Re: Ho Much Rule fiddling Is Tolerable?

From: Brian Curley <bkcurley_at_Tepp6xObbyWPBTCXP7Rfj1kbxmYnf_P94ZJrUOqF40d3jDP5Km_qYnNI0ssv_84YRAn>
Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2007 23:09:52 -0500

Ian wrote:
> wrote:

>>
>> I can see how that might be the case if you were using a Simple 

> Contest,

>> but if it's the kind of thing that the entire Hero Band is working 
>> towards, it sounds kind of "climactic" or at least important. I 

> seem to

>> recall HQ stating that such situations are precisely what Extended 
>> Contests are designed for.
>>
>> There is no requirement for everyone to just augment one player's 

> roll.

>> If they choose to contribute in that way, that's their choice. But 

> in

>> most cases there is nothing preventing them from using their own 

> ability

>> to try to reduce the APs of the resistance.
>>

>
> Let's say the entire Hero Band is working on building a ship. There's
> two ways of doing this as an extended contest - the entire group
> gangs up on the single opponent (the ship) and probably whomps seven
> kinds of hell out of it because of the vast disparity in APs between
> four or five heroes and one middling-difficulty ship, OR, you break
> the ship up into multiple opponents for each individual ship builder
> to take part in, which can create the odd situation of winning the
> battle, but losing the war when the HeroBand defeats the grouped
> opposition "winning" the conflict, which implies the boat was built
> successfully, but one of the group was defeated by the ship's hull,
> meaning you have a successfully built boat with big whoppin' holes in
> the hull making it *unsuccessful* as a boat.

First of all, I'd never do "building a ship" as an extended contest. It's just not the kind of tense, interesting scene that needs to be take up much real time (it might take days or even months in game time, though). So you're right, ship building is definitely a Simple Contest kind of thing.

(But if you're gonna do it as an Extended Contest...)

Second, I wouldn't assume that building a seaworthy ship was all that easy. Now if you're playing a Hero Band of master shipwrights (and that's a mighty unique campaign in any case), sure... it'll be easy and they'll knock it out no problem. But in most games, how many characters are going to know the first thing about building a ship? Most of the characters are going to have to base the APs on abilities like Strong or Hard-working which will net relatively few APs compared to the guy who has "Shipwright 5w2".

And I don't think you have to break the ship up into multiple components. You can simply have a contest of five (for example) PCs vs. one ship and the ship has a lot of APs based on it's Large (considering the largest creature on the size chart in Anaxials Roster is 18w2, a ship is going to be *way* bigger than that) and it's Seaworthy abilities. Actually, I'm sure Men of the Sea has lots of information on this, but it's downstairs right now and I'm too lazy to go get it... so best to proceed completely without facts. :)

In short, I don't think 'ensemble play' means "everyone gets to roll dice." I think it's more "everyone contributes to overcoming the challenges." So the shipwright is going to be the guy who rolls the die, but everyone else is going to contribute their blood, sweat, and labor (APs and augments). I guess I really can't see anyone interested in narrative role-playing getting upset because they didn't get to roll dice to build the ship too.

BKC