jtelson Posted December 18, 2007 Report Share Posted December 18, 2007 Re: Anyone ever tried a stat block auction in HERO? Auction? Yeah' date=' I can see that. 5 players means that the best block will cost 5 cp, the second best 4 cp and so on... Not going to work. [/quote'] You haven't played Amber I've seen auctions in Amber where more than 1 of the stats went for over the starting point allotment. In its defense the game can be a lot about intra-group mechanations, manipulations and conflict. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilFleischmann Posted December 18, 2007 Report Share Posted December 18, 2007 Re: Anyone ever tried a stat block auction in HERO? Actually Steve Long kinda says it too. Check out Turkian Age. Which is a D&D-type setting, proving my point. (and by "fact" I mean by what USA Today reports). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Checkmate Posted December 18, 2007 Report Share Posted December 18, 2007 Re: Anyone ever tried a stat block auction in HERO? Which is a D&D-type setting' date=' proving my point.[/quote'] Well we're talking about HERO Games and it is an "Official Setting" so thought it was relevant Yeah I know, that's why I felt the need to clarify what I was calling a fact. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archermoo Posted December 18, 2007 Report Share Posted December 18, 2007 Re: Anyone ever tried a stat block auction in HERO? Auction? Yeah' date=' I can see that. 5 players means that the best block will cost 5 cp, the second best 4 cp and so on... Not going to work. [/quote'] I would be surprised if that ever happened. It would require that the players cooperated and worked things out in advance. And if they were going to do that, they should just have all bid minimum on the block that the ended up with and left it at that. With no one paying any extra. That being said, I think the whole idea is pretty wretched. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted December 18, 2007 Report Share Posted December 18, 2007 Re: Anyone ever tried a stat block auction in HERO? This really doesnt make sense to me since a given stat block is worth a given amount of points. The benefit of spending fewer points on stats is that you have more points to spend on other things and vice versa. Bidding character points against blocks like this accomplishes what exactly? You take a lower cost block of stats you get more character points _in addition to_ the points not spent on stats and vice versa? Seems like double jeopardy to me. The single greatest determinant of what characters are successful in a given campaign is the kinds of challenges the GM presents. If you are presenting challenges that are better solved by characters with particular stats, then you are creating the situation that makes certain min / maxed stat blocks viable for your players. Try changing up the challenges so that points spent in other areas are important and you will see players stop buying stats up to X because they are stupid not to from a cost / yield perspective, and start buying stats up to what makes sense based on the character's other abilities. ANother thing to keep in mind is that you are setting the bar with the NPC's you use against the PC's. If the NPC's average DEX 18 then your players are going to average at least 19 because they WANT TO GO FIRST; the same is true if the average DEX is 38 -- players are going to want 39 DEX and up. Strength, Damage, Defenses, same scenario. Most players want their characters to be butch, which means at least a little better than the people they fight all the time and they'll keep buying up stats until they reach that point. If you want to encourage your players to stop min / maxing their PC's, try reducing the averages of the foes they face and use other means to challenge them. IMO, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frenchman Posted December 18, 2007 Report Share Posted December 18, 2007 Re: Anyone ever tried a stat block auction in HERO? Hmm... Maybe I'll try this in my next Fantasy game - except I'd have them bid with their starting funds instead of character points - keeps everyone equal, point-wise, and the high STR+DEX and STR+CON will basically need to play monks and barbarians since they'll have no money for weapons and armor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrosshairCollie Posted December 19, 2007 Report Share Posted December 19, 2007 Re: Anyone ever tried a stat block auction in HERO? You think a wizard' date=' who spent most of his time in a library should be twice as strong as your average farmer?[/quote'] I'd think an average farmer, in a no-machinery fantasy game, would have at least a 13 just from the sheer weight of things he has to lug around. Yes, the 8 STR is average ... meaning there are people in the set with higher stats (farmers) and people in the set with lower stats (merchants, politicians and other sedentary sorts). Not to mention that an adventuring wizard is likely to be wearing armor (since, in TA, armor doesn't futz with making gestures) and swinging a sword from time to time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Schultz Posted December 20, 2007 Report Share Posted December 20, 2007 Re: Anyone ever tried a stat block auction in HERO? Other ways I've seen it done is to require that a character cannot have any two primary stats with the same last digit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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