The only thing I liked about equipment bonuses is that it gave Heroquest a little bit of the flavour of RQ, so that when two soldiers (Keywords: Pavic 17, Soldier 17 and Initiate of Pavis 17) meet in combat unequipped they were just the same strength guy fighting each other. In just the way two STR 10, SIZ 10, DEX 10 and base combat skill of 20% met in RQ. However in RQ when one of those guys donned plate armour (6 points) and picked up a Great Axe Damage 2D6+2, while the other guy donned leather (1 point) and a shortsword (1D6+1), things suddenly changed, plate guy became a heavy hitting tank adn would invariably do some damage to leather boy. In HQ the same happens, Pavic Soldier (A) has a skill of 17, he puts on leather armour and picks up a shortsword he is now skill 19, the second guy picks up the plate (+5) and Great axe (+5) and suddenly he is 7W skill, he rocks compared to soldier A.
The essence of this is, without the equipment bonuses when a big bloke in plate armour wielding a great axe ran through the door, he was just another opponent, while in Runequest and Heroquest, he is a bloody nightmare! Somthing players should run from, and that is the order of my universe and why I use those bonuses. However I also restrict the amount of augments a man can make and always make the opponent +10 skill on whatever the players tell me their skill is, but I am a b*stard GM and I have tough players.
Simon
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