Re: [BNW] Fwd: BNW review at RPGnet

[whytcrow@io.com]

>http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/reviews/rev_3475.html
>
>I was asked to forward this (and found it interesting reading 
>myself) by former mailing list member Munch Wolf.

Interesting--no doubt about it.  I certainly don't agree with the 
majority of it.

Unfortunately, some of his quibbles hit dead on--the whole metaplot 
secret thing kind of bugs me too.  I don't mind a metaplot, per se, 
but when there are major background points that one either needs to 
know or needs to make up on their own (and then be contradicted in 
another book), then that's kind of irksome.

Giving GMs an ongoing timeline is one thing.  Saying I won't tell you 
stuff that might actualy be important to running the game is another. 
Some games don't deal with background much.  Others do, and thus need 
that info spelled out.

That having been said, I don't think that putting out supplements 
with new info is a bad thing.  After all, that's why they are 
supplements...how many people actually play games and don't buy the 
supplements (even just a portion) for it?  And I've seen people say 
they don't buy games until is has sups...

However, that said, I have enough to run on and I don't care about 
future inconsistencies.  ;)  But that may just be b/c Matt's a damn 
good writer, and a good writer can get away with a hell of a lot...

And his criticisms of the rules weren't right at all--there was a 
couple of mistakes in his summary, although those could be just 
typos.  I think he's unduly harsh on the system--I like it, and from 
someone who thinks Fudge is the pinnacle of game design, that's 
saying something.  I am not even making plans to convert to a Fudge 
system.   But then the review author obviously doesn't like 
rules-light systems.

The best part of the review is reading some of the comments in the 
forum, however.  I love the one person who said they don't like BNW 
b/c Matt kills off Jackie and how no one should use anyone's death as 
a turning point in alternate history design (He didn't complain about 
Hilter though...).  He likened it to Demi Moore being raped by an 
Alpha.  Some people just arne't cut out for playing rpgs where char 
and NPC death is possilble...

Jennifer

The White Crow
FUDGE Deryni and Brave New World stuff:
http://www.io.com/~whytcrow/
"I'm telling you right now -- if you come out here and euthanize me, 
I'm going to be *very* pissed."
(Your random gaming quote of the day)