> > And this 'go with the story' fluff; just because the soloquest is
> > supposed to be extraordinarily lethal, doesn't mean you can't
> > withdraw from a combat.
>
>Okay, looking up Scorpion Hall, I find paragraph 158 (page 34), listing an
>attack by shadow cat skeletons which includes this description: " Once in
>melee there is no backing out. If you destroy the skeletons you have three
>doors to leave through...". There is no paragraph listed for retreat (unlike
>in most other encounters).
As i translate that to HW, i'd say that your objective of the contest is to get through one of the doors, resisted by the skeletons that want to kill you until dead. If there is no possibility of escape, then story consideration says there is only two outcomes possible: either you get through one of the doors or you are dead (i'm ignoring the possible result of "skeletons destroyed, can't get through the door anyway" as too anticlimactic).
Since that makes the interpretation of a marginal defeat impossible (no lasting consequences) i'd let the character use the fight-on rule. I.e. if he gets the skeletons to -40 he gets through one of the doors, even if he himself is at -35 and dying.
I think this interpretation can be appropriate for all (violent) contests where one or more participants won't stop until dead/destroyed.
And now the more abstract discussion about what you can and can't do when defeated:
> > > >RR
>> >> >(don't kill me, I've got a ransom" - start a
>> >> >new contest using your bargain/fast talk/whine vrs their "Homocidal
>> >Mania"
>> >> >perhaps...)
>> >
>> >>MR
>> >> This suggest you don't. So, i'm happy. The defeated guy can initiate
>> >> an Escaping/Running away contest with the skeletons.
>> >> >>
>> >
>> >Of course, the bit that Mikaal left out was "against intelligent
>> >opponents"...
>>
>> Roderick, please. Skeletons don't need to be intelligent in order to be
>outrun.
>
>The "against intellegent opponents" was in reference to pleading for mercy.
Roderick, i understand full well that only intelligent opponents can be swayed by pleas for mercy. I was talking about allowing a marginally defeated character to initiate a new contest, and specifically an attempt to escape from Certain Death.
>*You* want the hero to have a chance to get away
>even after he has been defeated in combat.
I want characters to have a chance to avoid being killed.
As regards acting after defeat: defeat means that you didn't achieve your objective, and that's all. It doesn't necessarily mean that you are unable to initiate a new contest.
And that the contest is a combat doesn't mean that the consequences of defeat necessarily has to use the 'physical consequences' variant.
>Don't let the "Dazed" title throw
>you, you are as defeated as if you were at 0 HP in RQ.
Actually, you aren't, or, rather, not in the same way. In RQ combat, 'defeat' means physical damage, since combat continues until one side has taken enough damage. What 'defeat' in HW combats mean depends wholly on what the objective of the contest was and the Narrator's interpretation of the consequences.
But yes, if you are defeated in HW then you can't take further actions within that contest. But, depending on the nature of your defeat, you can initiate a new contest.
-- - Mikael Raaterova [.sig omitted on legal advice]
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