Re: Gloranthan HQ2 - Broadness of Occupational Keywords

From: Ashley Munday <aescleal_at_...>
Date: Mon, 7 Nov 2011 12:01:40 +0000 (GMT)


Hi Sarah,

The first thing to consider with the whole specific ability bonus thing is the last sentence of the section on specific ability bonuses: "If you can’t make an easy snap judgment, the modifier is 0."

(Typo's not mine for once, it's in the original text)

If you have to think for a long time or look at character sheets or your notes just say "sod it" and not apply anything. Don't make the mistake a lot of people do of trying to have a ready cooked taxonomy of which abilities are more specific than others, it all depends on context. So a Lysang might be a better pig farmer than an Antorling but the Antorling makes better cider even though they use the same ability ("member of <clan>") to do it.

The other thing to do is always name what the resistance is you, as a GM, are rolling against in a contest. So when your characters are trying to climb Kero Fin they're up against the mountain's "effing tall mountain" ability with a target number of whatever resistance you assign. I know the rules talk about "abstract resistances" but there's no such thing. Whoever wrote that didn't follow the first rule of Heroquest ("abilities are anything that can be used to resolve a conflict.") and all abilities have names so you know what they can be used for.

Personally I usually ignore the whole specific ability bonus thing unless there's something staring me in the face I can't ignore such as two player characters about to have a conflict and one's using something far more specific.

Cheers,

Ash

> From: SARAH <sarah.newton5_at_...>
> Subject: [HeroQuest-rules] Gloranthan HQ2 - Broadness of Occupational Keywords
> To: HeroQuest-rules_at_yahoogroups.com
> Date: Monday, 7 November, 2011, 9:01
> Hi all,
>
> I've been treating runic affinities in my Gloranthan HQ2
> game as broad abilities, as per the Kingdom of Sartar book;
> so, if they're rolling against a default resistance, they
> take a broad ability penalty. However, I'm a bit unsure
> about how broad *Occupational* keywords are. The Sartar book
> suggests Clan Keywords are "broader" than Occupational ones,
> which is fine: someone using the Weaponthane occupational
> keyword to attack someone using Member of the Hiording Clan
> keyword would get a bonus (+3?).
>
> But how about someone using Weaponthane against a default
> resistance? Would you consider the Weaponthane occupational
> keyword to be a broad ability then, or would you allow a
> character to roll at his full ability? Is an occupational
> keyword still a broad ability, just "less broad" than runes
> and clan keywords?
>
> Cheers!
>
> Sarah
>
>
>
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