[projectaon] Re: Book 13 Erratum
- From: Chris Neilson <crusty.chris@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: projectaon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 14 May 2012 16:28:18 +1200
On Sun, 2012-05-13 at 06:26 -0700, Jonathan Blake wrote:
> It's pretty clear that we're not going to come to a consensus on this
> issue. How about leaving it as "can" and adding something like the
> following footnote.
>
> "It is not clear whether those who have completed previous adventures
> 'may' carry over their COMBAT SKILL and ENDURANCE points or whether
> they 'should' carry them over. For a discussion of the considerations
> why you may or may not decide to do so, see the Readers' Handbook."
>
> Of course this means someone needs to write up a first draft summary
> of this discussion. Any volunteers?
sure. I'll try to be impartial:
--------------------------------
It is not clear whether those who have completed previous adventures
'may' carry over their COMBAT SKILL and ENDURANCE points or whether they
'should' carry them over.
The original text from book 13 and onwards reads:
"If you have successfully completed ... (Books 1-12), you can carry your
current scores of COMBAT SKILL and ENDURANCE points over to Book 13.
These scores may include Lore-circle bonuses."
Compare this with the text from book 6, which reads:
If you have successfully completed ... Books 1-5, you can carry your
current scores of COMBAT SKILL and ENDURANCE points over to Book 6.
While it may seem obvious that player statistics/equipment should
transfer over in the same way as they did between the kai and Magna-kai
series, there are a couple of points to bear in mind.
* In Kai/Magnakai adventures your CS/EP stats are a random number
modified by +10/+20, while in Grandmaster adventures its modified by
+25/+30
* The wording of "can" fairly clearly spells out what to do if you wish
to carry over your stats, however it is vague on the exact details of
what to do if you do not choose to.
* Veteran characters (ie those carried over from previous adventures)
may nor may not have completed all previous adventures, or may have lost
key items in previous adventures (eg its possible to lose the Somerswerd
in one particularly infamous encounter) and hence may be at a
considerable disadvantage (compared to characters starting fresh at book
13+) stats-wise.
* The rules were originally designed for physical books, making it much
harder (at least here in NZ!) to get a copy of (and hence complete)
every adventure. In this modern era with all the books available online,
players are much more likely to have read/completed all the previous
adventures.
* A fully maxed out veteran character, who has collected and retained
all possible stat-boosting items and completed all adventures will have
statistics far exceeding the maximum value of a freshly-rolled character
even though fresh characters get to add more to their initial random
number roll - although, many of these bonuses would be lost should the
character be forced to fight without weapons/items to the point they
would be at a significant disadvantage.
* A veteran character may have permanently lost statistics (eg through
the use of Helshezag) in previous adventures and as a result become
significantly weaker than a fresh character.
* While the Kai Wisdom tells you "for a wise choice [of Grandmaster
Disciplines] will enable any player to complete the quest, no matter how
weak their initial COMBAT SKILL and ENDURANCE scores may be" there are a
number of very difficult combats, particularly in Book 17, only some of
which may be avoided.
* The Magnakai Weaponmastery and Psi-Surge bonuses (if maxed)
effectively allow veteran characters to choose two additional
disciplines.
* The New Order books, while not a continuation of the Lone Wolf
character, also use a modifier of +25/+30 AND provide a magic weapon
(although there has been no investigation into whether or not combats
are relatively more difficult).
That being said, there are a number of common recommendations from the
community for resolving this situation.
1) Carry your stats/bonuses/item* The rules were originally designed for
physical books, making it much harder to get a copy of (and hence
complete) every adventure. In this modern era with all the books
available online, players are much more likely to have read all the
adventures
s over from your previous adventure(s) - ie its not like Im "magically"
going to get more powerful all of a sudden.
2) Discard and re-roll your existing stats but make the modifier
+25/+30, keep all bonuses/weapons/items - ie Im a fresh character but
with the additional benefit of having picked up stuff from previous
adventure(s).
3) Compensate for change in modifier by adding +15/+10 (or was it
+10/-1? TBH Ive never really understood why people chose this option; it
seems confusing to me) to current CS/EP - ie Hey I was told completing
previous adventures would be an advantage ... and this is it!
4) Discard everything (all stats, all weapons, all bonuses, all items
etc) and re-roll a completely new character
Given the lack of any difinitive closure from an official source on the
matter, players are left to make up their own minds how best to resolve
the issue.
~~~~~~
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