From: cbj005@cck.coventry.ac.uk (The Mistress)
Subject: Re: WereVamp->Ars?
Organization: Coventry Poly/Uni(Take your pick)
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 14:26:09 GMT

In article <27ap0m-@lynx.unm.edu> kbos@carina.unm.edu (Kurt "Some Guy" Bose) writes:
>In article <1992Oct1.154121@cs.man.ac.uk> peterw@cs.man.ac.uk (Peter Wake) writes:
>>
>>Storyteller is a big leap backwards (IMHO):
>>1)  Shoddy points based character generation, a sort of points bandwagon
>>    thing rather than a proper character generation method.  It encourages
>>    min-maxing and rule play.
>a
>Just what, exactly, is a "proper" character generation method?  3D6?  Vampire
>_discourages_ min-maxing!  You can't advance quickly in Disciplines, Stats are
>very limited at the outset, as are Skills; the Merits/Flaws system is infinitely
>better than the "one legged-enemy laden-dependent strewn" characters of say, 
>Champions.

I have actually seen people design their characters so that  they  become
mean  lean  killing  machines.  Some  of  the  more 'interesting' vampire
attributes which mask your movement etc  etc  can  be  used  to  enchance
killing  performance.  One character I saw was a hitman using his vampire
abilities to make his job a  lot  easier.  Although  I  must  agree  that
interesting  characters  are generated more often than not and min/maxing
should be discouraged.

>>2)  Rules are so quirky as to encourage rule-lawyer type behaviour and
>>    rule-play.
>
>Rules are simple and straightforward.  There is no "rules lawyering", because
>you tell a story.  Of course, players who come to see rules as a crutch often
>lack the creativity to pull away from them.  I find this most often with 
>systems that are bound by shoddy, picky, useless rules like...Champions.

>>3)  Very little guide lines for difficulty levels means that referee might
>>    as well just assign percentages and throw the system away.

That  is for the Story Teller to decide, a good StoryTeller will draw out
a balanced guideline system for himself(or herself *:-) and use that.

>>4)  Combat system does not work.
>>5)  Damage system does not work.

Th combat system is one of the best I've seen, it  kills  people,  unlike
some  systems  that  give out minor wounds from heavy  weapons  etc  etc.
The system is quick and deadly and should really discourage any character
from entering a firefight with an opponent who knows what they are doing.

>>8)  The rules are sloppily written and dreadfully organised.  I have never
>>    come across any rules that were so tedious to wade through (except
>>    maybe C&S and that's all tables).

Thr rules are nicely set out  but  lack  some  kind  of  grouping,  rules
shouldn't really come into the game unless you are doing something really
complicated indeed..

>>9)  The vampiric powers are described like something from AD&D - the
>>    referee has to do so much work that he'd be better off re-writing
>>    the whole system from scratch.

Okay Okay, vampires are good but there are  several  thousand (million? )
vampires  out there as well looking for the same thing as yourself, kinda
evens things up doesn't it?

>>Plus vampires are solitary hunters with good reasons to kill each other,
>>how odd that they form into little groups of friends.  It's harder to
>>provide justification for a vampire party to stay together than for
>>virtually any other background.

United we stand....divided we fall

What more can I say?

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