Re: AP knowledge?

From: Gianfranco Geroldi <giangero_at_...>
Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2003 02:05:20 -0800 (PST)


Tim Ellis:
> The danger is that by having the numbers "open" you
> end up focussing
> on the "Numbers game" rather than the contest the
> numbers are representing

yes: I agree. It's a Major Temptation (TM). Especially when your players (like mine) are used to RQ style and wargame style fantasy.

> So "open" numbers, "Hidden" numbers, or "Slightly
> obscured" numbers
> (where you might reveal "more than you", "much more
> than you",
> "Nearly defeated" but not the actual values")?

We play with open numbers, but I notice that usually the focus in either on the hero's numbers or on the opposition's.

When the focus is on the opposition (how many AP do I bid to drive him to total defeat?) it usually means that the contest was not balanced. The hero has an advantage in his target number and he is merely interested in "how much time and APs" before the opponent is down.

When the hero is losing APs quicker than his opponent (even by spendind HPs on bumps), then the player keeps his focus on the hero numbers and usually makes greater efforts to find opponent's weak spots and/or personal extravagant attacks.
Eventually the problem is "how many HPs do I need to burn to drive this opponent down?".

Usually players in my game:
a) don't bother to think creatively when they are already winning;
b) lament their HPs expenditure considering HPs as a sort of meta-hit points (HPs are attritious sensible values whereas APs are regenerated at the end of the contest);
c) don't like to lose contests even if their hero's life is not at stake and so tend to spend way too many HPs on bumps;
d) in the end, if their heroes are losing and their HPs are already over and their heroes risk a big defeat, then they become narratively creative. So I usually force (once every three sessions as an average) a big contest on them versus NPCs sporting a one or two masteries advantage (to compensate the heroes' HPs) and look at them becoming creative :-)

Gian




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