Re: Difficulty Balance

In message <1168538082.988727.225070@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
          "gleichman" <fox1_217@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

> 
> Simon Smith wrote:
> > In a gritty scenario, characters must whack down every weaker foe as
quickly
> > and brutally as possible, in order to buy themselves time to deal with
the
> > deadlier opponents. That /isn't/ noble.
> 
> I think you're falling back into movie mode.
> 
> October 8th, 1918 Cor****al Alvin York of the 328th Infantry led seven
> men in an attack on a German position killing 25 with at least 9 of
> them by his own hand. In this action he accepted the surrender of 128
> men.
> 
> Real life is a brutal as it gets- there was no firing to wound or
> disable, yet here we have all the elements of a hero. Bravery, Skill
> and Nobility (mercy). To this one can add humility due to his after
> action lack of pride in his actions.
> 
> This beats the Long Ranger shooting guns out of people's hand (and not
> taking modifiers for doing so) any day of the week.

Funnily enough, I'm the only player I know who has actually had a
character
steam in, slaughter some foes and then in a bull-like voice demand
surrender
from the remainder. I'm entirely happy with that as a definition of
heroic.
And in a bit you snipped I said "whacking down weaker foes isn't
particularly noble, but I think it's about equally common in the hardest
scenarios /as in heroic ones/". The difference is, in a heroic scenario,
after having killed some, the hero demands surrender from the remainder,
while in a gritty scenario he then goes on to try to slaughter the rest as
well. It's not the butchery that's heroic, it's the later restraint.

Of course, the butchery is a necessary prelude, otherwise how can you show
you are capable of carrying out the threat? Characters who charge in and
immediately demand surrender without killing anyone are trying a bluff;
that's even lower down the violence scale - so 'cinematic' rather than
'heroic'.

-- 
Simon Smith

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