Re: [HoE] Junkman Cometh

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

> >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?
>

Well, maybe it's just me, but is that kind of MacGyver-ish improviser what 
the Junker is intended to be?  That wasn't the impression I got from going 
through the Junker book.  Although maybe I was too busying reading the "new" 
Huckster rules...  ;)

The whole gadget-building thing is a problem we've noted since Mad 
Scientists and Deadlands.  Building a gadget in the middle of is, as far as 
we could tell, a really bad thing.  The Junker rules, although using a 
different system, seem to fall into the same thing.

If I were going to use them (we don't currently have any Junkers in the 
group, although one person is making noises...), I'd limit them to before- 
and after-game type activities, having them work out the math and bringing 
it to me only when they're ready to make the roll(s).

It would have been nice if the Junker book _had_ provided for such 
improvisation, but that's not really the direction I got the impression 
Pinnacle wanted to take it in.

>	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

Actually, I didn't think the car rules were that complex (no fractions).  
They're certainly simpler than the Junker 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.

I'd agree not to let the party wait - we've tried it and watching paint dry 
is more fun.  But I'd go with my suggestion for the above as far as pre-game 
stuff, and maybe someone will write up an Improvisation-type article for 
Pinnacle's library or some such...

Besides, MacGyver wasn't a Junker (we hope!) and he could do all this stuff. 
  It certainly seems Tinkerin' related (with some appropriate Science stuff 
tossed in), but I'm not sure I'd even require that the Junker background be 
necessary to do this kin of stuff.

---

Steve Crow

"Worm Can Opener Extraordinare"

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


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