>Why not go the whole hog and make Vampirism less of an
>all-or-nothing thing and less irreversible?
While I understand this is just rhetorical, I think its worth pointing out that its because the whole point of vampires is that you become dead in the process - and death is all-or-nothing, and irreversible, which seems pretty clearly the issue.
> > >IMO the classical illuminate abilities are obtainable from the
>> >illumination 'strike' rather than from any counter.
>
>> I don't think so - I think most of them must be taught, or
>>are acquired by particular methods of teaching.
>
>Which is not how it was.
Actually, it is how it was, or at least could be, not in RQ2 but in RQ3.
> These things should be learned
>through the riddles and the illumination, not through ex post
>facto trauma counselling.
I think the essential 'Secret Knowledge' can only be passed on directly, but aspects of how to use that knowledge (ie how to recognise other illuminates, how to evade Spirits of Retribution, etc) might only be understood with guidance and/or reflection. Or, alternatively, might be gained at a minimal level and only made useful with guidance and/or reflection.
>I do not believe that the classical illuminate abilities are
>learnable through instruction or through learning more about
>illumination.
Dorastor (still the most recent reference on Illumination, really) says that classical Illuminate abilities can be learnable through instruction.
Now, I realise that thinking has moved on a lot since then, but not so that its actually arrived at any coherent statement saying otherwise. And it seems reasonable to me.
> I don't see
>why we should somehow excuse the actions of ShangHsa or
>Sheng Seleris while we don't blink an eyelid at the concept
>of an irreversible chaos taint or the thought of Thed being
>evil.
I don't see how 'inexcusable' translates to 'must be modelled by a rigid binary game mechanic'.
> >Also depends on how much
>>you think Patanjali is one and only version of mysticism, too, I
>>guess.
>
>Even Buddhists have demons so it's hardly a Patanjali thing.
Buddhists have demons that are converted to buddhism and become non-demons as well. And demons that
The question to me is 'do we think we can best model a relatively sophisticated moral and spiritual question as a simple game mechanical yes or no status?'. Its a bit like having a rigid game mechanic for heresy.
And HW is a gaming system capable of a great deal of subtlety for this sort of question. Why not use it?
Cheers David
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