The combat was over in 1 CA...

[Trifletraxor]

I agree that if the players have "Hero Points" then certainly their opponents should have it too.

I just really, really, really HATE the idea of Hero Points. Use a point to buy yourself out of trouble after it has happened. I just got hit with a decapitating blow, No! I use a hero point and suddenly it's just a glancing blow! Or I use it to improve my poorly rolled attack. And then your opponents do the same. It happened, no it didn't happen!

In the end we end up with completely unrealistic D&D-like fights.

SGL.

 

[Utgardloki]

I would say that the use of Hero Points to affect die rolls should probably be optional. Although the alternative is to kill a lot of PCs.

On the other hand, do you really want "realism" when dealing with elves and wizards and dragons? Maybe instead you want "believability". D&D kind of suffers because people sometimes have trouble understanding how a 174 pound man can have 175 hit points.

If you want machine guns to kill people, then maybe using Hero Points to avoid getting killed by a machine gun should be disallowed. But if you want a more "TV Dramatic" feel, hero points are a great tool.

Remember though, that in Runequest, a PC who relys on Hero Points to get himself out of trouble is soon going to run out of hero points.

(We should start another thread on Hero Points, since I do have some concerns about the rules as written.)

 

[simonh]

And no, we don't wear more than leather or cuirboulli armor, and we only have divine magic so there is no Protection for us to cast.
But, damn... we weren't expecting the fight to be over in one combat action!
I suspect that our badassery will be deflated the first time one of us is on the receiving end of the critical hit. :roll:

That's true. Having said all this though, it's actualy quite true to the Conan idiom (or at least the exagerated mock-Conan idiom of popular imagery) for storng-thewed barbarians to cleave their opponents in half with a single blow. The tricky bit as you say is when that happens to the main characters, and you don't want it happening ALL the time.

RQ has always had a fine ballance between offense and defence. Perhaps you could introduce some cheap, easy but limited power protection-type spells or tattoos to the local magical culture that might compensate. Adding a tribal shaman that can cast mass-effect 4 point protection magic would do this, and also add a powerful NPC character to the game that could be useful for plot purposes.

 

[CharlieMonster]

I just really, really, really HATE the idea of Hero Points. Use a point to buy yourself out of trouble after it has happened. I just got hit with a decapitating blow, No! I use a hero point and suddenly it's just a glancing blow! Or I use it to improve my poorly rolled attack. And then your opponents do the same. It happened, no it didn't happen!

In the end we end up with completely unrealistic D&D-like fights.

I seem to remember, many moons ago, White Dwarf (back when it was at least still a borderline gaming mag as opposed to an overpriced advert) run an article for WFRP which addressed the use of Fate Points (Hero Points by another name) and I liked one of the ideas, which was, if you spend a hero point to "not be dead", the PC still goes down, but at the end of the fight comes around with a messy wound that looks a lot worse than it is.

 

[Utgardloki]

That's true. Having said all this though, it's actualy quite true to the Conan idiom (or at least the exagerated mock-Conan idiom of popular imagery) for storng-thewed barbarians to cleave their opponents in half with a single blow. The tricky bit as you say is when that happens to the main characters, and you don't want it happening ALL the time.

One idea I had was for a legendary ability that would allow for a character who has it to treat an unarmored location as if it actually had armor, perhaps equal to 1/3 his DEX. (The theory is that he is exceptionally good at getting a body part out of the way at the last minute, so you have to do more damage to actually hurt him.)

Perhaps this ability only affects one body location, so has to be taken multiple times to affect more locations. This means some characters may want to wear partial armor to protect locations unprotected by their legendary abilities.