Keith, he replyeth au moi:
> << An ideal mechanical solution, IMO, would be an augmentation mechanic
> that gives 'diminishing returns' rather than 'escalating returns'.
> That would be a pretty major thing to do, though, and I don't have
> a rule I'm 100% happy with even for my own purposes, so never mind...
> >>
>
> I find it a bit odd that some minor ability could increase your superwibble
> ability by as much as it increases some other minor ability. I have a
> relatively straightforward idea which I admit not using yet as my players are
> still all fairly low level.
I agree, and I think this is indeed the fundamental flaw that's at the root of most of the instances that have been batted around, both now and in the past. It's the old chestnut of "why would I want Extraordinary Community Support from my entire clan, when I'd be better off getting a few dozen to give me a +1 augment, each?".
> The basic idea is to add the ability, or perhaps target number, being
> augmented to the resistance of the augment. This pretty much kills augments
> except where the augmenting ability is much better than the one that it is
> augmenting. It might be easier to calculate if you reduced your augmenting
> ability by the ability that you are augmenting.
I think the basic idea has much merit, but the suggested mechanic is waaay overkill. (In such cases, after all, why wouldn't you simply be using the "much better" ability directly?) Sounds like it'd kill the idea of augmentation entirely. (Mr. Saw-bones the rules surgeon reports that the operation was a complete success, though admittedly the patient died.)
An ideal mechanic would be one that gave a decent bonus where augmented and augmenting abilities were comparable, and a lesser one where they differ markedly, but _without simply making them less effective across the board_.
What about something like this:
resistance = augmented ability + 5*bonus wanted - 20
(minimum of 14, as per usual).
Or some other Kludge Konstant, if 20 is too high/low. This makes them more useful at low levels, and less (than at present) at high levels. (i.e., no W12 net TNs.) Arguably a fraction of the current ability level would retain more of the flavour of the current rule, but it'd also make it more arithmetically nuisancesome.
e.g., I want to enhance my 5W CC by +3; resistance is 5W+15-W, to wit 20. _at_whee. I want to enhance my Bag of Wind (as per my yahoo alias...) 10W3 by +3; resistance is 5W3.
(Yes, this is totally unplaytested, which isn't to say it might not be in the future. (As it happens, in the two-and-a-bit games I've run augmentation of any sort has been vanishingly rare, for reasons I won't bore you with here.) I think I can anticipate the possible flaws/ objections, though: arithmetic, and 'non-escalation' of magical effect...)
Powered by hypermail