RE: Star Grunt 2 : When it finally comes together.

On Mon, 26 May 1997, Alex Williams wrote:

> And why not?	That's what we do for RPGing, running Troupe-style;

This may come as news to you, but lack of GMs is a real problem in RPG 
circles. Most people just want to play.
 
> "You know what Charlie plays with,

"How? I've never met the guy."

Truth to tell, I'm not 100% sure how many and what kinds of figure *I* 
own. Comes from having a few thousand of 'em, I guess. Even if I don't 
count epic infantry separately...

> You act as if this is a situation some of us in the gaming community
> haven't been dealing with for twenty years, now.

Note: SOME of you. Not ALL. There are circumstances when it works.
But there are also circumstances when it doesn't.

Pick a board wargame off your shelf. Any one of them. Does it require a 
referee to play? I guess not. Are there ready, play-tested scenarios
(with 
the counters required to play) included? My guess it's actually written 
around a scenario, and you get to buy a new game if you want to play 
something else.

> Er, no, its a relative judgement of force composition and how likely
> they are to bring X firepower to bring on Y.	

It's a fuzzy point system. You're counting "likely firepower".
You're counting men. You're counting companies. Or whatever. The fact
is, 
you're counting. "Bring anything you want, the scenario won't change" is
the 
only real non-point system.

> Given your second sentence, you shoot your own requirement for a
> static point system right in the gool old big toe.  Bravo, well-done.

You baffle me. You obviously failed to read past the comma. 

> I'm going to disagree strongly with your last point, however.  I find
> that most casual players can tell within just a few games whether a
> given force on force will be fun to play, whether they win or lose.
> Note that 'fun to play' is my and my group's measure of success.

Well, I must disagree. Within just a few games they *might* be able to
estimate forces and scenarios similar to the ones they've played. If
you've only played pure infantry engagements, how can you tell how an
AFV
will impact the play? Wildly varying troop types and esoteric abilities
are very hard to judge. 

Unless your "few" is 100-1000 games.

Ok, I give up. I've made my point before and I've no energy to repeat it

over and over again. I just must say I really can't understand all the 
anti-point sentiments, given that:

a) You're not required to use the system even if it is there.
b) Even if you use it, you're not required to use equal point scores. 
This minor detail is somehow instantly lost to anti-point fanatics
the minute any discussion on the subject starts.
c) Points system does not replace common sense. Or if it does, you never

had any to begin with.

-- 
maxxon@swob.dna.fi (Mikko Kurki-Suonio) 	  | A pig who doesn't
fly
+358 50 5596411 GSM +358 9 80926 78/FAX 81/Voice  | is just an ordinary
pig.
Maininkitie 8A8 02320 ESPOO FINLAND | Hate me?	  |	     - Porco
Rosso
http://www.swob.dna.fi/~maxxon/     | hateme.html |