> Speaking as a player, I'm fairly glad that complete
> defeats are very
> uncommon. They tend to imply massive transformation
> of the character.
> I'm a builder, I'm thinking of where I want my
> character to be two
> masteries from now if it ever gets played that long.
> So massive
> transformations tend to be rather disruptive to all
> of that.
Yes, good point. This may be yet another F2F/PBeM difference to add to the list, of course: speed of game play means we'd like those transformations to occur rather more often.
> However I agree that the -10% can seem pretty minor.
> Until you face a recurring series of contests.
And this is why I like chained-simple so much. It makes them meaningful.
> However I think the penalties can have a much bigger
> impact if they are descriptive as well as numerical.
Very much so!
> So instead of '10% on your
> physical skills" it is "Left eye swollen shut, -10%
> on relevent skills."
And either seem to me to be easier to visualise than "lose 50AP and feel really unhappy about the situation"
> I guess I'm arguing that when you try to work around
> penalties, they
> are minor. But if you try to ignore them, they
> should have more
> impact. So that they should have a story
> impact--what really
> matters--as much as they do a numeric impact
Yes, that -1 can make all the difference, and it becomes the stuff of story, maybe even of legend, if you know exactly what it is. We aren't going to forget the vampire whose downfall was due to his underling trying to bite his ankle.
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