Re: [HoE] Junkman Cometh

[Damon Sutton <dmsutton@students.wisc.edu>]

>plasma pistol with a range increment of 20 yards" then things are going to
get
>ugly, especially if there's no math to back it up and I tell him "Oh, he just
>found some prescription glasses and ground them down with a nail file. Didn't
>cost me a thing."

I thought the Marshall tells the players what they scrounge up and then the
players find a use.  If my Junker had a pair of swim goggles, some clear
nail varnish, and a nail file (all of which I'd let them scrounge), and
decided to make a scope, I'd not only let him have the scope, I'd throw a
fate chip in for creativity!


 How can any Marshall keep his players under
>control when the players can just say, "Oh, well, my Law Dog found a portable
>anti-tank laser in the ruins of some army base. It does 5d20 damage and it
>doesn't use junker tech."

	Again, the Marshall TELLS the players what they find and the limits to
which it can be used are much better assigned via thumbnail idea then
complex arithmetic.  


>
>And one other reason... PEG put a lot of time and effort into 90+ pages,
and I
>want to use 'em. Why spend money on a book there's no point in using? Sure, I
>could talk the Marshall into letting me scrounge up a normal scope... but if
>I've got the darned book, why not put it to use?

	Here's where I'm going to say what I been thinking.  I paid money for
Junkman Cometh, but no amount of using it will get the money back, all I
want to use is the practical stuff.  The rule-lawyerish anal-retentive over
detailed junk rules.... are simply too SLOW to be useful!  The guys at
Pinnacle obviously spent MONTHS designing this book, and very little time
play-testing it.  So?  The result is unworkable.  As was pointed out
earlier, it can work if your junker makes his gadgets out of game time, but
where's the fun in that?   

	The complex car creation rules  (see Road Warriors) I could take since a
Road Warrior is his car and he usually only has one (Heck, I let my road
Warrior spend fate chips to negate damage to his car).  But the Junk stuff
should go together in a flash, at least it's more fun to envision it that
way.  A waffle Iron, a Cockamamie theory, a spirit, some voodoo, some
bubblegum, a die roll, and there you go, one handprint copying machine.

	That's fun. not making the party wait while the voodoo requires huge
amounts of arithmetic.  That's not fun.  If it aint fun, I don't care how
expensive the book is or even if it has color pictures, toss it.