MINIMUM BID EXTENDED CONTESTS

> From: "simon_hibbs2" <simon.hibbs_at_N9hhe5qngiVd5Jc1CFvqyQgSomtPRbYw-Z0E_FtoRTHjO7MiYubmQwuB_B2uLUdRpVmIvccj5qzkSLYtwx-UQZ4.yahoo.invalid>
>
>I'm toying with using an idea suggested by a player in an
>upcoming Hero Wars game (starting next week).
>
>We found extended contests a bit dull the last time around
>and some players have a hard time visualising what APs realy
>represent. If an AP loss means you're at a disadvantage,
>shouldn't that mean you're at a penalty to your rolls?
>
<SNIP>
>
>We've obviously not worked out formal rules for this, but
>what do you all think as a general idea?

I've been toying with an extended contest variant (I was going to use the same name "Sudden Death Extended Contests"), but I won't now.

I had two main aims. First, to find a type of contest to handle short contests that are too important for a simple contest, but not important enough to be the climactic extended contest for an episode. Second, to have a slightly bloodier/more dangerous type of contest.

I wanted the mechanic to piggy-back on existing rules, be quick and able to use the standard AP, edges and so forth of an extended contest.

After several false starts (involving fairly complex mechanics) I finally hit upon a very simple mechanic:

MINIMUM BID EXTENDED CONTESTS These work exactly as a normal extended contest, EXCEPT:

1. The narrator declares a minimum bid for all actions.
2. Normally the minimum bid will be the starting AP total of the actor with the lowest AP total.
3. Narrative conventions are as normally except that the narrator may prefer to interpret each round as a series of several actions and responses (rather than, as seems most common, a single exchange of blows).
4. Standard optional rules (weapon edges, wounds etc.) may apply. Further optional rules:
   1. minimum bid is starting AP + defensive edge of actor with the lowest AP + defensive edge total,
   2. followers are excluded from starting AP total for the purposes of calculating minimum bid only (by default they are included),
   3. exclude parting shots, coup de grace and final actions (by default they are included),
   4. the narrator may require that all bids are a multiple of the minimum bid.

Rationale: The basic idea is to constrain an extended contest so that it takes little longer than a simple contest to run. Unlike a simple contest players have some control over the likely degree of defeat. In most exchanges there is a fair chance that someone will be defeated (at least 50% if option 4a is used).

Thom             Received on Wed 16 Jan 2002 - 07:20:36 EET