>From: ASHLEY MUNDAY <aescleal_at_...>
>Flynnkd2 mentioned problems with an Uber Humakti slice
>'em dice 'em merchant. As a GM I get fed up with some
>(okay, one) players whinging that their character's
>had sod all to do during a particular contest, so as a
>player I decided to put my money where my mouth was
>and get stuck in to every contest I could. I worked
>out the following guidelines to keep my character
>doing something in contests.
>
>Incidentally, this works for all types of contest, not
>just with vastly different combat abilities.
Well, see, if you're going to have different contests, then where is the problem to begin with? In the online game I've got going, we've had, let's see, one duel, one wrestling match more or less, one capture of spies using a tent... yep, these are the only physical contests in 8 sessions of play. The rest, probably 50, contests were other than combat.
More importantly, they were each aimed at one and only one hero. It really didn't matter what the contest was, the other heroes weren't even on the scene to help out normally. There were a couple of augments. But almost all one on one.
Even if they had involved the heroes as teams, they can be made specific to the character in question. The most important contest in the last phase of play that I had was a merchant character negotiating for the lives of several trapped people. Physical force would have resulted in everyone dead (they were outnumbered by, oh, thousands), so the negotiation roll was most important.
As narrator, simply engineer situations in which each hero has his time in the sun. HQ makes this eminently easy, IME. Either just target the one character, or make the arena something that they're special at.
So, the character with the Strong 10W2 has used that in all three physical contests (he was the only hero in two of them). In his other, I dunno, 5 or so, it's been a non-factor.
Then, once you're at this point, all of Ash's good options become just interesting ways that players can horn in on the action if they want.
There is no "Combat" in HQ, just Contests! Sorry, feeling feisty today.
Mike
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