[projectaon] Re: Outstanding Errata Sprint (Week 6)
- From: David Davis <feline1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <projectaon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2011 09:49:04 +0100
Argh! Since it was me banging on about this issue in the first place,
I'm concerned I've now opened a can of worms and they're slithering all
over the place!
> It seems odd that the Grand Master Discipline of Grand Weaponmastery
> with Bow only allows you to add 3 to numbers picked from the Random
> Number Table when using a Bow.
Yes, I did think that seem odd initially. I naturally expected the RNT
bonus to be +5
(to match the CS bonus, and to keep par with Weaponmastery at Mentora
level).
However I also naturallly expected Deliverance to be +1EP per section as
well
as +20EP when dying in comabat..... and I was wrong on that.
So at that point I would've just knuckled down and accepted Grand
Weaponmastery only gives +3 on the RNT,
were it not for the half a dozen or so numbered sections in early GM
books where it says +5 or +4 in the text ...
that further made me suspect that the +3 in Game Rules was a
cut-and-paste error
(cf. the other persistent cut-and-paste error for Deliverence, where it
says "if your
COMBAT SKILL is reduced to 8 points or less")
In summary, it was *only* these numbered sections seemingly contradicting
the Game Rules, I feel,
that made me press for this as a possible errata.
> It therefore seems
> strange that Grand Weaponmastery has a lower bonus than Weaponmastery.
It seemed strange to me when I first played the Grand Master books,
because I was
used to bonuses always getting better. But on reading the new GM rules
carefully, together with Newsletters,
it's clearly a deliberate game play choice by Joe Dever.
> There are a number of reasonable ways to resolve this apparent
inconsistency.
No there's not, there's only one: go by the canonical rules ;)
> the bonus of 5 earned in earlier adventures is just
> another hidden loyalty bonus (cf. Lone Wolf Club Newsletter 28).
Newsletter 28 is explicit and unambiguous and counts as official rules.
End of! /grins/
Hidden loyalty bonuses are a fact (and no longer hidden from us ;)
> Another possibility is that the Grand Weaponmastery bonus of 3 is a
> mistake, an erroneous carryover from the previous books that wasn't
> corrected, that should have been a bonus of 5. ...
>This seems a little unlikely given that the author had ample
> opportunity to correct this mistake. All sixteen books in the Grand
> Master and New Order series which were published over an eight year
> period contain the same bonus of 3. Certain sections of the books in
> the New Order series are even worded as a reminder that the bonus is
> 3. On the other hand, there are numerous sections in the books where
> you are directed to add 4 or 5 (cf. XXXXXX).
My original errata were raised against books 13, 14 and 15, prompted by
those numbered sections.
However we have now rigorously reviewed the entire texts of all GM & NO
books,
grepped through every single one of them, and I really feel the only
reasonable conclusion
is to regard those few numbered sections as ad hoc one-offs (albeit
one-offs which merit a
footnote, as they do appear at variance with the Game Rules). NONE of
them are phrased as
explicit reminders of the rules, and at least half of them have
'extenuating circumstances'
(e.g. your arrow is on magically on fire).
> Yet another possibility is that the author did not mean for the
> Weaponmastery with Bow bonuses to be carried over to the Grand Master
> series at all.
This is just flatly contradicted by what the author said in Newsletter 28!
> As noted earlier, certain sections direct the reader to use different
> bonuses when using a Bow, ranging from 3 to 5, if you have Grand
> Weaponmastery with Bow. Depending on your feelings about the previous
> item, this may be the author adjusting the Grand Weaponmastery bonus
> on a case-by-case basis (and therefore this bonus should be used
> instead of the standard bonus), an error (and therefore all of these
> bonuses should match whatever you decide the Grand Weaponmastery bonus
> should be), or an additional bonus on top of the standard bonuses.
The 3rd suggestion is crazy :) Any other time that happens, it's always
accompanied
by a phrase along the lines of "in addition to any other bonuses you may
be entitled to".
Other related posts:
