Re: Bidding Extended Contests in HQ2

From: Tim <tim_at_...>
Date: Thu, 01 Jul 2010 10:56:21 -0000

>
> We no longer have the back and forth of transfers, nor the back and
> forth of picking different abilities to force conflicts on
> preferable footing.

In some ways the picking of abilities could be a bit of a double whammy. If you could force an opponent to begin a contest on a low skill, not only did they stand less chance of making the roll, but they also had less AP's to bid/lose. Under the new rules, you can still try to force an opponent to have to defend with a lower ranked skill to improve your chance of winning the round, but the number of points required to win the contest has been levelled.

> (That's part of the "power to the player" mindset of HQ2 and I'm
> not sure how much I miss it.)

by which I guess you mean because everything is described in terms of the "player action" rather than taking it in turns to "attack" and "defend" (or maybe "Act" and "react" is less combat orientated). I think yu can still narrate the action so that the player is forced to "react" though (and assign bonuses or penalties to their skill depending on how it relates to the presented challenge).

In HQ1 it could sometimes seemed a bit "forced" to take in turns to be the active contestant (Which maybe means those contests shouldn't have been extended in the first place, of course).

>
> I do think that my issue with Extended contests is that while the
> results are clearer, the process seems to have become duller.
>

One possible problem with HQ1 extended contests was they could become (mechanically) anti-climaxes, if rather than an epic back and forth struggle, the PC's opted to boost one character and have them make an "all or nothing" bid to take out the bad guy (I know a "complete victory" can still end an extended contest straight away, but getting that lucky critical at the vital moment is something that becomes a memorable incident in its own right)

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