Re: Re: 2 handgrenades

From: Toksickburn_at_...
Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2009 20:07:02 EST


Hi  

Thank you Roderick, Gian and Tim for your answers !  

Roderick:
i liked how you gave an overview of possibilities how it could be handled. That was very interesting.  

Especially the point of handling grenades as a ressource. I wouldnt do it that way, but i think its a good point though.  

Tim:
i agree that a handgrenade has the in-built area-effect, allowing you to attack a group with one roll.  

Your idea of giving weapons abilities on their own is one that i already toyed with, but i think there are some difficulties with that method. Its a great step in the direction of "realism" - in other words: of what i expect a handgrenade to be capable of in game terms.  

Gian:
your way of handling the situation goes very much in the direction of
"realism" too, imo.

I like my playercharacters to be heroes and i dont think that throwing two handgrenades at once in a dramatic scene should be "punished" with a malus. At least in my game.
Quite the opposite, but i understand why you would require a malus.      

So i still wasnt quite happy, because i felt there was a struggle between the concept of:
a rating is the summary of the potential of an ability and
what i expect a powerful weapon must achieve.  

I found my answer a bit later by chance. Its in Mike Holmes essay:
"Failure is Always An Option: Character Defeat is Player Victory Too"
on the glorantha website (_http://www.glorantha.com/support/na_defeat.html_ (http://www.glorantha.com/support/na_defeat.html) ).  

Its not a question of realism or what i expect - its a matter of narration. There is no need for additional abilities, because a weapon is just a tool needed to use my abilty.
My problem was, how can a character throwing a handgrenade with his *military training* 10M be successful in stopping a horde of hollow-earth trolls ? Isnt 10M too weak for that task and how can i explain the constant failure ? Well it isnt, it depends on how i frame the contest and use the outcome to narrate the story in a satisfying, dramatic way.  

So yay, i found my solution !    

best  

Christian      

P.S:  

On a side note: this scene i was talking about, its from a comic-book. Its from B.P.R.D. Hollow Earth (B.P.R.D. is basically Hellyboy without...well hellboy). Liz Serman, the pyrokinetic woman, being kidnapped by ancient hollow-earth creaturees and trapped in an arcano-machine tapping her power for sinister and world threatening purposes and Abe, Johan and Roger, trying to rescue her.
Of course they succeed.
They are heroes ! :-)    

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