Re: Attempting to lead you all to illumination on worldscale

From: issaries <rjmeints_at_...>
Date: Mon, 19 Aug 2002 19:25:37 -0000

Ian sayeth:
> In most cases all that narrative games call for is an understanding
> of real-world outcomes. This is something we do all know. Very few
> people are here arguing that a horse is much faster than a man, they
> are arguing how to represent that. The narrative game says that if
> you already know that, why spend pages telling you, and giving you a
> system whose most perfect result is to generate an outcome, you
> already know. If the system works the horse will always win - so
> don't bother to roll it - get on with the story.

I'm talking about situations where you don't know the outcome. Isn't that what abilities are for? The animals is AR don't have their Run Fast abilities listed as a Magical Ability, they are listed in the same category as abilities like close combat. Thus, why wouldn't a physical ability, like Run, for a human be comparable to a creature's run ability ? I have a strong feeling that the core disagreement that we have is that you believe a human's run skill can never beat a horse's without magic. On earth, yes. In Glorantha, no. A Heortling with Run 15W4 can run faster than a horse in my game. In your game, I believe that you want the Heortling to have a MAGIC FEAT or similar MAGICAL ability to ever beat a horse. I look at physical skills that are above about 10W as having a magical kind of approach to them. You don't seem to want to do that.

>
> >So much for appealing to new gamers then. The idea that Hero Wars
> will only appeal to and/or work for sophisticated and experienced
> roleplayers pretty much puts it into a ghetto guaranteeing low
sales.
>
> No. Gamers without the baggage of 'wanting it to be RQ' that a lot
> of people carry here find the system strightforward. Go over to the
> Forge. Many of the people there who are attracted to Hero Wars are
> attracted by the system itself and have no played a previous
> Gloranthan game. They are new Gloranthan gamers.

I've just come from the Forge site and noticed two things: 1. Very few gamers of any type have tried Hero Wars. 2. The posters there have given it mixed reviews.

Plus, the following general comment needs to be made. Hero Wars has NOT attracted many new players other than the old time Runequesters/Gloranthaphiles.

PS: I don't want HW to be RQ. I just want abilities to function in a consistent manner. I didn't realise that I had to abandon consistency to play in a narrative game. Number crunching and detailed rules I am happy to discard, and largely have.

Rick