Re: [HeroQuest-Rules] Augments and arithmetic are irritating...

From: Jane Williams <janewilliams20_at_...>
Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2012 13:10:24 +0100 (BST)

> Here's some background... I've been playing and GMing Marvel Heroic
> Roleplaying (MHR) a lot recently. When want to act in MHR you frame the action
> ... roll dice and interpret the results
> mechanically ("D12 stepped up physical stress, thank christ for that")
> and narratively ("He crashes through the stone slabs at the bottom of the
> wall."). There's very little addition
> and, unless you've got certain super-powers only 1 dice roll per player
> action or reaction.

So how are those augments and things affecting what dice you need to roll, and what the result needs to be? I don't see how the mechanism works here, and I'm not prepared to go and buy the rules to find out.

> Yesterday with HeroQuest II augments and arithmetic made the narrative very
> fractured . Streaming the selection of augments into the narrative was harder.
> Even the equivalent of spending Hero Points is easier, I very rarely mention
> I'm one. I just skate it across the table to the narrator, narrate how the
> trait helps me achieve my objective and grab the die for it. In Heroquest II I
> have to explicit call out the augment so the narrator can do his bit. Also If
> the augmenting contest fails it's a real "what was that all about
> then?" 

Augmenting contest? Oh, HQ2, not 1... well, go back to HQ1 (do not ever have gone to HQ2...) and don't roll it, then.

> And you can only use  one at a time...

See above. Use HQ1.5 or so, problem never appears. In any case, if you want to use more than one, in HQ2, what's stopping you? The RPG police?

> Both these things I find really annoying as they're getting in the way of
> the narrative. A fast paced, mostly in character, talking game suddenly hits a
> wall of die rolls (a fair chunk of them not giving you any benefit), arithmetic
> and table look-ups [4].

Yes, I hate that. It has a lot less impact in PBeM, but it's still a pain swapping brain sides, left to right to left to right

> So has anyone got any suggestions? How can I remove arithmetic and multiple 
> (potentially uninteresting die rolls) but avoid things becoming a D20 rolling
> version of the Pool (i.e. you roll against an ability, not bonuses or
> penalties)?

Sorry, even HQ1  or 1.5ish you still need to add something for each augment. Ability, add three or four small numbers, roll once. I'd love to get it down even lower myself, but if you want those augments in there at all, they need to have some effect on the numbers, and that means sums. So, as I say, how does MHR do it?

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