I like the idea of everything being an ability [1] that works identically at a mechanical level. You can roll against it or augment with it. Stuff the rest. In fact get rid of every table in the game except the contest outcome ones (and come up with simple heuristics that allow you to avoid using even that table).
One other thing I'd do is separate out the result of a conflict (i.e. whether a character achieved it's goals) from the long term mechanical results of the contest (i.e. the effects on the protagonist's abilities). At the risk of sounding even more like a spotty Lumpley fan-boy than I am in reality DitVY has got this spot on with the way you accumulate fall out during a conflict independently of whether you win or loose.
Anyway I'll shut up now before I sound really Calvinist about the whole thing.
Cheers,
Ash
[1] I can't say I'm too hot on using the word "ability" - that seems to imply that it's something the character can do when it's quite often a statement of what the character is.
> Ash:
> > This is a bit weird - earlier in the Superhero
> > discussion Robin was said that all abilities are
> > equivalent and the differences come out in the
> wash.
> > Then Sam asks his question and it turns out that
> all
> > abilities aren't the same and we have special
> rules
> > for followers.
>
> Indeed. Given this particular rule as written
> doesn't have universal
> approval, or even if it were a fifty-fity split, the
> parsimonious
> thing would be to remove it. I suspect a number of
> other 'special
> cases' too.
>
> In reality, a follower is just a mini-keyword like
> an affinity is.
> We had a discussions (on the Forge I think) about
> this but got
> nowhere in the end. There is something fundamental
> about these
> nested sets of abilities (I nest relationships as
> well when I can)
> and how much they cost to improve which I think
> could be described
> in mechanical terms as Models A, B, C, D... A
> keyword is one of
> these, an affinity another, and so on, including a
> single lone
> ability. If that is made explicit, the reader can be
> recommended to
> apply specifc models to specific instances, but can
> then choose to
> adopt the simplest model for all of them, say.
>
> Sam.
>
>
>
>
>
> To Post a message, send it to:
> HeroQuest-rules_at_...
> To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to:
> HeroQuest-rules-unsubscribe_at_...
> To Complain constructively please email me at
> steve_at_....
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
> (Yahoo! ID required)
>
> mailto:HeroQuest-rules-fullfeatured_at_yahoogroups.com
>
>
>
Powered by hypermail