Re: Starting from the ground up

On 28-Oct-99 at 09:31, Charles N. Choukalos (chuckc@btv.ibm.com) wrote:
> Hey,
> 
> I mean really who cares about balance... your players are hero's...
allow 
> smaller fighter groups ( if players are in them )... just bend the
rules 
> a bit... make up some hokey explinations.  Throw in karam or luck
points 
> and allow them to do some ludicrous stuff.... and fudge it on the fly.
 
> Its more fun that way.

I'm going to have to disagree with many of you.  As GM it is
occasionally
OK to fudge the rolls, but it should occur rarely.  If player 
characters go into combat every once in a while one should die.  How can
you feel heroic when you know you are going to win?  Again, as GM, in
a game where combat is involved if you don't occasionally hear "Oh sh*t,
we are all going to die" by someone who believes it then you are failing
in your job.

While you can accomplish this with fudging dice (and I have fudged my
share) the PC's catch on rather quickly.  At this point the feeling
goes from "I live or die by my luck, roleplaying, and intelligence"
to "I live and die at the GM's whim."

I get the feeling that much of this feeling of the rules don't matter
come from playing WW games where the rules are just one butt cheek
because they didn't want to put the effort into finishing them.  I don't
run that way, I _may_ fudge one or two die rolls a game.  That is why
I would like a decent space combat mechanic for an up and coming
Traveller
game (GURPS variety).  Probably FT crossed with the old FASA ST
rules modified to fit GURPS.  I want FT kills to be mission kills in
Traveller so the PC's can survive.  I want little ships to behave like
cruisers do now.

I don't want "spend a character point, OK, you get a lucky shot and
the destroyer you are shooting at from your scout blows up, your
all clear now."

Roger