Re: [BNW] Weak Powers

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

>     However, you forget that Matt has based this game on reality. These
>characters are like real GI's except they have some sort of special power. 
>A
>bullet can still kill most of these guys and such. If you want to play a 
>hyper
>cinema version of the game, where every always has the all the basic 
>skills,
>then yes the Translator is pretty much useless. If you want to play it in 
>the
>more realistic context that the game is intended (Yes, it is intended to be 
>more
>realistic than fantastic) then the Translator becomes an invaluable tool
>necessary to survive in enemy territory.
>

How do you come to the conclusion that Matt has "based this game on reality" 
or that the game is more "realistic than fantastic"?  You really think a 
Goliath or Bomber or Charger are more realistic than fantastic?  At best I'd 
say it's 50/50.

"Hyper cinema" has nothing to do with the basic use and handling of 
languages, whether it be in a movie (I never considered Witness "hyper 
cinema" - we're talking the movie With Cher, Dennis Quaid, and Liam Neeson, 
right...?) or a RPG.

I have no desire to have everyone have all the basic skills, but it seems 
odd and unwieldy to deprive the hypothetical multi-national PC group 
mentioned of the basic ability to communicate with each other without having 
to role-play or otherwise act out translation mechanisms.  And if you're not 
going to do that, what's the point of providing the package when that is its 
primary function.

A Translator in the examples provided would either A) slow down game play as 
he plays out translating between PCs, b) be an unnecessary fifth wheel as 
the PCs talk among themselves normally despite language barriers, or C) 
limit the Translator to stuff that only he can do for extended periods of 
time where the other characters sit around and watch him do it.  These may 
be "realistic", but IMO if a game mechanism simulates a "realistic" 
real-life facet at the cost of hurting game play, then skip it.

---

Steve Crow

"Logic merely enables one to be wrong with authority."

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

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