Re: Mastery Questions!

From: Roderick and Ellen Robertson <rjremr_at_...>
Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2000 22:27:51 -0700

> All right, that is understood. However, I have one rules-related
question
> that was brought to my attention by a fellow player. In fact, he brought
this
> to my attention only _tonight_, but it seems urgent.
>
> Suppose you have these three characters:
>
> Joe1 Close Combat 17 (17 AP)
> Joe2 Close Combat 2w (22 AP)
> Joe3 Close Combat 17w2 (57 AP)
>
> If Joe1 squares off against Joe3 without any further modifiers, he is most
> likely to roll a Success vs. Joe3's Critical Success.
>
> However, if Joe2 squares off against Joe3, he has a target number of
only
> 2, and will most likely keep rolling Failures vs. Criticals. He has only a
> 10% chance of a Success, even though he has one level of Mastery already.
> This means that a character with NO masteries has a better chance against
a
> guy with 2 Masteries than somebody with 1 Mastery has against the same
> opponent.

If Joe1 fights Joe2, he will likely roll Successes vrs Joe2's Successes, even though Joe2 has a mastery level. The problem is the chance of rolling a success in a 2 vrs 17 contest, not in the number of masteries (and thus bumps). Had we gone with the idea of adding "super criticals" above "Critical", Joe1 vrs Joe3 would be Success vrs Super Critical Success (and against Joe4, Super-Duper Critical Success...). but we decided to stick with "Critical Success" at the top end.

> Now for something even trickier.
> Suppose Alfred has Sword & Shield Fighting 5w3 (that's 65 AP) and fights
> against Bob who has Sword & Shield w3 (60 AP). Does Bob have a target
number
> of 0, a target number of 1, or what?
>
> Or how about this one:
> Al has Sword & Shield 5w3 (65 AP)
> Greg has Sword & Shield w2 (40 AP)

As noted by a previous poster, there are no "naked" masteries. That is why D+ resistances are ,measured in plain numbers (20, 40, 60... instead of +w, +w2, +w3)

> Please, please answer my above questions, or pass them on to somebody who
> will! Some of my players are pain-in-the-ass rules lawyers, and I'm sure
> they'll exploit the above rule quite a bit (if I can't do anything about
it).

How can they "exploit" it? Not bother to pass the mastery barrier?

RR