>You are suggesting an extended contest for
>preparation, followed by a simple contest
>for the termination.
No. I suggested an extended contest for the dangerous and dramatic part of the assassination attempt, the result of which determines the ease of the kill itself. The contest's intent is to determine how thoroughly the heroes penetrate Lunar security; all else is denouement. Not that the heroes' success has any bearing on whether Fazzur *stays* dead, or whether he had a double stand-in for him at the public ceremonies that day...
>The whole thing could be one extended
>contest.
Yes, if I *wanted* it to be. I could state that the heroes need a complete or major victory, in order to actually kill Fazzur, but that is hardly dramatic and the players are then aware of whether they succeeded. The heroes wish to assassinate Fazzur; I provide the opportunity, via the extended contest, so they can experience the satisfaction of putting the major thorn in the Cold Wind's side to rest.
Glorantha gives us little outs known as heroic escapes, though, and Fazzur is an important figure in my campaign. So he survives, unbeknownst to my heroes, until he returns to plague them anew... or perhaps he returns as an ally, and Tatius should have been their real target instead. It is a matter of narrating style; mine is "Give the heroes their every desire... then threaten to take it away and see how they react."
>I'd probably want to make assassinating
>Fazzur a series of episodes rather than
>only one scene (contest).
Contests are not limited to one standard time unit, Benedict. Lose the narrow game focus. If I decide that for the contest to assassinate Fazzur... or hire new weaponthanes, or gather a sufficient sum of silver to ransom my daughter, etc... one round equals a week's effort, the contest mechanics work the same. The drama is in the *action*, not the time scale.
-- Michael Richard Schwartz | Language is my playground, mschwartz_at_... | and words, its slides and Ann Arbor, Michigan USA | swingsets. -- yours truly
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