> One measely little table that my cat could memorize in 5 minutes is hardly
> Rollmeisteresque
Well, the handout actually has four tables, and I'm not very fond of the measles at the best of times. However, what's reminiscent about the R-game is not the size or the number of the tables, but the _gratuitousness_ of them. The fact that HW is otherwise a clean and simple game makes that failing all the more conspicuous and annoying to my mind, rather than excusing it.
I think it's fair to say that everyone in the HW playtest game I participated in did some head-scratching at those tables, GM included. Several other people at Convulsion commented unfavourably on it, too. Now, maybe this just proves that we're not the intellectual powerhouses that Eric and his cat are, but that still doesn't make it a great selling point to us, the unwashed masses.
> and if that's your definition of the height of perversity, you
> need to get out more.
I'll charitably assume this is merely ineffective humour, rather than an attempt to Invoke Flame.
> > Seems to me that one could get _essentially_ the same effect with no
> > matrix. <snip>
> But isn't a matrix a concise, clear way of doing this?
Nope. A matrix is a device one resorts to when one can't present a rule coherently and consistently in terms of the individual values crossreferenced on it. (Or as a play aid in _addition_ to doing so.)
> > have the table, for the sake of clarify, but make it systematic
> > enough to be recreated once the underlying principles are understood,
> > you don't actually need it.
> You mean like the HW extended contest table.
I mean exactly unlike the HW extended contest table. If you disagree, could you please state what said underlying principles are, in a way that doesn't consist of effectively repeating it in its entirity?
> I just don't understand this fear of tables. Even RQ has its Resistance
> Table (for the mathematically impaired).
That's Hate (Tables), with a Directed Passion at about +10 for Completely Logically Unnecessary ones. As you point out, the RQ resistance chart is just an aid, not the definitive statement of the rule. If the same was true of the HW table (and you'll recall I outlined a way to achieve that effect), all would be rosey in the garden.
To help keep this in perspective, I think the table is just a wart, not a malignant melanoma. Indeed, if it were published as is I might not even trouble myself to actually change it, though I'd take pains to explain it in different terms than is done at the moment.
Slainte,
Alex.
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