YHQMV Most abilities are at 17, the character designated specialities are at 13. If you are rolling against 14 or higher the whole of the time then that dramatically drops the percieved effectiveness of characters.
I roll against 14 for magic. Say a guy wants to climb a tree, then he can roll that against his climb skill. If he wants to climb something like a cliff then the resistance is 14 to 17 or even higher depending on how high/ difficult it is. But the key here that, to get a resistance it really does need to be challenging, with a real risk of failure for someone who is good at what they do, which in my HQ is about 17 (which is actually crap in everyone elses game it would seem).
When someone gets actively opposed by something then they roll vs whatever the other party is resisting with. Thus being 10W to 20W in using a weapon is being really, really good, and having Heropoints really pushes the envelope of what a character can achieve.
Therefore, in my game Harrek and Kallyr are way above the norm, where as most of you it seems may well view them as curiously underpowered. I think OiD says that Kallyr is as powerful as a minor god. I would say not given the extreme stat inflation caused by the aforementioned view on character ratings given in the Hero's Book page 9, and the insistance that characters must always be resisted by the default 14 unless they are attempting to hold a cup or walk down the street. Whatever happened to the 'what no self respecting hero would fail at.'
Hence when I say 'Low Level Heroic feel' I mean that my players are made to feel as if their characters are serious characters in their communities, instead of the useless whelps with paltry skills at 17 and [gasp] 13!!!!
Imagine this, you get a newbie player to do a hundred word narrative describing their character in all its glory. They put their character is strong. Then you say that actually it starts at 13. They say what does that mean. Then you point out that 13 is really something that someone is not that good at and that, in fact, the default resistance they will always be rolling against is 14, so they will actually fail a strength test more than half the time! Talk about taking the Hero out of Heroquest!
Go on, reclaim the modest ground, and make 17 a great stat again!
Return to a game of Hero's and not begining bumblers!
Shake the world with your hard earned 10W2 skill, and not be regarded as someone who has just got his foor on the first rung of the hero ladder!
Regards
Rob
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