



Target





Group: Members

Posts: 30

Joined: 17-March 05

From: Who ordered the pizza?

Member No.: 7,184



TargetGroup: MembersPosts: 30Joined: 17-March 05From: Who ordered the pizza?Member No.: 7,184









On the face, they sound like a good idea, right? Seems reasonable that a piece of equipment could benefit from matrix connectivity. After all, how useful is my iphone without a network connection? Well, it'll still play Angry Birds, but I can't check stocks or weather.



The devil is in the details.



I am a rules lawyer. Always have been. Sometimes, I can tell this annoys GM's, and I try to not let it bog down gaming sessions, but as someone who is a rules lawyer and also GM's on occasion, I don't see any good way to house rule these wireless benefits.



On the one hand, if I (as a GM) were to say, well, let's just leave them out entirely. We just won't mess with them, because some of them are just plain stupid. Well, okay. But then, as a rules lawyer, I have to look at something like "Internal Air Tank" and scratch my head. "Hey, GM, does that mean, since we are ignoring wireless benefits, that I won't be able to tell the exact level in my Internal Air Tank?"



"Well, errrrr..." That seems pretty dumb. I mean, we've had the ability to monitor pressure and capacity for compressed gases for what, maybe a 100 years? 160 years by 2070 standards? Why the flying flip would I have to connect to a bloody cloud service to know the air capacity of a tank of air that is right there inside my chest? (IMG:



Well, okay. The alternative is to look at these wireless benefits on a case by case basis. That makes my rules lawyer blood boil. That means there is no predictability in how wireless benefits can be applied since they end up being a matter of GM fiat. And predictability is the rules lawyer's right hand to the left hand of indiscriminate RAW (see what I did there) justice.



I like games with rules and I like games that follow those rules. These wireless benefits scream for being house rule'd, but I'm at a loss for a consistent, predictable way of house ruling them. I feel like this wireless benefits system is trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist. Like speed bumps. They don't HURT anything, but they just kind of slow things down a little bit here and there. It feels like they just need to be refined and smoothed over. I'm just kind of thinking out loud here, guys. But these wireless bonuses for gear REALLY bother me.On the face, they sound like a good idea, right? Seems reasonable that a piece of equipment could benefit from matrix connectivity. After all, how useful is my iphone without a network connection? Well, it'll still play Angry Birds, but I can't check stocks or weather.The devil is in the details.I am a rules lawyer. Always have been. Sometimes, I can tell this annoys GM's, and I try to not let it bog down gaming sessions, but as someone who is a rules lawyer and also GM's on occasion, I don't see any good way to house rule these wireless benefits.On the one hand, if I (as a GM) were to say, well, let's just leave them out entirely. We just won't mess with them, because some of them are just plain stupid. Well, okay. But then, as a rules lawyer, I have to look at something like "Internal Air Tank" and scratch my head. "Hey, GM, does that mean, since we are ignoring wireless benefits, that I won't be able to tell the exact level in my Internal Air Tank?""Well, errrrr..." That seems pretty dumb. I mean, we've had the ability to monitor pressure and capacity for compressed gases for what, maybe a 100 years? 160 years by 2070 standards? Why the flying flip would I have to connect to a bloody cloud service to know the air capacity of a tank of air that is right there inside my chest? (IMG: style_emoticons/default/spin.gif ) A lot of them really do make sense, but a lot of them don't. +2 on visual perception tests? WATWell, okay. The alternative is to look at these wireless benefits on a case by case basis. That makes my rules lawyer blood boil. That means there is no predictability in how wireless benefits can be applied since they end up being a matter of GM fiat. And predictability is the rules lawyer's right hand to the left hand of indiscriminate RAW (see what I did there) justice.I like games with rules and I like games that follow those rules. These wireless benefits scream for being house rule'd, but I'm at a loss for a consistent, predictable way of house ruling them. I feel like this wireless benefits system is trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist. Like speed bumps. They don't HURT anything, but they just kind of slow things down a little bit here and there. It feels like they just need to be refined and smoothed over.