Re: Worldscale (was Abilityscale)

From: Alex Ferguson <abf_at_...>
Date: Sun, 18 Aug 2002 20:58:58 +0100 (BST)

Benedict Adamson:
> Just to clarify: 'Run' is a different ability from 'Run Fast', but a
> horse's 'Run Fast' is NOT different from a human's 'Run Fast'.
>
> All you can know about what an ability does is what it's name suggests*,

[where:]

> * What about Affinities? Consider the Feat names as part of the 'name'
> of the Affinity.

Hrm. Shades of many a programming language module system -- or worse, objects... Quakebeast.call(this) ;-)

That's pretty ugly, since then one would apparently be forced to conclude that a Babeester Gor initiate's Combat affinity was exactly the same as a Orlanthi's, which sounds counter-intuitive. In the same way, it doesn't sound unreasonable to me to take context into account when a human uses his "Run" in a contest against a horse's -- one is pre-judging the outcome, one would simply be saying, in such-and-such a situation "Human Run" (or a particular style of magic, say, even) is more advantagous or applicable than "Equine Run" -- or vice versa. (For example I know which I'd 'back' in a one mile race -- or equally, which one in a 300 mile "race". Or in a contest held in a relatively enclosed space vs. an open field, say.) This is short of making numbers meaningless by negating the possibility of comparing them, but it does caveat it a little.

> Thus, 'Run', 'Run Fast' and 'Run Long Distances' are three different but
> similar abilities (assuming that 'Run Fast' means sprinting over shorter
> distances). 'Run', being more broadly defined than the other two
> abilities should always be given an improvisational penalty (because a
> more specific ability is always going to be more appropriate for the
> particular situation it is being used in).

I wouldn't have thought that "Run" was so obviously over-"broad" as to merit this. Perhaps one might equally say the others ought to get _positive_ sit-mods where they are explicitly applicable, whereas the generic ability would not. Better for player morale too!

Cheers,
Alex.

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