Sometimes its hard to shake my simulationist and modeling rpg background. :-) I like to have benchmark abilities so I can compare and think about the relative capabilities of PCs and NPCs.
I do understand the utilization of the narrative model for selecting resistances, however, I will point out that in the book they give a moderate resistance a numeric value of that scales from 14-18 or so based upon how many sessions you've ran. So an 18W will easily succeed at a moderate difficulty challeng, while a 17 will have difficulty. As it should be modeled in my opinion.
Upon reflection, I don't really mind a character starting at 18W in his breakout abilities if he wants to. Its epic/heroic fantasy after all.
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> --- In HeroQuest-RPG_at_yahoogroups.com, "Ryan" <ryanakent@> wrote:
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> > Sorry for the long post. I want to run this game for my group and I worry about my munchkins trying to break it during character creation, not out of malice, but just as an experiment. I really want to get a handle on the default guidlines so I can consider carefuly deviating from them.
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> > Thanks.
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> If you follow the full guidance of the HQ2 book (something I'm still not sure I plan to do) then there's a bit of a secret about things like starting characters with 18W in a skill:
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> ***It just doesn't matter.***
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> If you use narrativist models for selecting difficulties and resistances for the characters, they will always face the same equivalent difficulty in doing something, whether their best skills are 18 or 18W.
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> So crossing the raging river is always a Moderate difficulty, and the Ultimate Antagonist's best resistance in the climax is always Extremely Difficult.
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> Mike
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