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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Ereskanti@***.com Ereskanti@***.com
Subject: Encephalon and M&M Advice for Everyone
Date: Wed, 24 Nov 1999 17:34:16 EST
In a message dated 11/24/1999 3:52:44 PM US Eastern Standard Time,
SHODAN+@***.EDU writes:

>
> Does this mean you get to add to the Computer skill while not
> decking? Where is that stated?

Yes Mark it does...

Now for the advice part.

Folks, don't try and read too much or too far into the details. If the
sentence is a sentence, don't automatically try and create "run-ons" in your
mind and connect the meaning of once sentence with the one that follows it or
precedes it. Connect them if you want to, but remember, they were seperated
for a reason. And often times, taking a moment just to consider the *whole
implant* instead of each rule individually, is a good idea and it will let
you absorb the material better.

-K
"Bastard GM" (as dubbed by Doc' ;-)
[Hoosier Hacker House]
[http://members.aol.com/hhackerh/index.html]
ICQ#-51511837
Message no. 2
From: Mark A Shieh SHODAN+@***.EDU
Subject: Encephalon and M&M Advice for Everyone
Date: Sun, 28 Nov 1999 23:33:32 -0500 (EST)
Ereskanti@***.com writes:
> In a message dated 11/24/1999 3:52:44 PM US Eastern Standard Time,
> SHODAN+@***.EDU writes:
> > Does this mean you get to add to the Computer skill while not
> > decking? Where is that stated?
>
> Yes Mark it does...
>
> Now for the advice part.
>
> Folks, don't try and read too much or too far into the details. If the
> sentence is a sentence, don't automatically try and create "run-ons" in
your
> mind and connect the meaning of once sentence with the one that
> follows it or
> precedes it. Connect them if you want to, but remember, they were seperated
> for a reason. And often times, taking a moment just to consider the *whole
> implant* instead of each rule individually, is a good idea and it will let
> you absorb the material better.

I agree, but there's a flip side. Most of the time, the
intent of the rules is somewhat clear. However, if a piece of
equipment is rules lawyerable, I want to do it now, where errata can
be sent to FASA, rather than during play, where it's GM call. I don't
want to create a character, hand it to the GM (or vice versa), and
then discover that rules are being interpreted differently. I want
the spirit of the rule and the letter of the rule to say the same
thing. Making an arbitrary decision on what the spirit of the rule
means is something that is no fun in the middle of a gaming session,
but it's happened more than once (Games Workshop is notorious for
lousy word choices, but FASA has made some as well.)

An example from Shadowtech, which may have been errataed away
since we had this discussion:

Muscle Augmentation: +1 Quickness, +1 Strength/level

Is Muscle Augmentation 4:

A) +4 Quickness, +4 Strength
B) +1 Quickness, +4 Strength

You'd figure A from reading Muscle Replacement and drawing
parallels, and would guess that they (FASA) meant A, but the text in
Shadowtech clearly states B to our gaming group. (We play A, FWIW,
but had a discussion after a player made a very strong case for B. He
figured that was what made Muscle Replacement better than Muscle
Augmentation, and even B isn't exactly underpowered.)

Mark

Further Reading

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Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.

Thwap!