HQ2 – Multiple opponent penalty in group simple contests (2012)

Submitted by Kensei on Mon, 01/10/2012 – 10:47

I was reading this [urlhttp://rpggeek.com/thread/805056/the-enemy-within-with-heroquest-2-part-i]Actual play[/url] and there’s an example of a group simple contest, involving 5 characters versus one adversary; But I wonder, if the adversary should receive the multiple opponent penalties (p. 43).

In the example of the rulebook (the fish example in p.32), the fish don’t get any penalty, but in p. 33 you can read :

Characters forced to participate in more than one contest face
the standard multiple opponent penalties (see p. 43).

So if a character in a simple contest faces more than one oponent, even if it’s just one contest, should receive the multiple opponent penalty? Perhaps instead of a contest it means a roll?

Submitted by RoM on Mon, 01/10/2012 – 13:00.

Yes, characters with multiple opponents should receive a penalty. However, in this case it is a non player character and the opponents are the players. It would be an arduous job to keep track of all bonusses and penalties for the NPC – but it would not enrich the story. So the narrator probably simply calculated the penalty into rating of 2W. I would do the same.

I think there is another example in the HQ book with monks fighting off viking hordes. Even though the hordes constist of many indiviuals they are considered one opponent for game purpose and the monks don’t get the multiple opponents penalty.

Cheers

Robin

So, you can do two things

Submitted by Kensei on Tue, 02/10/2012 – 04:24.

So, you can do two things:

a) Use a lower resistance if the PCs are figthing against one oponent.

or

b) Use the normal resistance but apply the multiple oponents penalty to the one adversary.

(Vice versa if the PC were only one and he was facing several oponents)

Yes and Yes

Submitted by RoM on Tue, 02/10/2012 – 04:59.

When you have a contest with multiple opponents, ask yourself if it is more dramatic / more fun for the players to use the penalty. If so, go for it. This could be the case when the number of opponents changes rapidly over the course of the scene. For example a character wants to escape a dungeon but more and more giant rats are attacking him. Will he reach the open before the rats can overwhelm him? Or a character already fights against a group of angry peasants. He has to reduce their number one by one to survive.

If the multiple opponents rule does not push your storyline forward it might simply be an unnecessary burden for the narrator. If so, drop it. Instead use the same resistance for all opponents. This could be the case with the NPCs fighting the boss villain of your series, where everybody fights until the end. Or when they are fighting a horde of monsters where it doesn’t really matter whether there are six or seven individuals in it.

Basically the question is, which rules supports your storyline better?

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