RE: Re: Scenarios

From: Matthew Cole <matthew.cole_at_...>
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:11:21 -0000

• In <mailto:HeroQuest-rules%40yahoogroups.com> >> 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.
  

That doesn't answer the question. If you have already decided *NOT* to use any provided numbers then how does what other people choose to do with them affect you? How does the existance of numbers prevent you from narrating the outcome just as if they weren't there?

• you are right it doesn't answer your question, please forgive me I was tired and losing the will to live. If there were numbers printed then people could ignore them, yes. The game has been designed to allow narrators to arrive at resistances according to story logic, pacing and other narrativistic concerns. Including stats would go against the design.

> If you translate into numbers and then back again you are doing a
> lot of unnecessary work. Start with words, stay with them.

The gamews system relies on numbers. My d20 does not have "Easy", "moderate", "Hard" etc on it, so in order to resolve any contest I need to use numbers. Words are not an option. Words will inform the numbers, and the result of the contest will be narrated with words, but when the dice hit the table there have to be numbers unless you are just making everything up as you go along.  

If the source material/scenario does not include any numbers because it believes that words alone are sufficient then there is no option but to translate these words into numbers in order to adjudicate the outcome. This, to my mind is only "a lot of unnecessary work" because previously such numbers are largely provided "up front". They can (of course) be modified during actual play, but then you are only concerned with the exception not the general rule.

To answer this in the context of HQ2:
No, you don't translate adjectives and adverbs into numbers. You look at what role the entity (NPC, city, Greater God) is to play in your story and decide how difficult the encounter should be for the hero(es) in question. Then you apply the appropriate bonus to the resistance. See, no need to worry about numbers at all. Also, much less work, right?