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

From: Ashley Munday <aescleal_at_...>
Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2012 14:53:49 +0100 (BST)


MHR is a dice pool system (Cortex + I believe the new kids call it). Each trait you narrate into the contest gives you another die in your pool. When you've assembled the dice in your pool roll them, take (generally) the two highest dice in your pool, add them together and that represents a total that <whatever the opposing force is> has to beat (in the same fashion) to stop you. There's fiddly bits galore around the edge but that's it in a nutshell.

And while you could narrate in the same manner as in HQ I you haven't got a pregnant pause while someone adds up things modulo 20. With a dice pool system as you narrate you grab dice of the right size. "I'm stuck in a team - still (grab a D6) - but I never give up (grab a D8), I've got enhanced reflexes (grab a D8) so I can time it to perfection and I'm strong enough to give him a really hard punt off the building (grabs another D8). I'm not at all worried about the impact - my stealth suit (D10) will take all that and I'm an acrobatic master (D10) so if anyone can piss about on the edge of building it's me." Roll the dice...

It makes the consequences of failure easier to apply (your opponent gets a die representing the degree of failure) and consequences of success become extra dice you can roll.



 From: Jane Williams <janewilliams20_at_....uk> Sent: Sunday, 7 October 2012, 13:10
Subject: Re: [HeroQuest-Rules] Augments and arithmetic are irritating...  

> 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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