Your last paragraph has just made me realise why our perspectives are different:
"In my experience my players judge how long something will take based on how long it took them last time, and plan their tactics accordingly. Yes, including things like allowing extra time for the storm, and a rough estimate of by how much the cavalry will get there first when starting from a different point a little further away. The command tent has maps in, and the strategists there use them."
(I've left the rest of the email at the bottom for context)
My regular players aren't that interested in this level of detail. Instead of going through the process of "how far away is it? Right, that'll take us X amount of time..." they're more likely to ask "how long's it going to take us to get there?" or even "we'll leg it over there..." without consideration of time.
I'm surprised you didn't lynch me while I GMed you at MK a couple of years back...
Cheers,
Ash
>
> --- John Machin <trithemius_at_...> wrote:
> > > The fortress isn't suddenly going to be closer
> > than it
> > > was last week just because that makes it easier
> > for
> > > the players!
> >
> > Or if it makes it harder. I think resistances
> should
> > be determined on
> > the basis of "makes my game more fun". The
> fortress
> > doesn't
> > mysteriously get nearer, the game mechanic that
> > determines the
> > difficulty the heroes experience in reaching their
> > desired goal is
> > tweaked to enhance the game (or according to my
> > judgement about what might enhance the game).
>
> Game mechanics are one of the things that needs to
> stay constant, though, since that's what a player's
> using to judge how hard things they try to do will
> be.
> It's the "augments" that can be easily adjusted, not
> the base resistance. Add a violent storm, a Lunar
> patrol, some prize horses that're just asking to be
> nicked...
>
>
> > Probably, however if I play in your games I'll
> > conform to your
> > estimations. If you play in mine presumably you
> will
> > conform to mine.
> > YGWV and all that - mechanically and
> mythologically.
>
> Confirm, yes, but after a bit of "huh? You mean in
> your game my "run fast 5W" means I'm not as fast as
> a
> horse? Oh, take back that action, then, I'll go and
> find a horse instead." Stay consistent, and you
> don't
> get that confusion and need for re-adjustment.
>
>
> > I am a big enemy of books have a lot of published
> > stats. I like the
> > "average Dara Happan soldier has x" type data; but
> > things like "Kallyr
> > has <stat-block>" are an impediment not an aid, in
> > my opinion. I much
> > prefer the way guardians are in MoLaD where you
> have
> > the abilities, but no numerical values.
>
> This is wandering on to a different area from
> generic
> rule advice, but you do need some idea of how
> powerful
> NPCs are. Numbers (as long as you have a consistent
> background scale to measure against!) are the most
> compact way of doing it. Or if it's a one-off NPC,
> then a statement of "should be the second most
> powerful armed gang in the area, scared of X but
> no-one else, and slightly more powerful than your
> PCs"
> can be handy. If you're going to adjust/make up the
> numbers, you need to know what else will have to be
> altered to keep things in line.
>
> > Isn't there a chart rather similar to this in the
> > book? I seem to
> > recall consulting VERY similar to it.
>
> I've never seen one, so if you have, a reference
> would
> be good. ISTR that someone (Jeff Kyger?) was going
> to
> put one in a future publication (the forthcoming
> Trader book?), so if that exists, borrowing it for
> the
> new rule book would make a great deal of sense.
>
> > In my experience my players don't really care. If
> > the same journey is
> > harder, perhaps that is due to weather, or
> > unexpected landscape
> > deformation caused by other heroes...
>
> In my experience my players judge how long something
> will take based on how long it took them last time,
> and plan their tactics accordingly. Yes, including
> things like allowing extra time for the storm, and a
>
> rough estimate of by how much the cavalry will get
> there first when starting from a different point a
> little further away. The command tent has maps in,
> and
> the strategists there use them.
>
>
>
>
>
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