Re: Re: Digest Number 260

From: philip.hibbs_at_...
Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2000 15:04:52 +0100

>But if every adult has a mastery, then the
>PC:s starting with 5w and 2*1w is nothing
>special.

I think part of the problem is that in RQ, you started out playing kids with no skills, and by the time the characters got interesting, the game system started to break down. Because skill levels tended to be so low that most characters would fail at most things half of the time, this kept NPC skills low. Throw in the occasional new character with low skills, and there you have RQ: low numbers are the norm. The philosophy behind Elric is that the basic game mechanics work up to around 200%, RQ only really uses the bottom half of the scale, so double all the numbers. Professional skill level is 100%, ie. as close to "never fumble" as the rules allow, and hardly ever fail (1 in 20, same as HW at 1W). Someone complained about Simon's Elric-rules Gloranthan PBEM, saying that he didn't want to play in a "ridiculously overpowered" game where everyone had over 100% in their best skills. It isn't overpowered, it's the norm for competent characters in the Elric game system. 100% isn't anything magical or special, it's what you need to get by in the Elric game system. In Hero Wars, it's 1W. It could be different, just like RQ was different to Elric, and that's what you're doing in your game. Fine. However, Hero Wars has pitched the "competence" level at 1W, and there's nothing "wrong" with that decision. Ii might be nice to have the "first mastery" as a goal to aim for, but the price to pay for that is to reduce the granularity of the game system by a factor of 2.

Philip Hibbs http://www.snark.freeserve.co.uk/ Opinions expressed may not even be my own, let alone those of any organisations, nations, species, or schools of thought to which I may be affiliated.

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