Since this topic was brought up I've been thinking about other various ways
to run "Epic" encounters like a group fighting a dragon and such.
Possibilities include:
1 - Breaking the fight down into a whole series of sequential individual
Simple Contests (first PC attempts to get the dragon's attention, which
modifies the Resistance on the next PC's attempt to sneak behind it, and so
on).
2 - Running it as a Group Simple Contest (HQ2 pg 32) where the results of
each PC's action not described until all results are known
3 - Combination of 1 & 2 so each PC is acting in each Contest
I dislike the Multiple Opponents rules for Extended Contests. They often just don't capture the "Narrative" feel I'm looking for. In a Swashbucklers campaign PCs fighting off 20 (or more!) minions seems completely appropriate. The example of the PC/NPC debate (HQ2 pg 41) wouldn't make sense to me with Multiple Opponent penalties. They make a bit more sense in a fight like the detailed example (HQ2 pg 44-49), but even then I sometimes like the ability to have all the Contests end at the same time in classic narrative Climactic fashion.
On Sun, Dec 11, 2011 at 6:39 AM, SARAH <sarah.newton5_at_btinternet.com> wrote:
> **
>
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> We've just played our fourth session of HQ2 today, still having a great
> time :-). However, I think I've been doing something wrong, and wanted to
> see what you guys thought.
>
> Basically, reading the RAW (p43), it looks like the Multiple Opponent
> Penalty applies only to PCs facing multiple opponents, and not to opponents
> facing multiple PCs. Would that be right?
>
> So far I've been using the Multiple Opponent Penalty rules for PCs ganging
> up on opponents - it's felt like a good way to give the feel of
> overwhelming numbers in mechanical terms.
>
> However, it plays havoc with resistances set by the pass / fail cycle, and
> makes opponents very easy. In today's session, 6 PCs were facing off
> against a powerful Lune. Using the pass / fail cycle, the base difficulty
> was 15. Even with a Very High resistance on the pass / fail table, that's
> only 4W for the Lune; using the Multiple Opponent Penalty rules, PC #6 is
> going to be facing a resistance of 6 against an allegedly formidable foe.
> So, I'm concluding the Multiple Opponent Penalties are for PCs facing
> multiple opponents only.
>
> If that's the case, does anyone have any advice for figuring the effect of
> multiple PCs acting against a single opponent, for those contests where
> 'ganging up' is a plausible tactic?
>
> Cheers!
>
> Sarah
>
>
>
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