Re: [BNW] New game for me

["Steve Crow" <crow_steve@hotmail.com>]

>
> > This is the same, IMO, for _any_ meta-plot setting.  Storyteller didn't
> > start out by saying how many Archons are in the U.S., or how many cities
>are
> > Camarilla and how many are Sabbat.  Hell on Earth didn't say how many
> > settlements there are, or how dense the population is settled, or what
> > sections of the Mason-Dixon Wall are still standing and which have
> > collapsed.
>
>no but vampire told you the vampire to human raito, and the differnt 
>vampire
>groups in the first book. and hell on earth implicity tells you the
>population information that you need to know by discription and anlogy.
>

*nods* Yep.  And BNW gives you that basic information as well.  But the 
whole "how many checkpoints" thing is, IMO, closer to the Archon and 
Mason-Dixon wall examples that I gave.

> > As has been the case for years, such "minor" stuff rarely has much
>official
> > impact on other stuff.  That's why it's...well, minor.  You can either
> > provide a logical explanation ("Budget cuts" - nuff said?) for the 
>removal
> > of the guards, or simply make what other minor changes are required.
>
>yeah it not show you get around the change that the problem it that the pcs
>will suddenly experince a paradim change. what worked before wont work now
>and what didnt will. lets say you jrun the senario the otherway around. you
>assume that there are only a few deltas, the book implies this by saying
>that most DPs are regs in powersuits. now a new source bokok comes jout 
>that
>says there are thousands of DPs rouming the streets. your PCs have been

Sure.  But BNW isn't doing that.  You're giving an example of two 
sourcebooks deliberately contradicting each other - a lesser number cited 
earlier vs. a larger number later.  That is _not_ the same thing as saying 
_your_ efforts as a Guide have been contradicted by something that came out 
officially.

Now, if BNW _does_ do that down the road, then that is certainly a problem.  
But I don't think anyone is claiming we're seeing that kind of thing yet.

>running around blasting butt for most of the adventer, defiant head quaters
>is only thinly disguised. etc now with check points on every corner and 
>stop
>and search policy, the definace should crumble and the PCs will be arrested
>in no time at all since they havent taken the precautions of diguise and
>stuff that they would have had this been the case from the start.
>

Again, such a release of material stating that there are "thousands of DPs" 
would contradict material to date.  And that hasn't happened yet.  I think 
it's pretty clear that there are _not_ checkpoints at every corner from the 
first three books and screen-adventure.  Any future statement would be Matt 
contradicting himself, not releasing something official that contradicts a 
Guide's individual campaign efforts.

Alternately, Matt may change the status quo.  And if he doesn't provide 
sufficient justification for that, that's another story.  But we haven't 
seen it yet, IMO.

>even in the origionalyt suggestion that you suddenly fuind out that there
>are only 150 DPs inthe city, where did all the others go? why dont the
>highly covert and well armed (to deal with the large number of DPs) defiant
>organisations kill all the DPs and take over the city? or do they suddenly
>get budget cuts as well?
>

But the Defiance isn't presented as "highly covert and well armed" (well 
some of it is, some of it isn't.  These don't seem to be matters for 
interpretation based on the source material.

*shrug* Again, I think the source material is pretty clear on the levels of 
opposition, how the Defiance is set up, etc.  Does it quote you exact 
numbers?  No.  In a general guide that really isn't the place for it, and 
never has been in any other RPG that I can think of.  Do we have some reason 
to think it will?  Or that the number of DPs stated in, say, the upcoming DP 
Sourcebook will be at odds with the picture presented to date?

*shrug* If I understand the arguement right, the concern seems to be that, 
having presented a general description and leaving exact numbers up to 
individual Guides, Matt is suddenly going to do a 180 and start pumping out 
stuff that is very specific and presents exact numbers, and that such 
numbers may contradict anything that Guides may have come up with 
beforehand.  Never mind that he didn't do this with the Defiance SB (and no 
one has claimed that he has).  Can we at least wait until we see anything 
bearing a remote resemblence to this before we condemn it?

---

Steve Crow

"Worm Can Opener Extraordinare"

Check out my website at:  http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/4991/

______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com