I know what you are saying and I understand the weapons and armour rules section of the rule book, but there are people who like their gaming with a higher level of detail that the basic rule system does not portray, but it has the ability to cater for it, just requires bit more work for the game master.
I'm not interested in running games like movies or novels, but I'm interested in the HeroQuest system to see if it can be used for the higher detailed level of gaming people like. I'm always looking for ways to use a rule system, not just for what it was designed for.
What I'm seeing in previous articles about broad abilities. For example, the Weaponthane ability would include not just weapons and armour used, but also combat manoeuvre's etc. , thus I see this ability as a combat style for combat situations and some none combat situations, like intimidation. But there are situations where this broad ability should not be used, this is the reason behind using an armour ability.
If game master does not like having characters with lots of abilities, that their choice. There's just so much minimalistic you can make a character. By having more abilities, brings more variety within the same character archetypes and less chance for unbalanced ability levels.
Game masters can also cap level of abilities to suit their campaign world's power level. It might just take some time until one fines what works best for their campaign.
There is also the "Credibility Test rules" that can be used, where no matter what a characters ability level is, it will always fail, such as heavy armoured characters falling into deep water or jumping a ravine.
Cheers
George
>
> --- On Sun, 13/11/11, George <georgesarris01_at_...> wrote:
>
> > I would make all armours an ability,
> > not just for "Special items", mainly for settings
> > resistances for doing movement activities, such as swimming,
> > jumping, climbing and running.
>
> Sorry to belabour the point: Why do bits of completely ordinary equipment need to be abilities? Especially if a character isn't ever going to use them to resolve conflicts - they're just things he or she needs to use their abilities. You can roll everything up into the resistance.
>
> "At the end of the last exchange Hrothric was whisked across the ravine by a sylph he'd summoned. He's standing there laughing at you, unslinging his bow. What are you doing?"
>
> "I want to clear the ravine, and if possible slam into the bugger when I hit the other side and knock that smug grin of his face."
>
> "What ability are you using?"
>
> "'Wiry and athletic' - I'm going to jump it."
>
> "And you're still wearing that full suit of iron chain? And carrying your sword and shield?"
>
> "Too right!"
>
> "Sounds very hard to me..."
>
> Another question to consider is what do you set the abilities to so they're useful to the character without swamping everything else they can do AND so that character improvement doesn't render the negative effects pointless?
>
> > Of cause, if a medium or heavy armoured character fell into
> > deep water, they would just drown. I still like to have a
> > certain amount of realism.
>
> If they've been involved in a contest that produced a 'dying' result that sounds fair enough. That'd take a complete defeat though.
>