Re: [DL] Need a mysterious past

[Olympiad1@aol.com]

In a message dated 4/8/00 5:39:55 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
darious@darious.com writes:

<<  I use a tarot deck for mysterious past pulls, and for this character
 he came up 3 Coins - reversed (he drew the black joker, so the pull is
 always reversed).  Get this - the definition for the deck on 3
 Coins-Reversed is:  Lack of Skill, Unsafe Business, Sloppiness, Mediocrity,
 Money Problems.
 
 <some stuff snipped here>
 
   My problem is that the easiest route - that his training/blood/ability is
 flawed somehow and all of his hexslinging is penalized is just too harsh
 and I don't want to hammer down his primary ability - it's not like he took
 Veteran of the Weird West - this was a random draw. >>

  The obvious answer is not hammering his primary ability but his secondary 
one -  instead of giving him +2 to gambling roll, give him -2 or higher....if 
he's already used his gambling roll without penalty, that is all right - just 
start applying it when ever stakes really get high.  His skill as a gambler 
is vastly over-rated by himself and when the stress levels rising and the 
ante is considerable, his "lack of skill/ mediocrity" tend to give him a 
definite tell that other professional gamblers take advantage of.  After all 
gambling is generally an "unsafe business" and definitely leads to "money 
problems."

Scott "doesn't post nearly enough" Mickelson