> It doesn't really answer Nick's problem that multiple augmentation
> is boring. Not much you can do about it - it is.
Can I just quickly explain where I'm coming from with this? It may help readers better understand my position.
The greatest *strength* of Hero Wars vs. RuneQuest was (I had hoped and understood) that everything would be so much simpler. Whereas in RQ you could read *immensely* tedious speculative accounts about how anyone could beat the Crimson Bat, or Harrek the Berserk, or whoever, simply by abusing nitty-gritty rules mechanics to best advantage, the pure *simplicity* of Hero Wars made this approach less fruitful. So your opponent has a couple of masteries' advantage over you in the arena you wanted to compete in? Well, *by design and intent*, you are thereby stuffed -- best think about some other way of attaining your goals, 'cos the simple brute-force route is closed.
Allowing unrestricted augments from a single high-rated affinity breaks this paradigm. It allows any moderately powerful character (with a sufficiently motivated player) to *believe* that he should be able to escalate his abilities exponentially (or indeed "obscenely," to use one experienced Hero Wars player's term for this).
I *appreciate* that there are many Narrator Tricks (TM) that can be used to rein in such abusive behaviour. But I do not think the bald face of the augmentation rules does enough to discourage it. I would *like* a game where I'm pretty darn sure my PCs' and NPCs' relative ability ratings will stay more or less where I set them. Allowing Joe Humakti to send his modest Close Combat ability rating up into the superheroic stratosphere overnight -- not through heroquesting or ritual preparation, just careful groundwork, and *wholly* within the letter of the rules -- violates my narrating comfort zone.
I just don't like it. I'm not comfortable with it. I want to have some safeguards in place so people don't expect to be able to screw with the numbers that way.
Lest I be damned as an "armchair critic" in an ad-hominem sideswipe, I'll quickly mention my relevant gaming credentials: in the 90's I helped produce several high-powered Gloranthan productions ("How the West was One", "Life of Moonson", "Tarsh War"...), played in others ("Rise of Ralios", "Hunt for Red Storm Season"...), and feel I have a valid contribution to make in discussions on how to simulate heroic Gloranthan goings-on in a gaming context. Certainly, we have long experience of gaming out events that Issaries, Inc. *still* haven't demonstrated the will to present in published form.
As a founding member of this and other Hero Wars lists, I'm well aware that (since before the game came out) the augmentation rules were a particular cause for concern among many playtest and gaming groups; since then, the errata (Dec 2002) and FAQ (June 2000) have done frankly sod-all to allay these concerns.
Besides which, I do know what I'm talking about when I refer to the logarithmic / exponential nature of HW ability ratings and augments. I have never seen much evidence of this from the "all's-well" camp, more's the pity...
Regards, Nick
Powered by hypermail