Clarifying Combat/Extended Contests

From: Sir Ethilrist <stefan.drawert_at_...>
Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2000 19:46:51 +0200

hello to everybody!
i got my copy of the Hw-deluxe set some months ago and immediately subscribed to all the egroups concerning glorantha and the game, but did not have any time to really do any work with the rules. and by now i see that it'll be a *lot* of work, until i really understand them..:-( maybe some of the questions seem stupid to you, but i want to fully understand a game befor i play it, and boys, this is a though one (yes, i did play ARIA and C&S with less problems, know what i mean *grins*) so i hope maybe you can help me with some of the problems i encountered while reading through the books...,
even if this means, some of you will do this for the third or fourth time...
(since there's a lot of discussion going on about various styles of gaming,
like old-rq vs. new-hw, etc.., i would like to say (so that there's no misunderstanding), that i like the more abstract way hw handles actions of all kind and i understand that hw is not rq, and i won't make it rq again with house rules...)
because there are a lot of questions, i organized them into 3 different mails, each concerning different problems.

c.) combat/extended contests

1.)- i remember there being suggestions what to do with the edges in simple contests, but cannot find the relevant messages. some rule all agreed at, or any official statements (roderick/robin)?

2.)- i still have problems with extended contests. for example, imagine a scene (for simplicities sake, let's take a combat...) with the party (3 heroes) being attacked by 5 trolls (t1-5).

    narrator announces trolls attack. characters (c1-3)augment with magic or performing a feat (btw, could they still do, if the extended contest had begun?).

    (c1) is engaged by (t1), (c2) by (t2) and (t3), (c3) by (t4). (t5) is firing sling stones into the resulting melees.

    (c1) uses his sword and shield ability, but after one exchange decides to do some light feat to scare the troll off. ability switch o.k.(page 137), but only the ability value would change. that does not sound right to me. switching to simple contest (troll rolls for blinding?)???

    having got rid off the troll (somehow, just an example), (c1) wants to help (c2) versus his two opponents. he enters the melee and (c2) leaves combat one round later, he re-enter. is there no penalty for having lost AP in the first place. who then prevents characters from leaving and re-entering extended contests as they wish (if they have someone to guard their rear of course)???

    (t5) fires his sling against (c1) and (c2) while engaged to (t2) and
(t3). does he lend his trollmates AP? and what if meanwhile (c3)
had the chance to overwhelm (t4) and is now engaging (t5). are the AP
(t5) gave (t2+3) lost, even if the melee still goes on?
what if a character leaves an extended contest to do a feat. how long does it take him to do this? one exchange?

3.)- there has been a lot of discussion about missile combat and the lack of rules for it. but an extended contest has, for example, two opponents, one with a bow, the other one has only melee weapon. so the bowman uses his range combat ability rating for the exchange and the swordman can choose
(1.) to come near to him, using his running ability; or (2) tries to get
cover, using dodge or hide; or some other action, the player comes up with. but basically it is like"i would like to do (x) and therefore i use ability
(y) and if i win the contest, i did what i wanted to do"(depending on the
success rate), so if the bowman wins,he hurts or kills the swordman, and otherwise, the swordman found safe cover or reached him and engages him in melee, resulting in a new contest(?). did i get this right or did i miss something importent?

i would be very grateful, if somebody would like to shed his/her light on me....
thanks,
stefan

>>>The scene was all changed like the change in his face...<<<