Re: [BNW] Meta-Plot vs Static world

["Malcolm Knight" <malcolm.knight@cableinet.co.uk>]

From: Steve Crow <crow_steve@hotmail.com>

> >came up on the Deadlands list serve.  A curious
> >Marshal asked if Soul Blast affects dynamite.  Several
> >other Marshal's were able to respond with the SAME
> >answer and were supported by PEG staff.  It was clear
> >cut.  The universe works this way, ergo the same
> >conclusion could be met.  If a question arose during a
> >BNW game that a Guide could not answer, the game would
> >have to be put on hold until Matt could answer.
>
> We have had plenty of questions in Deadlands and HoE that "a Guide could
not
> answer" and there are in fact _still_ gaps that keep us from running
various
> stuff "officially."

    Out of interest, did they answer the question "My crazy PC's can make a
starting character who owns enough Dynamite to utterly annihilate a state,
why didn't anyone spot this when designing the game? No, I don't know why
they would want to own that much dynamite, or were they would store it, they
haven't choose to divulge that information yet."

> The only example I've seen (not yours) is concerning the "origin" of Delta
> powers.  I think "g.m." covered this adequately elsewhere.  Why are your
> (presumably) Defiance PCs even asking this?  And how are they,
in-character,
> setting out to get this information.

    As I see it, the reason people what this information is so that when
they come to make calls on how power effects are determined under unusual
circumstances they can say, "All Delta powers come from cosmic radiation,
since gadgetters gain their powers through cosmic radiation enhanced mental
capabilities there inventions are not affected by null fields, but they
can't
turn spoons into lockpicks whilst within a null field, so the Fortress is an
effective holding place for them, whilst regular prison is not." The point
is, they can build logical conclusions which will probably be born out by
future products. If they make it up off the top of their head, with no basis
from the book (near death experience is more a symptom than a cause, even
though the experience happens _before_ you get the powers), they have a
greatly increased chance of totally contradicting all new material. Forever.
This creates a lot more work to do, and gives you little incentive to buy a
new book if you can only nick a few ideas from it until you run a new game
from scratch (and if it a long running campaign people will have a hard time
adjusting to the new conditions).

> The "mystery" in this case, IMO, is rougly comparable to that concerning
the
> origins of Ghost Rock in the first year of Deadlands.  Nobody knew for
sure,
> nobody had a way to find out, and folks (particular Mad Scientists) kept
> using it anyway...

    But the mad scientists wanted to know, didn't they? As far as I recall,
Ghost Rock was just a power source for mad scientists and any other PC in
Dead Lands anyway, so probably no one ever had to make a ruling on it that
couldn't be answered by the ghost rock sections of the main rule book.

> >Now to rant a bit, this is all a moot point.  People
> >who feel no more information than presently exists
> >will not change their minds, nor will people who feel
> >that something is lacking.  For those who feel the
>
> True enough.  The problem seems to be, however, that the former don't
> understand _why_ the latter need this information that the latter feel are
> lacking.  As best I can tell, these GMs apparently have players who
> absolutely _have_ to know everything (even if their characters don't).
And
> that the lack of such explanations, up to a year after the game has been
> released, is therefore "something is lacking."

    Not the players _have_ to know, but that they can see whooping huge
holes in things when they're playing the game. It's like watching a film
where something happens with no possible reason anyone can think of and
which wouldn't work yet changes the entire outcome of the film, but the main
characters of the film aren't in those scenes so it doesn't matter. There
must be a relevant observer for any cause and effect to be in play. Yeah,
right. People don't like that in films and they don't play games stuck
totally in the mindset of their character.
    Someone mentioned they explained to their PCs not to chase that
particular rainbow because it had no end, and people criticised the players
for using out of character knowledge. My impression of the situation was
that they thought they'd stumbled onto a mystery (you know, like they do in
films), and they were going to investigate that mystery (again, like they do
in films, rather that letting trained professionals deal with it). All the
GM did was cut to the case and say "It's not The Cigarette Smoking Man who's
stone walling your investigation, it's the fact that there isn't an answer
yet. Do not waste your time."

    Malcolm.