Re: Really Large Augments

From: Brian Curley <bkcurley_at_...>
Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2006 09:13:33 -0500

On Thu, 2006-09-21 at 07:18 +0000, Jane Williams wrote:

> The whole problem is that later books didn't stick to
> that scale. So characters generated then, but trying
> to incorporate later background, suddenly find that
> the Mastery has been devalued.

        
        Yes. One of my primary gripes about Anaxial's Roster, or the
        fact that
        we have no HeroQuest monster's book, is that HQ characters can
        absolutely smack the living bejeebers out of practically any
        creature
        listed. Those numbers might have worked OK for Hero Wars, but
        they're
        not really a challenge for the average starting HQ PC. Even the
        sample
        monsters in the HQ rulebook seem drastically underpowered.
        
        Maybe it's because a creature will have maybe two or three
        abilities to
        augment with, while most PCs will have at least five to ten
        augments.
        
        I've tried to think of ways to balance this in my game:
        
        - add a generic +5 after augments to any creature's ability.
        - limit PCs to a maximum augment of 1/2 the active ability score
        (i.e.
        for an ability rated 17, you could only add +8 through
        augments).
        - not worry about it, the PCs are supposed to be Heroes!
        
        I actually had one player get upset that when it came time to
        make
        difficult decisions for the whole clan, I made the PCs discuss
        and
        decide what to do. Their decision affected the whole clan. He
        thought I
        was being unfair, "We have to make the decision but we have no
        authority
        to enforce the decision." I explained to him that the reason was
        that
        his clan looked to him, and the other members of his hero band,
        for
        guidance. Even thought they weren't the clan ring, the ring
        usually
        followed their council since they were the "local
        troubleshooters." I
        then explained that, yes, if he wanted to he could probably get
        himself
        (s)elected to the Inner Ring, but then his adventuring days
        would
        largely be over as his time would be more or less consumed with
        the
        day-to-day minutiae of clan politics.
        
        Brian
        
        -- 
        "The Devil is never more himself As when He appears as an Angel
        of
        Light." -Cotton Mather

-- 
"The Devil is never more himself As when He appears as an Angel of
Light." -Cotton Mather