Dear group!
I see, that many of, in lack of understanding the whole"new"ability rating
concept of HW, "fall into depression" or some kind of all or nothing
attitude, maybe resulting in being prepared to throw HW into the dustbin.
What maybe distinguishes me from you is, that i tried to make up tables and
failed and that i now understand why.
You demand ratings that work "universal", this is understandable(and was also
my previous point of view) but not really necessary, as i see it.
I advice you all to sit down at home and try to make up a Sprint table, like
i did.Use my list of natural speeds for animals.
Take 114kmh for a cheetah as top speed for animals and the worldrecord for
sprinting for humans and try to relate it, by assigning ratings.
Now the real world demands the things i said above(cheetah=114kmh), while the
gamemechanics demand certain other mechanics, i.e. bumps/masteries, for
"simulationpurposes"(or credibility of ratings).
Whatever you design, will work between your two opponents(cheetah and human)
but not necessarily between the cheetah and, say a lionīs rating.Because
reality and HW mechanics are not two universal, interchangable mechanics.
So everything you will make up, will only work for the scenario(which is a
story!!) you made up.It does not mean, that ratings are meaningless.For
instance all the ratings work perfectly as long humans are compared to humans.
Also, i think, there is a misunderstanding about the logarithmic concept of
HW.HW is logarithmic in how the contestsuccesschances accumulate, but not
vice versa in relation to the quanta every ratingnumber symbolizes.
We can never be sure that the ratings we give any creature are "realistic"
and they donīt need to be.Any ratings we assign, will always represent a
perspective(which is again a story).
What you want and what you are used to from your roleplaying history is, that
a bestiary is a handy tool from which you can use creatures, that
always"work".I think, in HW, this is not the case, and thus a new kind of
roleplaying.
>From these insights result my wish to have more definitions of
masteries(beyond W4)(which maybe, might not be able to make up, in such a
definitive way as, for humans)and bumping mechanics(how powerful is mastery x
over mastery z).
I think this is another overseen beauty of HW.You donīt need really any
bestiaries for ratings,at all- you need bestiaries for fleshing out the
world, only!
If you once understand the HW mechanics you can make up ANY storyrelevant
monster WITHOUT a bestiary.And thatīs because the mechanics are so universal!
Christian