> I think this is likely to be the biggest beef I have with HQ2 over HQ1, though I'm still thinking it through. As far as I can see, setting resistances using the pass / fail cycle makes opponent abilities largely irrelevant. It doesn't seem to matter that you're fighting a hideous vampie sorcerer with a zillion augments and weird chaos powers - if the pass / fail cycle says the resistance says the exchange is Base -6, then regardless of what ability he uses, it's the same low resistance. I grok that you're supposed to select one of the vampire's abilities which will fit the low resistance you've selected credibly, but just at the moment I'm wondering if this isn't sacrificing a lot of crunchy monster flavour on the altar of the pass / fail mechanic. :-)
Please remember that the Pass/Fail cycle is a tool that lets you, the Narrator, inject more drama into your sessions. I'd be surprised if you consider the chaos vampire to be a minor challenge, so make it tough! Indeed, even if you are trying to stick to the Pass/Fail cycle, you'd use it in reverse. The players are due an easy success, so they defeat the vampire with laughable ease -- only to discover that it was really an underling wearing his mask. They still have to deal with the real vampire, who will be a formidable challenge.
If you want to stat up monsters in loving detail, do feel free. Our experience was that unless you did this right before the session, the stats weren't appropriate for the player characters. I find the game much easier to run by using monster *abilities* rather than monster stats. In other words, the numbers are based on the story needs, but how I describe them (and thus the abilities the players react with) depends on the monster.
And note the advice on p.72 -- dragons can always be tough opponents.
David Dunham
Glorantha/HQ/RQ page: www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha.html
Imagination is more important than knowledge. -- Albert Einstein
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