A Good Illusionist Game

[Mike Holmes]

I'd agree so far, but I also think that an 'opposed rolls' mechanisms is also handy. Hero Wars has the best of both worlds. An opposed rolls mechanism where the GM often rolls against the player and they compare their level of success, and mechanisms for a player to use one ability to augment another.

I agree absolutely. Another cool thing in HW is that if a GM needs to make a conflict closer he can always find another trait to augment. Start out with few, and add them as necesasary. Makes for easy handling of conflict stress. The only probelm is that such "fudging" techniques are amongst the most transparent.

Hero Wars also has Hero Points though, which are a powrfull weapon in the hands of the player. Would you say that hero points (or the even more potent Force Points in WEG Star Wars, for that matter, are anti-illusionist?

Yes they are. Such power is likely to be able to cause players to be able to derail your plot or whatever you are trying to achive through your illusion. Such is a much better tool for a Narrativist game, or Simulation of a something in which the points represent somehting in-game (and in which you don't care to use Illusionism).

Mike