Question on Augmentations

[Roy]

Hey, everyone!  I just picked up the Hero Wars Deluxe Set a few days ago and I'm really blown away by the awesome simplicity of Robin Law's system.  It's very close to what I've always wanted out of a roleplaying system.

I do have a question, though.  When you augment an action in an extended contest, how long does the augmentation last?  Is it just for one bid, or does it last until the end of the contest?

For example, let's say I'm playing Cael who wants to use "The Song of Blood & Fire" to augment his Sword & Shield Close Combat ability.  The augmentation is successful and gives him a +3 to his target number for his Close Combat ability.  Does "The Song of Blood & Fire" only augment his current bid or does it augment all of his bids until the end of the extended contest?  If it augments all of his bids until the end of the extended contest, can he augment his Close Combat ability again on his next bid using "The Song of Death & Ice"?  If he can augment again, how does "The Song of Death & Ice" affect "The Song of Blood & Fire"?

Thanks in advance for your help.  

Roy

[Russell Hoyle]

Hey there Roy!
I agree wholeheartedly with your enthusiasm about HeroWars!

Augmentation lasts until the end of the contest.

If it augments all of his bids until the end of the extended contest, can he augment his Close Combat ability again on his next bid using "The Song of Death & Ice"? If he can augment again, how does "The Song of Death & Ice" affect "The Song of Blood & Fire"?

Well, thats one of the lovely things about HeroWars and ambiguous descriptors - make it up! More than one magical augment can apply to the same ability, I think - though there has been a lot of discussion about this on the HeroWars Rules Yahoogroup mailing list.

Regards
Rusty

[Roy]

Thanks for the quick response, Russell.  I really appreciate it.  Now I can't wait to start my Hero Wars game. :-)

Roy

[simon_hibbs]

I do have a question, though.  When you augment an action in an extended contest, how long does the augmentation last?  Is it just for one bid, or does it last until the end of the contest?

As Russell says, augmentations last untill the end of the contest,
no matter how long that may be.

If it augments all of his bids until the end of the extended contest, can he augment his Close Combat ability again on his next bid using "The Song of Death & Ice"?  If he can augment again, how does "The Song of Death & Ice" affect "The Song of Blood & Fire"?

According to the rules, you can stack magical augmentations in this way, but not mundane augmentations. Having said that, although each character can only augment an ability using one mundane ability each, multiple characters can each use a mundane ability to augment your character's ability. If you get my meaning!

My preference would be to provide more richness and detail in what the published abilities and feats do, and their relationships with each other, requirements, foibles, etc. So perhaps these two magical feats would be incompatible, but might be more potent individualy than feats that are freely stackable. If you want to introduce detail like this, you're welcome to do so, and in fact I'd encourage it.

A spot of advice though - stick to simple contests as much as possible, and don't mess around with the core system untill you've run it a few times and got a feel for how it plays.


Simon Hibbs

[Roy]

Thanks for the advice, Simon.  I'll keep that in mind as I approach my first Hero Wars game soon.

Roy