Hey LC
With the mugging I’d roll to intimidate because the original poster wanted a very zoomed in conflict. In my usual group we’d probably go straight to the conflict mechanics the minute the mugging was announced. Mike brought up the whole ‘mess with coolness’ thing, which is really a different argument than the one about zoom.
My preference is that a defeated character gets to pick the way they are defeated. Problem is that the traits used can work against it. I’ll give an example.
Lets say Adam has the trait ‘mugging’
Adam: Awesome I win my mugging roll.
Bruno: Well my characters a coward I probably hand you the money shaking in my boots and sobbing and pleading with you not to kill me.
Adam: Awesome I win the mugging roll.
Bruno: Well my characters a seasoned vet with his wits about him, he weights up all the options and realises he can’t go for his sword without you stabbing him first. ‘Better watch your back’ he growls as he chucks over his purse.
All fine and good. If Adam is trying to use the trait Intimidate then it’s all a different story and how you deal with that depends on your groups preferences.
On the whole marginal success to kill someone thing, yeah I’m totally ok with that. I just assume that everyone in the group is also ok as well, if they’re not then presumably Bruno wouldn’t be selecting the prize ‘I kill him’.
From: L C <lightcastle_at_gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Re: Contest Questions
To: HeroQuest-rules_at_yahoogroups.com
Date: Thursday, 1 October, 2009, 3:47 AM
Alexander,
Alexander Entelechy wrote:
>I think you have to consider whether rolling the dice is
>actually appropriate when you zoom in.
I think that is true, but presumably he wanted to put some uncertainty
there.
>In the example given we have this going on:
>
> Adam: I want to rob you
>
>Bruno: I’m prepared to kill you
>
>Adam: Screw that, I run away.
*nod*
>
>Now it’s not immediately obvious that this should call for a
>roll. Look for conflicting interests, is Bruno really going to kill
this robber
>who is now trying to flee?
>
> If the answer is yes then you have to break the rules
>because technically a death can only occur on a complete victory,
Well, no. You don't *have* to break the rules, but I see what you're
getting at.
I also think the book explicitly notes that if Adam was a minor NPC, the
Narrator is perfectly justified having any defeat kill him.
>this is kind
>of lame for games where death is more common and I’d do the opposite.
If Bruno
>wants to get Adam and he wins by even a marginal victory, then Adam is
dead.
Even if they're both PCs?
>The one difficulty with this is that Adam might be kind of
>annoyed because technically he would get a roll first to see if the
mugging succeeded.
>From the "I want to rob you" part?
You want to run the mugging as a persuasion roll of some kind before
Bruno is allowed to draw the sword?
>The whole area of escalation is one that Hero Quest doesn’t do well.
I'm willing to hear more arguments on this, because I do think it is
something that the system is not always strong in.
I presume you mean escalation in this sense of raising the stakes? (I go
to mug you, you draw a sword.) Can you give other examples of this kind
of escalation, say not in a combat?
>If you wanted
>to be strict about it, HQ escalates by using consecutive dice rolls,
so the
>actual sequence would be this.
> Adam: I want to Rob Bruno (Now Adam knows Bruno has a sword
>so he’s trying to intimidate him into not drawing it right, so the
first contest
>is that)
Intimidate against Jaded or Warrior or something.
OK.
I'm not sure its obvious the goal for the first statement is
"intimidate" , though.
>If Adam wins then Bruno is intimidated into not drawing (he
>can still otherwise struggle if the situation changes, all we have
established
>so far is that he doesn’t draw)
>If Adam looses then Bruno draws his sword and now maybe Adam
>wants to get away and Bruno has to decide whether he wants to prevent
this and
>kill him.
And for that you would allow death on a marginal victory or am I
misreading you?
LC
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