RE: Re: Scenarios

From: Matthew Cole <matthew.cole_at_...>
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:45:35 -0000

Thanks Tim for your continued engagement with this thread.

Tim Ellis
.. on Telly or film they are adjudicated by the writer. If his adjuducation fails to follow story logic then it creates a disonnance,(and if he fails to follow his creative intentions then he has real problems)

• ok, so think disonnance in these terms matches up with failing a credibility check in HQ terms

Tim Ellis

In a roleplaying game, of course, they are ultimately adudicated by the rules of the game, which generally involves numbers in some form or another.

• The rules of HQ2 that cover this are in fact this idea of credibility.

Tim Ellis
> Yes words can be understood differently but who honestly cares?

Anyone who is interested in what the author intended? YGWV, but it is good to know when and why it is varying, especially when you want to discuss the world with people outside of ones game...

• I was talking about the minute difference between "strong" and "muscled". If the two words are only finely distinguished then who cares which one out weighs the other. HQ2 has moderate resistance for this circumstance.

> What reall effect will that have on anyone's enjoyment?
Tim Ellis

It affects my enjoyment when what could easily and succinctly be described on a numeric scale (that will be of actual use in the game) is instead obscufated in words that I need to translate back to numbers in order to use. (This is why I dislike Fudge and it's derivatives). On the other hand, if you have already decided to ignore all the numbers, how does it affect your enjoyment if they are included?

• I have already answered this point a number of times. You are supposed to narrate your outcomes - so you are in fact translating from game system terms (your numbers) to words. If you translate into numbers and then back again you are doing a lot of unnecessary work. Start with words, stay with them.

I suspect that there is not going to be any sort of agreement between us on this point so I suggest we let it drop. The HQ2 rules and following supplements are not going to have arbitrary values assigned to people, places and things and I am not going to be able to convince you that this is a good thing. I think I have now used all the virtues of this in what has been some of my best work in terms of teaching about what is accepted to be a pretty tricky subject. (eek complicated sentence - I trust not too bad though).

<snip> In light of what I said just above I'd just like to respond to this last:

Tim Ellis
I'm sure you can have a game without challenges, but rather like Alice's sister's book without pictures or conversation, I wonder what the point is?

I was not suggesting a game without challenges - I was suggesting that challenges are not the point of it all.