Re: Terrify enemies with a shout!

From: flynnkd2 <flynnkd_at_...>
Date: Wed, 16 Jun 2004 00:14:22 -0000

• In HeroQuest-rules_at_yahoogroups.com, "Silburn, Luke" <luke.silburn_at_l...> wrote:
  > >>> his Mimic animal sounds ability. Now he had a rating of 13.
  The
  > >>> Broos I had decided before combat were feral and had nothing
  they
  > >>> could resist with so it was the attack versus 6. The contest
  > >>> started with 12 Ap for the player and 6 for the broo. He made
  a
  > >>> succesful attack, and then they entered melee, but of course
  they
  > >>> had their point totals already in place.
  > >>
  > >>You always defend with 14, whether you have a worse skill or
  not,
  > >>the natural world comes to your aid. The 6 is only used if you
  try
  > >>to use a skill you dont have, ie you are the active player.
  > >>
  > >>You have swim 6, you try to swim the river, roll 6 vs 14. The
  river
  > >>tries to drown you and you resist with swim, but you always
  resist
  > >>with a minimum of 14, ie 14 vs 14.
  >
  > That seems wrong to me (a stretch from 'absent a better ability,
  magic is
  > resisted by the natural world at 14'). What is the point (game
  mechanically
  > speaking) of starting abilities off at 13 if the baseline
  resistance for the
  > game is 14? Are you proposing that a player who pays a HP for a
  new ability
  > is actually worse at that ability than if he kept the HP for a
  bump up and
  > relied on his natural world default? I can envisage a lot of
  players being
  > pretty unhappy with that deal.
  >
  

Players who dont spend a HP have 6 rating or none. For a HP they boost to 13, pretty good deal, but I also have wondered about that.

I pointed the 14 defence out purely because that is what the rules say, and to me it makes sense. It is much easier to instinctively stop an incoming blow then it is to make an attack where you have to think about it.

Imagine two untrained brawlers fighting, because they both have no skill they have brawl 6, but they each defend with 14. So the melee is very strange as you wouldnt want to be attacking with 6vs14, but that sort of makes it all the more realistic, having seen and been in some senseless drunken brawls.

>
> Turning to the 'Dances With Goats' situation Rob described, I
wouldn't have
> ruled the Broo as having nothing worth bringing to the contest.
Assuming
> that Mr Entertainer's intention is (primarily) to use his dazzling
footwork
> to stay out of the clutches of the ravening goatmen and
(secondarily)
> perhaps bemuse and confuse them sufficiently that they give up on
him as a
> bad job I'd have let him use his ability without a penalty (it
seems pretty
> fitted to the declared action after all), but would have opposed
it with an
> ability such as 'Subdue Uncooperative Victim' from the Broo. If,
as is
> likely, they don't have such an ability in their writeup I'd take
my
> guidance from Roderick's comments about keywords being a shorthand
for the
> GM and improvise one from their 'Abhorrent Chaos Rapist' keyword
at a -5
> penalty or something; given their lifestyle I imagine its a task
they have a
> fair degree of familiarity with, so it should be something they
are pretty
> good at.
>
> So instead of 13 vs 6 its 13 vs ~20 (is that right??? I don't have
a Broo
> write up to hand) and things look pretty hairy for Mr Entertainer
and his
> lovely assistant - if they're lucky or do some nifty side
contests they'll
> have some impressive boasts for when they are next in the meadhall;
> otherwise... well it'll get pretty ugly, but really what do you
expect if
> you bring a pair of dance pumps to a sword fight???
>
> Regards
> Luke
>

In this case a GM can do any number of things. You could use the broo's "Hungry 17" or "Angry 21" or "Im so stupid nothing distracts me 5w"... what the broo has is not important. What is important is that the player tried something really amusing, and you as GM decided to reward his creativity.. YOU get to chose the defence as you make up what skills it has. However, you dont want players taking "Really silly skill 13" because they know nobody will have a counter to it, and thus will always be attacking 13 vs 6. The real world applies 'common sense 14' to everybody and everything to stop this.

Well thats how I read it, YGMV... :-)