Re: When does the contest begin?

From: Roderick and Ellen Robertson <rjremr_at_...>
Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2002 15:03:08 -0700

> >If it's not a player-vrs player battle, the narrator can impose a
"augment
> >limit" simply by cutting to the chase and declaring "Oddi steps forward
and
> >submits his plea to the Lawspeakers"
>
> The arbitrary limit again. I'd prefer some sort of ability for the
> player's success to extend their successes - "we got through that lot
> so fast, we still have time to spare!" - not just hoping the narrator
> has pre-set a high allowed number of die rolls.

Even in PvP it's an "arbitrary limit" - I arbitrarily decide to go to the end phase before my opponent does.

Any limit set is going to be arbitrary, unless you want to write rules to determine how long each type of success takes, which I, personally, am not willing to do. Does a critical success mean that you performed the action much faster than normal, or grant additional information/result, or both, or something else? Who determines it? The players or the narrators or the rules-writers?

Brian's idea of considering the whole process as an extended contest implies that everybody gets (more or less) the same number of "rounds" in which to perform augments/actions and, just like in any other extended contest, the narrator has the ability/right to decide to end the contest quickly (by bidding all APs, or by initiating the end phase, or whatever).

If *you* want to allow a player or group more "time" to augment, feel free, but don't demand that it appear in the rules (becauise I can already hear people decrying such a rule...)

RR