Re: "Steve Jackson's greatest mistakes",

[raito@raito.com]

Rick wrote:
> Subject: "More of Steve Jackson’s greatest mistakes", and
> Subject: "Who Is this Steve Jackson person anyway?”
>
>
> Hi Jeffrey,
>   Here are two examples...
>
> ItL page 16 Steve Jackson wrote (on forgetting studies):
>
> "… they may do so, but there is a penalty: loss of half the
> experience points he/she has at the moment or 1,000
> experience points, which ever is higher.”
>
> Expert players RARELY take the wrong studies, so this rule
> just brutally punishes new players.  I’m a newbie who has
> written up a new character and have taken a bunch of dumb
> studies (UC 1 thru 3), and then I figure out I really should
> have taken Missile Weapons instead.  I lose 1,000 exp???
> That mistake cost me over 6 attributes for my new character!!!
>
> What was SJ thinking???  (Is there a GM anywhere that
> actually enforced this?)

I have, but not in the manner I think you're describing. You 'buy'
attributes with XP. So you're current XP is always less than the amount
needed for the next attribute. And you can't go below 0 XP. At least, that
the way I read it. So if you're a higher level character, you can start
changing what you know from what you needed as a low level character to
what you need as a higher-level character with less overall loss. Not so
for beginning characters.

> Under current rules, gunpowder weapons have no minimum ST,
> if you have Gun’s talent Arqubuses get +4 DX to use (page 24 AM),
> are very long range (400 meters!?!, see page 24 AM), and
> Arqubuses do 3d+3 damage.  So this character is legal…
>
> Goblin:
> ST 4, DX 15, IQ 9, Talents Guns (2), Knife (1), Missile Weapons (3)
> Equipment: Arquebus 3d+3, Knife 1d-1.
>
> 15 DX, +4 for using an Arquebus, +3 for Mis. Weapons gives this
> goblin a 22 adjusted DX!!!
>
> Using the long range missile fire rules (AM page 25), it could shoot
> someone at 250 meters at -8 DX (hits on a 14 or less), and if the
> goblin misses, it will have time to reload that gun before the enemy
> can close with him.  If it starts shooting at 400 meters, the goblin
> can aim for 2 turns, and still gets 3 shots.
>
> What was SJ thinking???

He was thinking that each shot only has a 1 in 6 chance of actually
firing, and that there's no other weapon that requires money to fire. Or
that you don't expose yourself to a guy with guns.

Neil Gilmore
raito@raito.com