Re: comparing ratings in roderick´s view

From: Peter Larsen <peterl_at_...>
Date: Fri, 23 Aug 2002 11:19:30 -0500


At 3:53 AM -0400 8/23/02, Toksickburn_at_... wrote:
>Also i wonder how being Large can be called an ability of: how good i´m, at
>being large.....Does that mean Large is an ability how good you can use your
>large in opposition to BEING large.Ability versus capability?

        Others have answered this, but I'll put in two cents as well. Some HW abilities, it seems to me, are entirely experiential -- your Close Combat ability is largely dependent on how much combat practice and experience you have. Most of the "physical descriptive abilities" (Large, Fast, Burly, Lithe, Cute as a Button, Big Ass, whatever) are a mix of physical quality/native ability and experience. So you have a young cheetah who is a cub of the cheetah god and is going to be (someday, gods willing and the creek don't rise) the fastest thing on four legs. She has boatloads of native ability, but, being 8 weeks old, she's short on experience. If the average cheetah has a Fast 5W2 (or whatever), our young super cheetah might have a Fast of 10W -- not so impressive, but her age mates have a Fast of 17. The young'uns are still learning about footing, acceleration, cornering, etc. Give them six months to a year, and they will be approaching their adult speed, and our speedy girl will be 10W2, 15W2, 1W3, and up (depending on how she spends her HP).

        What does this mean? Not a lot in HW, although a Narrator might suggest that a character limit or explain how they are increasing some of those "native ability" abilities -- "OK, Ted, you want to raise your Uroxi's Large to 1W2, that's the point where he has to start getting magically bigger. Uroxi can probably do that, but do you want Hiord Bullbreath to be literally 8' tall and 400lb? Remember those caves in the adventure last month? Does Hiord want to die stuck in a crack...?" So no difference at all, except a little more dialogue between Narrator and player.

Peter Larsen

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