Order of action in extended contests

From: Benedict Adamson <yahoo_at_...>
Date: Sun, 11 Apr 2004 21:57:30 +0100


Mark Galeotti wrote:
...
> 6. Remove the options and fix it that initiative in an extended goes
> to the highest bidder, to encourage high bids and outrageous
> manouvres.

...

This was a change from HW to HQ; for HW it was always in decreasing AP order. We duly changed to decreasing bid order, but after over a year of use, I'm changing (when I'm Narrating) to to use the original HW method. Why?

The problem is that contests with many players really drag (we've had 8 players at our table) and the Narrator has to remember too many things at once; for decreasing bid order you effectively describe every action three times: 1) when they player gives their bid, 2) when its is time for the action to be resolved, describing the character's intent and 3) when the outcome is resolved, describing what happened. 2) is necessary because the gap between 1) and 2) is long enough that I can't remember what the player originally said. Also, I have to remember all the action of the NPCs between the biddings stage (1) and the resolution stage (2, 3).

I would therefore recommend either keeping a choice (descending bid order is great when there are few contestants) or resolving in descending AP order.

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