Re: Heroic Actions [Rant, OT]

From: Antonio Álvarez del Cuvillo <antalvarez1976_at_...>
Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2003 08:37:40 -0000

> The problem, for me, is not in what it does by why doesnt it do it
> all the time. One minute a feat is a simple augment, the next you
> are leaping from tree to tree (with my best girl by my side)... it
> isnt consistent, and there is nothing to tell you when it changes
> from one mode to another...

I have a different experience. Not having 'spell' descriptions is one of the best points of the game, IMHO.

Well, the mechanics are abstract and flexible, so it allows that some feat (and a mundane ability) could be used as an augment, an AP lending, an AP bid in a Extended Contest, a Simple Contest, etc. But you always have a rule for it. For example, if you want to decapitate a foe, you need always a Complete Defeat of him. I've found more difficult Divine Intervention in RQ, for example.

I've found very funny to discover with the players the sense of the f feats. It was funny with my players (they know little about Glorantha) and also in conventions, where people never had heard anything about this world. I think 'Discovery' is one of the most important topics in fantasy in general and Glorantha in particular, so I enjoy trying to know what are these milliards ambiguous references (geographic, religious, magical, etc.), always without response (if there's a response, it has more questions). Of course, in HeroWars, the Narrator has to improvise a lot, and have to take quick decisions, and I know everybody doesn't like that, but I think it is the same problem with mundane abilities. Magic is more mysterious, but also in other games (not in D&D IMO, so I hate that everybody tells the wizard what he has to do, because everybody knows the spell description, range, etc.).

Indetermination of feats is not very important, because you could improvise anything (that has sense) with your affinity with a penalty (it was funny for my players improvise something, and then, trying to learn the new 'feat'). But improvisation in magic is not so strange in RPG's: you can improvise in Ars Magica (the wizards, but also the True Faith, completely indeterminated), in RuneQuest (Divine Intervention ;-), in Mage: the Ascension, etc. I like this, because I expect that magic was mysterious, surpringsly, new, and things like that, and HeroWars give me a set of flexible rules, but some rules to deal with it.

Regards, and sorry for the spanglish,

Antonio