I knew there were reasons I keep meaning to pick up a copy of Mythic Russia. :-)
On July 23, 2007 07:33 pm, Mark Galeotti wrote:
>
> OK Jane, just for you!
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Optional Rule: Pyrrhic Victories
>
> In extended contests, instead of just keeping a tally of current AP,
> also tally how many each participant loses in the course of the
> contest. At the end, resolve the contest usually but also assume that
> the victor suffers a level of 'damage' based on final AP minus total
> AP lost, using the Contest Consequences table as usual (so that if
> the winner had 25 AP, but in total had lost of 40, even if subsequent
> successes had brought him up to positive levels, nonetheless he is
> Injured, as indicated for -15 AP).
So this does require keeping track of all AP lost over the course of the contest. Not just the lowest point.
> This means that long back-and-forth contests can be very bruising,
> and raises what may seem the paradoxical situation of a hero winning
> a contest, but ending up in a worst shape than his enemy. This is,
> however, intentional: first of all, the contest may not simply have
> been about who kills whom; the hero might have been holding the
> bridge while his friends escaped, for example, which he did
> successfully at terrible cost to himself. It also raises the question
> of just how badly a player wants to win: is the hero going to give up
> as things begin to look dangerous, or hang in there in the hope of
> eventual victory, even as bones break and blood drips…?
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Needless to say, this does make extended contests rather more gritty!
It does indeed. And is a VERY interesting way to do it.
IT doesn't seem to solve the other issue I have with extended contests, though, which is the idea of in-contest moves "wounding" or otherwise altering the ability to continue the contest as it stands.
(i.e. - in a contest to seize control of the trading guild, your opponent raids your warehouse, eliminating your monopoly on salt.)
LC
Powered by hypermail