- What's the character trying to do?
- How is he or she trying to do it?
First bit of advice, don't paint yourself into a narrative corner, try:
Player 1: "How far away is the guard?"
GM: "Why, what are you thinking of doing?"
Basically chuck it back at the player. Make the player tell you what they want to do and how. The how (i.e. what ability you use) is as important as the what as it gives you a nice narrative handle to set difficulties from:
Player 1: "Er, I want to hit him with my bow and knock him out in one shot."
GM: "What ability do you want to use?"
Player 1: "Not sure what's relevant, 'warrior' I guess."
GM: "Okay, it looks like a hard shot, it's a bit towards the upper end of your comfortable range, and it's getting dark."
And if another player sticks their oar in:
Player 2: "Can I throw my knife at him?"
GM: "For what purpose?"
Player 2: "Help him (nods at player 1)"
GM: "Well as it's a hard shot for a trained bow user it's going to be nearly impossible for you to augment him."
Player 2: "How about my spear? I've got a 'Mile throw Javellin' feat, does that help?"
GM: "Cool, that's an easy augment."
It's all about being true to whatever genre you're playing in. Would you believe it if it happened in a work of fiction based on that genre? So Leonidas can use his "homoerotic spear technique" augmented by his "threatening loincloth" to rout a Persian Army (by overcoming their leader's "I look cool in bondage gear") in a game based on "The 300." In the context of the fiction Leonidas and his fellow cliched Spartans are expected to be able to do that. In a historical Greek campaign there's not a chance - if the phlanx broke to allow Aussie Gerald to start leaping about like a demented Nureyev thrusting his manly spear into people he wouldn't last that long.
One final trick is to let the players into the pass/fail cycle, tell them what the contest difficulty is and have them tell you why there's that difficulty level. It's a good way of getting them engaged and immersed in the game world:
Player 1: "I want to catch him before he gets away..." GM: "As everything's going your way, this is going to be nearly impossible, care to tell me why?" Player 2: "This is New York so it's got to be St. Patrick's day parade getting in the way, every film I've watched in the last month has a sodding St. Patrick's day parade in it, loads of pissed up idiots in green hats destroying their livers and getting in the way."
Last thing, really last this time. This technique can work for GMless games. For a more "Prime Time Adventures" feel for your Heroquest games try this:
- To gain the goal the characters have to get through 8 contests.
- Players take it in turn to frame contests/define obstances for their characters to overcome.
- The pass/fail cycle determines the difficulty of the contests.
- The player on the left of the player framing the contest narrates why the difficulty is what it is and makes the resistance roll.
Cheers,
Ash
Jeff. I get the point of HQ being literary - the rule book even says that trying for simulation won't work. I'm just telling you my players will make it hard on me. Now I'm finished moaning.
Player 1: "How far away is the guard?"
Hal: "Um...what do you want to know for?"
Player: (with confused look) "I want to know if he is in range of my bow."
Hal: (Consults Pass-Fail chart, because he has no idea about bows) "It is pretty far, probably a Hard shot"
Player 1 : "OK."
Player 2: "I want to throw my knife at him. How hard would that be?"
Hal: "Um...too far, it doesn't pass the credibilty test?" (Starts digging around for another rule book, because he doesn't like where this is going.)
Player 2: "How about my spear, instead?"
Hal: "Um...
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