In most games you are limited to what is described. i.e. bladesharp does exactly what it is described as doing, no more.
In Hero Wars there is no such limitation. You get the name of the feat, and you figure out how to use it. Now, whether you use flickering blade to make your sword flick around so fast that it is hard to parry, or whether you use it to make your sword flicker in the light, making it hard to see, doesn't normally matter, both are an augment to your close combat. So most of the time you can use most of the feats pretty intuitively.
Some feats lend themselves well to helping in many different ways, that would be hard to fully document. Take the Yinkini "grow claws" feat for example. Obviously it can be used in combat, but it is also a reasonable augment for climbing trees, for running on certain surfaces, or for leaping in certain cases (all because the claws can grip), and it is also not out of the question to use it in other ways, such as boosting an intimidation roll, impressing felines, and who knows what else.
Finally, some feats, like the infamous "sunset leap" almost beg for imaginative uses, because the name itself doesn't make it seem useful.
Remember that the narrator can always assign penalties if he or she thinks the player is stretching the feat too far. "I use flickering blade to have bits of lightning flicker around my sword, giving us light here in the cave" Is probably a reasonable use of the feat, but given that it is a combat feat it might be pretty hard to use it to generate useful amounts of light, so an improvisation penalty might be in order.
Remember also that only devotees will be using feats regularly. Initiates will usually just use the affinity to augment with. Initiates can use feats, with improvisation penalties, but the current interpretation is that the penalty for doing so should probably be at least -5.
I hope this helps. It does take a little getting used to using the rules as the starting point for what you can do, inestead of the ending point, but it is pretty exciting once you get used to the idea.
--Bryan
Powered by hypermail