> Good point, but what if your PCs are better?
>
> In our games, they already were. The sample combat ability of a
> superhero (explicitly Harrek or JarEel) is 10W4+ [HeroQuest p.274].
> I think in the Orlmarth game, our combat master was in the W4 range.
> My own character was good, at 4W3, and could easily augment to 10W4.
What is broken here is the character advancement mechanism (or it's application).
The 10w4 of Harrek and Jareel are supposed to reflect their respective histories, as a barbarian hero and slayer of the Great White Bear spirit, and that of the end of a heroic breeding project with the power of the empire behind her.
Making all the numbers subjective is a poor solution, and really takes a lot out of the gamesystem in my opinion.
If, though great heroquests and epic deeds a character gets to be a force of nature like Harrek then he really should be like Harrek! It shouldn't mean that Harrek is scaled up to be even tougher. If the character has become so just because of the hero point awards of normal play, then I'd say it's obvious where the problem lies, and it's not the stats of Harrek.
No matter where one puts the stats of the NPC heroes, and character advancement mechanic like this is going to have "ordinary" PC's catch up with them. Personally I treat w2 as the end of normal skill range. w3 is heroic and w4 is superheroic, and the end of the range in the mortal world.
I have no need of D&D like character advancement for the sake of advancement. If one wants to be the new Harrek, one should work at it like Harrek. Betray a powerful entity and steal it's power. Not just come to the game every week for two years.
-Adept
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