I've started composing (and trashed) at least two notes on this topic
and each
one boils down to "don't do it".
Hero Wars is too free, too open, has much too much story telling, much
too
much possibility for the narrator and the players to go with what fits
the moment
rather than constraining themselves via some table.
Just wing it. Decide at the very beginning of your campaign if you are
going for
something realistic (closer to RQ) or something more storytellerish
(closer to
a Jackie Chan movie or Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon). Use that to
decision
to figure out if your magical leaps are 3 feet or 30 feet.
We could get into magical resistances vs mundane resistances and debate
whether
you're jumping magical rivers or mundane ones, but it just detracts from
the first point.
Don't over complicate the system. Just choose a number that fits with
the flow of the
story. If it's different than the previous one you chose, well then the
river must be
wider this time, or something :-)
Harry.
From: Posselt, Theo (US - <mailto:TPOSSELT_at_...> Foster City)
Sent: Friday, May 04, 2001 4:07 AM
Subject: Standard/house-rules resistances
Folks,
So, after running several demo sessions with HeroWars, I consistently
find
the feeling of the game a bit flat. On the one hand, the social
interactions modelling in the game are wonderful. On the other hand,
the
combat and especially the magic doesn't work too well.
Maybe it's my weakness as a GM, maybe it's my love for rules mechanics.
In
any case, I realized recently that one thing that would help would be to
have a more developed set of baseline resistances, especially for magic.
The two pages in the base rules don't really seem sufficient.
My basic idea is that I would have a set of baseline resistances, and
then a
set of standard modifiers. I conceive of these standard modifiers as
being
something like standard limitations in (forgive me) GURPS or champions.
Before everyone reacts in utter horror, let me give you an example. One
annoying (to me) aspect of the magic in HeroWars is the fact that you
have
so many gods with similar affinities and similar feats. Let's take our
friend Vanganth and Vinga. Vanganth has the affinity Movement, with the
feat Leap with Wind; Vinga has Movement, with Leap over Water. So my
idea
is that you'd have the base resistance for all 'leaping' feats:
Leap 10' = 16 Leap 20' = 1w Leap 40' = 6w
(for horizontal leaps)
And then you'd have modifiers, depending on the restrictions on the
feat:
Very common = -0
Common = -2
Unusual = -5
Almost never = -10
So, in this case 'wind' is a common restriction (-2), 'over water' is an
unusual restriction (-5). So, for Vanganth to leap 40' would be a 4w
resistance, only doable in wind, whereas for Vinga to leap the same
distance
over water would be a 1w resistance.
Obviously this approach isn't for everyone - it would add some more
bookkeeping to the game. Still, I would love to try to develop this
idea a
bit more with people that think it's useful. So, some questions:
Theo
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