Re: Changing objectives

From: Roderick and Ellen Robertson <rjremr_at_...>
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 09:48:49 -0700

> >> What 'defeat' in HW combats mean depends
> >> wholly on what the objective of the contest was and the Narrator's
> >> interpretation of the consequences.
> >...
> >
> >This is my understanding too. It gives an interesting tactic for
> >contestants facing defeat: change objective just before becoming
> >defeated, as a form of damage limitation.
>
> I'm a bit wary of 'changing objectives'. Do you mean withdrawal from a
contest?

I'm going to agree with Mikaal (shock!) here. Just because I've changed *my* objectives, my opponent may not have changed his, so I, too, am wary of "changing objectives" as a way of reducing the results of combat.

Were a HW Soloquest to be written (and it would probably be a bitch to do), the programmed encounters would probably have to have a guide to AP bidding ("The Skeletons will bid 5 AP every time they act") as well as an objective ("The Skeletons will try to kill you, and cannot be bargained with. There is no retreat once combat starts").

> If you successfully withdraw* from a contest which you were losing,
> i'd say it's the same as being marginally defeated; you fail to reach
> your goal, but suffer no lasting side effects.

As someone else notd, if I lose the contest, my opponent has achieved *his* goal. In this case, the skeletons are going to go for the kill.

I kind of like Philip's suggestion that a person fighting a MKM/Below-0 type can fight on until one or the other is dead (-40), but that is a personal preference, not a Issaries Official opinion.

> * I note that the rules for withdrawing from a contest (p138) is
> hopelessly confusing.

They were hopelessly confusing when I got the manuscript, as I remember...

RR