Re: magical vs.mundane resistance

From: Alex Ferguson <abf_at_...>
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2004 17:43:17 -0000

• In HeroQuest-rules_at_yahoogroups.com, "simon_hibbs2" <simon.hibbs_at_m...> wrote:
  > --- In HeroQuest-rules_at_yahoogroups.com, "Mike Holmes"
  > <homeydont_at_h...> wrote:
  > > The original complaint is that, essentially, a character seems to
  > be able to
  > > win in one unlikely situation via magic, but then typically can't
  > do
  > > something much more likely because the opposition is human. ...
  

> Or rather, not a tree.
>
> It seems to me you're consistently ignoring the fact that this is
> magic for Jumping Trees, not magic for Jumping. Where did the
> magic come from? Well, we know that magic comes from myth.
> Let's look at a possible mythic source for the magic.

Surely on the contrary, the point is, what happens in the following two (not very!) contrasting situations: a) one person is Tree-jumping, using her magic for same, by herself/for a larf; vs. b) one person is _competing_ with another in jumping over trees with respectively Tree-jumping magic, and some 'mundane' leaping ability.

If you model the first case in the Greggly way (vs. default resistance), there's a large disjunct in the second case according to whether you treat it as a jumping contest per se, or as two separate tests (one vs. default, one height-based resistanvce). And since no-one seems that clear _why_ the first case is as it is (or at least, there's far from general clarity about it), it's not immediately evident which of them is necessarily 'correct', from any of a game-word, storytelling, or MGF pov. Or how to rationalise the distinction.

Cheers,
Alex.