HeroQuest, keeping the dice roll suspense.

[creativehum]

Thank you so much for the reply.

I'm aware what I'm discussing is similar to a Group Simple Contest. But in the example above I'm 

1. Not using totaling efforts by the group (which you discuss above)
2. Not using or totaling Resolution Points. At all.

Instead, the focus of the Players is on the results of the rolls and the effort to gain modifiers through victory, assists, and situational modifiers... all of which focus on the concrete details of the world and the actions of the PCs. 

I'm not saying that's a problem. But I'm looking at the rules to see how they might be stretched to use HeroQuest's very quick and flexible system to produce results that are less-abstracted and feel more like traditional play: The Players state intentions and actions. We resolved. We move on to the next beats of action from the results of the just resolved action. Bonuses and Penalties are applied to the next actions as appropriate. 

In the example above, a Mage might want to fireball the Lone Star guards since their silent operation has gone loud. If she succeeds the gang gets lingering benefits and the penalty the Street Samurai is carrying is removed because he's no longer pinned down by the guards. We're staying focused on the moment-to-moment details in the fiction, and pushing forward from them.

Notice, however, I'm not talking about a blow-by-blow resolution. Broad agendas and grouped actions ("He jumps at you with a fury of blows!" "I'm going to get the control of the trigger on his bomb vest!") is still very much part of what I want to keep from the overall HeroQuest rules. 

And in humility: What I just described might be exactly how a Group Simple Contest is supposed to play out. But the moment (per the rules) where everyone rolls first, gets a total, and then the Referee starts describing what happened... I begin to feel abstracted from those specifics. I'm not saying it's bad. I'm simply looking to tweak the system closer to what I'm looking for.

Edited February 15, 2017 by creativehum

[jajagappa]

19 hours ago, creativehum said:

What I just described might be exactly how a Group Simple Contest is supposed to play out. But the moment (per the rules) where everyone rolls first, gets a total, and then the Referee starts describing what happened.

I think either approach is workable.  The main reason for the "everyone rolls first" and then having the referee summarize the result is so that you don't reach the point where the last 3 players rolls don't matter because they cannot effect the outcome (e.g. players 2 and 3 fumbled their rolls).  But in some situations, such as what you describe, that may be exactly how you want it played out because the actions are effectively sequential not simultaneous.

Because I run PbF games, I encounter some of this just because players rolls do not occur simultaneously, but when they post (which may be quite spread out).  I then have a choice as to whether I will wait on my GM rolls until all players are done, or go ahead and make my rolls as each player finishes.  And it depends on the narrative context.