all think as a general idea?
I've been toying with an extended contest variant (I was going to use the
same name "Sudden Death Extended Contests"), but I won't now.
I had two main aims. First, to find a type of contest to handle short
contests that are too important for a simple contest, but not important
enough to be the climactic extended contest for an episode. Second, to have
a slightly bloodier/more dangerous type of contest.
I wanted the mechanic to piggy-back on existing rules, be quick and able to
use the standard AP, edges and so forth of an extended contest.
After several false starts (involving fairly complex mechanics) I finally
hit upon a very simple mechanic:
MINIMUM BID EXTENDED CONTESTS
These work exactly as a normal extended contest, EXCEPT:
- The narrator declares a minimum bid for all actions.
- Normally the minimum bid will be the starting AP total of the actor with
the lowest AP total.
- Narrative conventions are as normally except that the narrator may
prefer to interpret each round as a series of several actions and responses
(rather than, as seems most common, a single exchange of blows).
- Standard optional rules (weapon edges, wounds etc.) may apply. Further
optional rules:
- minimum bid is starting AP + defensive edge of actor with the lowest AP
+ defensive edge total,
- followers are excluded from starting AP total for the purposes of
calculating minimum bid only (by default they are included),
- exclude parting shots, coup de grace and final actions (by default they
are included),
- the narrator may require that all bids are a multiple of the minimum bid.
Rationale: The basic idea is to constrain an extended contest so that it
takes little longer than a simple contest to run. Unlike a simple contest
players have some control over the likely degree of defeat. In most
exchanges there is a fair chance that someone will be defeated (at least
50% if option 4a is used).
Thom