RE: The problem here [was: Epic NPCs and their stats]

From: Sam Elliot <samclau_at_dspLlS4Bu_OKTB4DLCrwM6wM2Gv6hPwjbB--_JukXLqonbsO-naQOFufpyphy9MC_1rm>
Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 09:40:23 -0300

> [Jeff]
> > But assigning a list of specific numbers - or thinking that an
> > description of abilities is exhaustive - is in my opinion just plain
> > silly.

Adept:
> What's wrong with letting those of us who would like to have the
> numbers have our way. Our game will benefit, and your own will not be
> effected in the least.
>
> This seems like a rather nasty case of "my way of running HQ is right
> and all the others are wrong" :( especially since those of us wanting
> the stats are actually going with the scales in the HQ book, and the
> other published stats.

I tend to agree with Adept here. These exhortions of "play the story, not the game" and the like are just plain annoying, Jeff. Besides, at what point did someone say these things would be assumed to be exhaustive?

Here's an analogy...

'The symphony begins with a placid and cheerful movement depicting the composer's feelings as he arrives in the country. The work is in sonata form, and makes use of seven distinct motifs, each of which is extensively developed and transformed.

An unusual aspect of the movement is the use of a microscopic texture, obtained by multiple repetitions of very short motifs. As Yvonne Frindle has said, "the infinite repetition of pattern in nature [is] conveyed through rhythmic cells, its immensity through sustained pure harmonies."'

That's the first movement of Beethoven's Sixth there. From memory, it should be describing the best known part of the symphony. The description is of little use if someone wishes to play the music. I suspect a musician would wish to see the music written down.

Of course this isn't a perfect analogy, BUT the "language" of HQ is the abilties with numbers attached. If I wanted Harrek or whoever in my game, and I had a piece of descriptive text, I would have to go through that text and turn it into abilities with numbers. Of course that is possible, but then so is making up a whole universe on my own.

And HQ is a game. All this "play the story not the game" just becomes so much nonsense. The first real page of the HQ book has the word "game" in it about ten times (p.9). If a PC in a game I run decides to take on Harrek, then we roll the dice to see just how badly defeated the character is. For that we need abilities and numbers - they have to come from somewhere. Some people find it much LESS prescriptive to have a set of abilities than to have a description (a combination is ideal of course).

Final point - when running a game, the killer for me is making up abilities and attaching numbers to them. Not necessarily the effort but the very fact that I just made all this up reduces the value of the challenge to me. If someone else made the abilities and numbers up and I tweak them just a bit, there is a certain objective value to it which adds to the enjoyment, for me. I may not be the only one.

Sam.