Re: [BNW] Strength vs. Speed

[Theo McGuckin <tsm@jlab.org>]

> >So why one and not the other? You could argue that speed effects a lot of
> >skills, but so does str. and str. effects even more things (lifting,
> >jumping, etc.)
> >What's the deal?
> >
> 
> Well, just IMO, but for the Speedster, it isn't appropriate for him to have 
> a +5 bonus to all the Speed-related skills.  Why should the Speedster get a 
> +5 to Stealth?  Or Sailboating? Or Pilot?  Ditto for the Bouncer.
> It _is_ appropriate (mostly because of the small base of skills) that the 
> Goliath get a +5 strength to all such Skills.

Yeah I mailed Matt and got the same response. It seems reasonable enough,
although I still question why the Goliath is such a master at Running or
ALL sports... 
As far as those skills go (for speed) couldn't it be argued that the
Speedsters/Bouncers increased reflexes give him an advantage in all
reaction based skills (his a better pilot cause he can react faster to
shifts in the planes flight, he can shoot better because he can make last
minute corrections to his shot as the person tries to dodge, etc...)
The arguement for not global +5 to speed makes sense, I'm just playing
devil's advocate.

> I'm not sure if that results in an exact balance between Speedster and 
> Goliath, but one gets the impression the packages aren't absolutely 
> "balanced" anyway, even if you could come up with a single objective 
> guideline by which to measure packages.

Yeah, you (er.. I) gotta keep in mind the Goliath's major drawbacks and
the fact that the speedster/bouncer is going to be getting 3 or 4 actions
on average as opposed to most other delta's/reg's 1 or 2.

This kind of leads into another question. Should the kits be balanced
necessarily? One sorta complaint that I've had with some games (say D&D)
is the insistance that all the classes be "equal" which results in
pitifully weak mages that become super powerful later on. 
So should the packages be balanced? Or should we depend on players to pick
the package they want, not the one that is most powerful.
Incidently, I personally think that the packages are very well balanced
overall, this is more of a hypothetical.

-Theo McCracken, whose thoughts and ideas are solely his own and do not, 
in any way, reflect those of Jefferson Lab or its staff. Unless of
course there is any money to made off those ideas, in which case the lab
says: "Gimme, gimme, gimme!"