Re: Lending APs with arrows

From: Benedict Adamson <badamson_at_...>
Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 16:35:55 +0100

philip.hibbs_at_... wrote:
[Hey, I'm at dhl.com]
...
> I think this is really abuse of the AP lending mechanic.
...
> the player is trying to
> bend the rules in order to bypass the barriers that the rules system has
> put in place. Only if the character's actions make more sense in terms of
> AP lending than in a direct attack should it be allowed.
...

To forestall just these problems, and to encourage description, I've tended to divide each round into two phases. In the first, the actor describes what they are trying to do in game-world terms. In the second, I {the Narrator] decide an appropriate way of modelling that with the rules.

Sometimes there is some negotiation: I allow the player to change the description of what they want to do until they are happy with rules modelling, and I'm willing to listen to objections. But the important point is that the rules modelling follows from the description, not the other way around.