HQ Resolution on PBEM

[Jane]

Yeah, what I suggest is that everyone should just agree to abide by the GM judgements in these areas. ....
It sounds like there are trust issues.

I'm not sure where you're gettig this from. We always abide by GM judgements, and we trust him completely. To the extent recently of suggesting that if he's having problems balancing our (augmented) TN against the enemy's ability levels, he sees what we come up with, then invents the enemy's strength to suit :) Trust is one problem we *don't* have.

In the IRC game, we have two channels always going at once. In the Nar channel you see only in game stuff, the kind of stuff that you'd see in PBEM posts for the most part. In the OOC channel, you get the kind of kibitzing that you see at the table in a FTF game.

We've always had both sorts of post going on at once, with lots of conversations overlapping. Recently, with Guy having intermittent and slow email contact, we've split the stuff that isn't immediately game-relevant onto a different mailing list, with the same sort of effects you describe.

[Mike Holmes]

Are we allowed more than one mundane augment, for instance?  (No, at present.)

If we're all augmenting one "champion", can the skill we're using to augment him with be augmented itself before we use it? (Apparently not, but a lot of us were assuming it could and presenting numbers on that basis).

On a semi-realism question, if we can only augment our champion with one skill and/or follower, what are the rest of the followers and/or Heroes actually doing? Standing around twiddling their thumbs?

This is the sort of trust issue that I'm talking about. And it's not just players trusting the GM, but the other way as well.

That is, if a player sends me too many augments, more than I'm allowing, then I do one of two things. I either just pick one out (probably the highest), and use that in my reply with a response indicating what the rule is, and why I'm only using one, or I just use them all. If the players trust me, then they'll know that I've picked the best or most appropriate one. If I trust the players, then I know that it was a misunderstanding, and not some intentional abuse, and I'll allow the "infraction" based on expediency.

See this is what I'm talking about. Trust means that you can make ajdudicatons on your end, and not have to ask questions. Because you know that the other people trust you to do it as well as you can, and you trust them not to do something wrong in return.

On another note, don't have house rules. HQ works great as written. Why in the name of all that is holy would you restrict augments to just one mundane one? I mean, if FTF, at least you could argue that looking more up takes a long time. In PBEM, the extra time of looking them up is inconsequential. In any case, it's a very important feature of the system that a character be allowed to use each and every mundane ability that they can to augment. Doing less is a diservice to your play.

The only rule that I don't use in HeroQuest is the one that says that I can change the rules to suit whenever I like. If the system wasn't great to begin with, I'd be playing something else. In any case, by varying less from the rules as written in the book, you make common understanding of the rules that much simpler.

Then, if you must have house rules, if you've agreed to these modifications before hand, then is this on a Yahoo Group? Or do you have some webspace available? If not then get some, and post all the house rules to such a space.

Just play, and forget all that "what can happen" stuff. Quit asking questions, and just assume that the answer is, "Yes, you can do that." (or "No, but that's OK in this case, for the future, just do this.")

My point is that I'm playing in a similar PBEM game like this, and play proceeds without any such questions ever slowing down play. I've never had a question like this. And you don't have to either.

Mike