Re: mechanics of surprise

On Mon, 5 Mar 2007, Neelakantan Krishnaswami wrote:
>>>> 1. To be able to slay monsters with a single mighty blow, or at least
>>>> a small number of attacks, [high Pace of Decision]
>>>> 2. To be able to withstand many attacks, or attack attempts by
>>>> monsters against them, [low Pace of Decision]
>>>> 3. To have the same rules apply to both their PCs and to the
>>>> NPCs/monsters.

> I agree that the mechanical handling time is going to be the same for
> the players and the GM, but the pace of the fictional action can
> easily be varied. That is, part of the process of play can be setting
> the narrative scale and scope of action for the characters -- you
> aren't restricted to just one scale.

I understand that, but the problem mentioned was not that the pace of the 
fictional action is fixed but that it's the same for PCs and NPCs/monsters

in any given situation while the players seem to want it to be different. 
If you can kill an NPC/monster in one mechanical handling event and apply 
the same rules to a PC, you'll be able to kill a PC in one mechanical 
handling event.  If you need many mechanical handling events before a PC 
dies and apply the same rules to an NPC/monster, then it's going to take 
many mechanical handling events before an NPC/monster dies.

The paradox comes from wanting the rules to be the same but for them to 
work differently whether a character is a PC or NPC/monster.  And I think 
this is another manifestation of the paradox by which some players and GMs

what the PCs to face 50/50 challenges where the opponents are just as 
powerful as the PCs and often want to play the battles out with objective 
rules that treat the PCs and NPCs/monsters the same as the PCs, yet they 
don't want the PCs to lose 50% of the time.

> In the first case, a character is killed with a single mighty blow,
> and in the second case, lots of attack attempts are made (none of
> which are fatal). The same game rules are being used for everybody;
> it's just that you apply the rules so as to produce genre-appropriate
> results in different kinds of scenes.

That doesn't illustrate a high pace of decision for NPCs/monsters and a 
low pace of decision for PCs.  In fact, I'm not sure this really shows any

change in the pace of decision at all, since the number of mechanical 
events before a character loses remains the same.

> If you're running a Frazetta-style post-apocalyptic fantasy, the
> warrior princess might interpret damage as bad tactical positioning,
> and the evil cyborg sorcerer might interpret damage as minions being
> hacked to bits. That way you get the princess fighting off mutant
> nasties while standing on a hill made of her victims.  Or if the
> sorcerer has an ancient war machine left over from before the Fire
> Time, then it might be the princess who interprets damage as her brave
> soldiers getting killed, and the sorcerer who interprets damage as
> using up ammunition.

In that case, you aren't using the same rules for the PCs and minions. 
The minions are being treated as manifestations of hit points, not NPCs or

monsters that use the same rules as the PCs.  Yeah, that's one way to 
solve the problem but it doesn't mean the condition specified, which many 
players and GMs find desirable, for better or worse.

John Morrow